I recently modified a stout recipe that had previously been successful by adding 3 cups of cocoa (of uncertain origin) to make a chocolate stout. The bubbling was never very vigorous and stopped when he gravity had dropped from 1.050 to 1.030. I moved to secondary, waited 2 weeks, then added more yeast and waited another week, but nothing ever happened. Gravity is still near 1.030 but should be near 1.010.
I've learned that some cocoa is "Dutched" meaning that it has been treated with alkali. I had the pH of my concoction measured and found it was 4.75. Is this a normal pH or is it too high? I would be grateful if someone could advise.
Could be lots of things. First off make sure you are in the right temp range for your yeast. Next 4.75 is a touch high. Should work but you may want to lower it. How did you determine your pH? Titration or Litmus paper? If you have a titration kit follow the instructions on lowering the acidity. If not, get one. You want to be between 5.5 and 5.0. Considering you are shooting for a sweet stout try to get closer to 5.5. If that does not help then there are other things you can try but they put the wort at risk.
First off read this on line book:
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Now if you used dry yeast make a starter and follow the suggestions from the book. Next determine your water chemistry and, if necessary, make adjustments as detailed. Finally you may have a lack of oxygen so you could try and rack but instead of minimizing the splashing actually encourage it. This will oxygenate the wort but you run huge risks with infection and off flavor notes. But if you end up with no other option what have you got to loose? There are other reasons that you see no progression but there is no viable solution that I know off that will save your beer.
Maybe someone else will have additional tips.
Cheers, Eric
PS next time instead of cocoa use a chocolate roast malt and crystal malt combo. It will probably get you the flavor you were shooting for.
Walter Cr> I recently modified a stout recipe that had previously been successful by
Hey I came across one other option. As odd as it sounds a lot of people have used a couple Beano tablets. They contain an enzyme that is benificial to the yeast.
Don't use coco to make chocolate stout. Use roasted malts such as chocolate malt. You can check around the net for a recipe or two try Promash.com for example. But your stuck fermentation might be related to your aeration technique. Don't forget yeasts needs O2 to start it growth cycle. I've been using an s.s.aeration stone the seems to be very effective at getting air into my cooled wort.
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