Hazed and Infusewd Clone Stuck

[Justin C]

Hello all, I have a H&I clone that I brewed on 09 April that I believe is stuck.
The recipe is
8 lbs Light DME
.65 lbs Crystal 40
.5 Lbs Cara-pils
.25 Oz Galena (60 Min)
1 Oz Williamette (15 Min)
1 Oz Mt. Hood (15 Min)
1 Pkgs US-05

Steeped Cara-pils and Crystal for 30 Min in 1.5 Gallons @ 115
Rinsed with .5 gallon @ 170
Added 4.5 Gallons and boiled for 60 Min.
O.G. 1060
Pitched yeast after cooling.
At first I thought that I may have pitched the yeast at too high a temp, and it is possible since plenty of beers went down range during the day.
Fermentation started slowly and quit quickly. After one week Gravity was 1040. Raised temp-nothing, repitched-nothing, pitch a champagne yeast-gravity dropped to 1038. Did up a Festa brew after 3 weeks and when it was done in the primary I racked the H&I onto the Yeast cake. Within an hour had lots of air lock activity. Check Gravity a week later and it was 1038 (dammit ). Two night ago I roused the yeast again and still nothing. (Hydrometer is Good check other beer and water and it is reading fine) Is there anything that I am overlooking, and what should I do with this beer? Would adding yeast energizer be helpful.

Thanks
Justin

[Shawn]

What temp did you pitch the yeast at? Did you rehydrate the yeast first? What was the temp (or temps) during fermentation?

Sounds like you've done pretty much everything you could do. Warming it up, rousing the yeast, and repitching are really the three main things. When you repitched, did you rehydrate and then repitch?

I wish I could tell you more. I don't have any experience with yeast energizer. I had something similar to this happen to my last extract beer about a year ago... it got down to 1.030 and then wouldn't budge, no matter what I did. You still end up with beer, but at 1.038 (if it doesn't drop further), it'll be pretty sweet and low-alcohol.

[Shawn]

I also meant to mention, steeping specialty grains at 115 F... that seems pretty low. Probably doesn't have an effect here, but to get the sugars out you should probably be steeping higher, at around 150 F or so.

[Justin C]

Should read 150 not 115- Fat fingers!!

[Richard]

I make ginger beer using sucrose, and oddly enough I've tried the same techniques (to attempt to re-start) you have with the same yeast strains, with the same "stick", on a batch a while ago (it stuck at ~1.030), twice.

Twice isn't just a coincidence, so I was especially careful to ensure (1) a full boil, and (2) that no sugar concentrated at the bottom of the boil tun.

Both of these were in an effort to avoid a high concentration of sugar (i.e. syrup) near the heating element. Ultimately caramelised sugar isn't metabolised by either E-1118 or S-05. Same recipe thereafter finished A-OK, so I'm inclined to believe that the caramelisation was the problem.

My money's on your DME having suffered the same fate as my sucrose. You have a full boil already: did you turn off the heat before adding your DME, and mix for five minutes before re-applying heat?

Pretty sure this one is game over, man. I'd chuck it personally, but it's always a hard decision to make...

[Kyle]

With the US-05 yeast there is no need to make a starter or to rehydrate, just dump it in. I base this on several years of brewing good beers from doing just that.

The time you need starters is with high gravity brews, or if you are using yeast slants or liquid yeast.

I brewed a stout using US-05 on Tuesday, added yeast right before bed, and when I got up the airlock was going strong.

Edit*** I just read your post more closely, so the following doesn't apply to you, but someone else might find it useful:

It is possible that you need a new hydrometer. I had a cheap one where paper inside the glass tube slid down from its original placement and it gave inaccurate readings. The instrument looked the same, but I was getting repeated, unexpected results, and finally I put it in water and discovered the problem.

[Justin C]

Richard - When I did my boil I did take the brew off of the heat and then added my DME and mixed before reapplying the Heat. I think that it may just sit in the carboy for a couple of months and see were it goes.
Kyle - My hydrometer is good to go I have been checking it multiple times hoping that it was the problem.

[Kyle]

At some point, it is best just to cut your losses. It depends on your brewing capacity. If you only have one or two carboys, it is preventing you from brewing and drinking other, good stuff. If you have a pile of carboys, then you can park it in a place out of the way for a long time.