High gravity RIS is stuck

[BDawg]

How big is the batch?

[AbacusBrewingCo]

5 gallons. russian imperial stout, og 1.097; targetting 1.022 fg, so far it's down to 1.033 but i'm looking for another 10 pts of attenuation. i plan to leave it in secondary for about 11 months, with the beans and barrel chunks in there the whole time. if it matters, i'll most likely be bottle conditioning this

[AbacusBrewingCo]

alright, i'm in panic mode. i forgot to come back here before pitching additional yeast, and what i came up with didn't work very well.

what i did was to add a packet of red star champagne yeast, dry and cold (packet right out of the fridge and directly into carboy). this was almost a week ago, and as of last night i have no movement on my gravity, i'm still at 1.032 with a target FG of 1.020.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

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.

what yeast would you use to make this starter? would a clean one like wyeast 1056 be a good choice? (i have a starter in process using wyeast 1056, and i'm not sure if it'll be ready in time for the batch i'm brewing so i might just double pitch fresh packs instead of using the incomplete starter, leaving me with a starter i dont need for anything else)

[Ozwald]

Did you raise the temp at all?

[AbacusBrewingCo]

i did, it's been at 70 since the suggestion was made.

[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.

what yeast would you use to make this starter? would a clean one like wyeast 1056 be a good choice? (i have a starter in process using wyeast 1056, and i'm not sure if it'll be ready in time for the batch i'm brewing so i might just double pitch fresh packs instead of using the incomplete starter, leaving me with a starter i dont need for anything else)

yes that would be a perfect yeast to try and knock down a few points on your RIS. Try to pitch some of your starter while it is foaming hard so the active yeast have their best shot at getting right to work on those stubborn few gravity points you want to knock down. I would not pitch your whole starter but a quart or so would be just fine.

[AbacusBrewingCo]

sounds great, i'm not sure yet if i'm using the starter in the batch i made it for, or the RIS. The starter is 2000mL.

What are your thoughts on using half of the starter plus a fresh wyeast pack in today's brew, and leave the other half of the starter in the flask for another 24 hours and pitch that into the RIS? If the starter has more yeast than when it was pitched, that and a new pack should be close to enough for my irish stout, target og of about 1.050, and that leaves a quart for the RIS.