I’m in need of some help… I’m relatively new to brewing, but I’d say I’m at the “early all-grain stage”. So far, any troubleshooting I’ve needed to do has been through some solid research and through local breweries. However, I’ve recently moved to the arctic (Nunavut in Canada), and I’ve finally received ingredients to start brewing.
So far, every brew I’ve done has stalled out with fermentation pretty early on. Like I said, I’ve swapped to all-grain, but I had some extract kits kicking around, so they’re fermenting right now. But even though I’d done extract quite often down south, the fermentation is stalling here, and I can’t figure out why.
I’ve done everything by the book, and even copied my notes from my brews from before, which have worked out. The 2 brews fermenting right now are a Pumpkin Pie Porter and a Wiezenbier. Each with OGs between 1.050 and 1.055. They both started out vigourously, however they stall out at around 1.030. I’ve tried swirling the wort to re-suspend the yeast to kickstart it again, with no go. Then as a last resort, I re-pitched new yeast, however it doesn’t catch! I’ve tried dry pitching and re-hydrating, with nothing happening.
I’m pretty stumped… They’re in a dark room with the temperature between 68-70 (I don’t have any sort of temperature control for fermentation). The only difference I can think of between brewing here and from my hometown is the tap water, which I really don’t know much about… I’m used to using Lake Superior water which is quite pure and has never needed anything added to it. Here, it’s pretty hard water. I’ve also read that water shouldn’t really affect fermentation, only taste.
Anyway, long story short, I’ve already dumped one batch already (all-grain, I might add), and I’d sure like to avoid dumping the 2 batches I have going right now… but really, I’m super stumped.
Any help would be awwweessome…! Home brewers are in short supply up here for advice!
