Stuck Fermentation...with Nottingham??

[Shaun]

I've not used this yeast before, but after reading all the hype about it between the various HB sites, I was extremely underwhelmed by my personal experience.

I pitched 23g (hydrated) of Danstar Notty to ~10.5-11 Gal of a OG 1.055 New Castle Clone (All Grain). I pitched a bit warm, ~75-78*F but after reading how temperature tolerant Nottingham is, I wasn't too concerned. I checked 4 days later (kept temp at 62*) and could see no visable signs of fermentation; no kreusen, no air lock activity, and the beer is very cloudy. All of which were specific points of interest in regards to all my research on this yeast. So, I took a sample and it read 1.020. Tastes OK, but not much like a New Castle... (I would have used US-04 for the taste factor, but didn't have enough or time to make an adequate starter) Chocolate malt flavor prominent. But it is still very very cloudy, as if the yeast had about 5% flocc rating... I don't think the yeast was very old at all, can't recall the dates though.

I've bumped the temp up twice over the past 3 days. Once to 65* and then again to 68*. Still no change in Gravity.

Has anybody else had any similar issues with Nottingham? I'm thinking I may rehydrate a packet of US-04 and pitch tomorrow. May help the flavor if anything else...

Thoughts?

[jawbox]

What was your mash temp? Your pitching rate may have been low for 11 gals. You could try gelatin if the yeast hasn't dropped out. Or crash cool.

[Shaun]

I'm not sure what happened, but I must not have saved my schedule in BTP. I have been having a heck of a time trying to figure out the whole schedule set up on that program. I need to spend some time on the BTP 1.5 help forum, but I'd rather spend my time getting the current or next batch ready to drink...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I was using 155*. I use a 10 gal rubbermaid cooler for my MT so I kept the temp between 152-156*. Batch sparged.

I'm going to crash it down to 32* tomorrow night. I am pretty disappointed with this batch. The biggest deal to me is that I have no idea what happened. I'm sure it will still taste good, just not what I was shooting for.

[jawbox]

Here's what one of my batch sparge schedules looks like. It's not that difficult once you played around with it for a few minutes.

[slothrob]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I was using 155*. I use a 10 gal rubbermaid cooler for my MT so I kept the temp between 152-156*. Batch sparged.

155°F is probably a bit warm for a Newcastle clone, which I would consider to be a relatively light bodied beer. That would have contributed to your high FG.

Also, how much crystal malt did you use (including Chocolate Malt)?
There are a number of Newcastle clone recipes floating around that have as much as 2.5# of Crystal Malt in them! Those will make high FG beers. I probably would add a pound of sugar as part of a Newcastle clone recipe to help get the FG down.