High gravity RIS is stuck

[Ozwald]

68 should be plenty for that yeast, but it won't hurt if you get it up to 70 to 72.
I'd get a pack of Nottingham dry yeast and if you haven't budged gravity by your next reading,
boil up a cup or so of water (no chlorine - bottled is perfect for this) and let it cool back down to 90F.
Rehydrate the dry yeast in that for about 15 mins then pitch.

+1. After the first half+ of fermentation, I'd go as far as to recommend kicking it up a few degrees in that high of a gravity to help the yeast out.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

thank you both, i'll try the temperature first, that's the easy part. i'll shake it up a bit too. nottingham dry yeast? which brand?

[BDawg]

There is only 1 Nottingham. It's from Danstar which is a subsidiary brand of Lallemand.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

got it, a quick google made it look like danstar and lallemand were seperate

[brewinhard]

I understand your issue and have been there before. At a FG of 1.033 your RIS could still taste pretty good given some time.
If you want to try and knock down a few more points I would first warm up the fermenter a few degrees and give it a good swirl to resuspend the yeast. You definitely underpitched and the yeast just might be pooped out. Not sure if you aereated properly but that can have a big impact on attenuation as well.
Secondly, I would not just rehdydrate yeast and pitch it into a high alcohol, low pH environment as the yeast will do nothing to drop your FG. You are better off making a pint or quart starter and pitching that when the yeast is most active at high krausen.

That is your best bet to hopefully drop a few points. If it were me I would warm up the fermenter and pitch some fresh healthy active yeast. If this doesn't work, then I wouldn't be overly concerned with the FG you are currently at.

[spiderwrangler]

There's always the option of blending too...

[Ozwald]

There is only 1 Nottingham.

No, there's at least 2. There's a Nottingham, England & a Nottingham, NH at the very least. I don't think there's one in Kansas though. I'd have to check.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

thanks again all for the suggestions, i swirled around a bit and kicked the temp up to 70, i'm going to give that a few days and see where i'm at; hopefully that's all i need.

i oxygenated with an o2 stone both at first pitch and the next day, so i should be good there.


separate question, same batch; how many vanilla beans would you put into the secondary, along with 5 oz of 120 proof bourbon and 2oz of bourbon barrel chunks? i've had the chunks and 2 beans soaking in the bourbon for 2 weeks, should i throw in both beans, only one, or add a third?