Didn't reach target FG, pitched more yeast, gravity same after a week. Should I just bottle already?

My batch didn't reach the target FG and I'm trying to decide whether to just bottle or to pitch more yeast (would be 3rd pitch).

I have a very similar situation to the one described here:

Brewed an Oatmeal Stout and the gravity did not drop as much as predicted, should I re-pitch or add yeast nutrients/energizer?

Also made an oatmeal stout, did a partial mash w/about 5.5 lbs of extract and 5 lbs of grains including 1 lb of flaked oats. I used liquid yeast (White Labs English Ale) and made a 1 liter starter.

Target OG was 1.055, mine came in at 1.050. After two weeks it went down to 1.019-1.020 (kind of on the line). Target FG for the recipe is 1.016. It got too cold at one point so I thought it might have stalled.

So I pitched another packet, waited a week and the gravity is as the same place. I didn't make a starter with the dry yeast, because there's a lot of yeast in a dry packet and it seemed like overkill for a 5 gal batch.

I'm guessing that I just have a lot of unfermentables in there which are bumping up the gravity. I added 1/2 lb of cocoa powder and maybe didn't have the best efficiency with my stove top partial mash which included oats.

I tasted it and I don't think it's particularly sweet for a stout - tastes pretty good to me for room temp uncarbonated beer.

So should I just bottle already?

Topic bottle pitch stout yeast homebrew

Category Mac


Final Gravity is final gravity, it's when the yeast is done. If you measure the gravity and it doesn't change after several days, it is done fermenting. You're probably correct in that you probably mashed on the high side and got more unfermentables than expected for the recipe.

I definitely wouldn't pitch again, but might consider racking to secondary for bulk aging and a little extra time for any last points to drop. I would then go ahead and bottle and take the usual precautions with regards to bottle bombs. Finally I would then RDWHAHB!

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