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Stuck Fermentation?
I have a Belgian Blonde that is stuck at 1.024. I went a little over the top with this one, my OG was 1.080, I used T-58 and it took off like a rocket but then seemed to peter out on me. I was thinking of pitching a package of Nottingham to see if I could get things moving again, but I also have a 1554 clone I used T-58 on that I will be bottling today. So I am also thinking about racking the Blonde on to the yeast cake from the 1554 clone.
Any feedback, comments or suggestions?
Racking over might do the trick but some of the color from the 1554 will darken up your blond a bit. What I would do though is swirl up the blond carboy a bit and see if you can get some of the yeast back in suspension, get them working again. After the swirl wait a few days and test again and then if nothing then toss in some nottingham.
Also T58 is a Belgian strain and it may have stalled out only to start up again in a week or so. How old is the batch? The yeast might be slowly eating at the rest of the fermentables.
ID
Call me Mr. Impatient. I racked it on to the yeastcake from the 1554 and added the Nottingham. It will end up darkening it up a bit, but at this point I am more interested in getting something I might want to drink than following any style guidelines. So I'll have a Dirty Blonde 
It had been stuck at 1.024 for a week, so I don't know if it would have gone lower on it's own or not. I did a partial mash on this one, I mashed kind of high thinking the DME would ferment out and the higher mash would keep it from getting too dry. I haven't seen any activity in the carboy yet, but it has only been since last night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but maybe this is as low as it is going to get.
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Primary: A non-cooperative Dirty Blonde
Secondary: Empty
Bottled: Mac and Jack's 
1554 Clone
Rye IPA
Chardonnay
Chenin Blanc
On Deck: more Mac and Jack's
another attempt at a 1554 clone
DME isn't as fermentable as all grain wort. It depends on the maker but some DME is much more fermentable than others. Sorry I don't have any numbers for you.
ID
Irondavy wrote:
DME isn't as fermentable as all grain wort. It depends on the maker but some DME is much more fermentable than others. Sorry I don't have any numbers for you.
ID
Designing Great Beers had a table that listed some of the extract fermentability. If I remember right, most were in the 65-75% fermentable range, but some were lower. Laaglander was only about 50% fermentable.
HA that's where I read that! Couldn't remember, thanks for the assist Hogarthe
ID
I think I can say my Blonde is now officially a brunette. 
It picked up quite a bit of color from the yeast cake I dumped it on. I am getting a little activity from the airlock. Not a lot, but it is a hopeful sign. I plan on giving it another week and then pull a sample and see where the gravity is at.
If I understand the fermentability of extracts correctly, if the extract was 75% fermentable, and the OG was 1.080, about the best you could expect for a FG would be around 1.020?
I let this one sit for about another month, the FG was at 1.020. So it dropped a little but not a lot. I bottled a week ago Saturday. Cracked one open today to get kind of an idea of what I had. It is a nice looking beer, it picked up a little color from the yeast cake I put it on. It looks a lot like my African Amber. As far as taste, there is some residual sweetness, but apart from that it is hard to tell. The only thing else I can taste is a really harsh alcohol bite. Seems like there are some other flavors hiding in there, they just can't get past the alcohol. I think I'm going to set this one in the back of the basement and forget about it for a while. It probably just needs some time to mellow out.
Not to worry, I won't be including any of this in the beer swap. Not unless someone is masochistic enough to ask for it............
I decided to throw a couple bottles of this in the fridge and see how it was progressing. The alcohol bite has toned down some but is still there. Some fruity esters (or are they phenols?) from the yeast and the higher temp ferment. Very little hop presence. It is not really good, and more of a sipper than a quaffer. But not really bad either. I haven't made up my mind yet.
Primary - Rye IPA
Secondary - Gewurztraminer
Bottled - Dirty Belgian Blonde
Blonde Ale
African Amber
Next up - Lakefront Brewery Fixed Sprocket
An Oktoberfest Ale
Elf Tonic (will contain no real elves)
A Porter of some sort
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