Cellar Craft Cellar Craft port stuck

[meni0n]

Good day,

It would seem I may have a stuck fermentation. Started kit on 23 December 13 with an SG of 1.155. Racked to secondary on 3 Jan 14, gravity was 1.056. Just checked the gravity and it's sitting at 1.040 with no air lock activity. Not sure what to do if gravity is the same tomorrow. Considering adding another packet of 1118 or maybe 1116. It's been sitting in the basement at around 18 degrees so maybe I should bring it up to a room that's about 23 degrees?

 

[vernsgal]

meni0n what does the instructions say your finishing SG should be? I'm not familiar with the Cellar craft ports, but I would think its finished. Ports finish at a much higher reading. They don't go dry (in the kits)

 

[ibglowin]

Port styled kits usually are fermented to dry and then back sweetened with a supplied f-Pack of sorts. 18C=64F so thats way to cold for yeast to show much activity. Warm it up to 23C with a brew belt or heating pad and see if the yeast come back to life. It could be stuck if it doesn't show signs of life in a day or so once its been warmed up.

 

[meni0n]

Instructions say it should be at 1.020 at 20-22 days mark. I am at day 20 today so I don't see it going down from 1.040 in two days time.

 

[vernsgal]

Port styled kits usually are fermented to dry and then back sweetened with a supplied f-Pack of sorts. 18C=64F so thats way to cold for yeast to show much activity. Warm it up to 23C with a brew belt or heating pad and see if the yeast come back to life. It could be stuck if it doesn't show signs of life in a day or so once its been warmed up.

Yup I was wrong there. The ports go 1.000 or lower.

 

[vernsgal]

Instructions say it should be at 1.020 at 20-22 days mark. I am at day 20 today so I don't see it going down from 1.040 in two days time.

I think Mike's right and it's too cold

 

[ibglowin]

If its been sitting at 64 degrees since you transferred to carboy then you can toss the instructions/timetable out the window. You are now on your own and your own ability to fix this.

First step is to warm that carboy way up and see if it comes back to life.

 

[meni0n]

It was around 1.030 today so I guess warming it up has worked so far. Going to give it more time and hopefully it will drop to 1.020