Expert: Chris Bushman - 1/29/2008

Question
I am new to home brewing and recently started two batches.  One being a Pale ale that fermented like crazy and looks great.  The second is a Brown Ale that I started 2 days after the Pale that I fear is stuck.  It started fermenting after about 24 hours but by 48 hours it slowed to a crawl (1 bubble a minute) and the carboy has very little head.  Is my brown doomed?  I neglected to take a hydrometer reading on either batch.

Answer
Well, Chris, you can make a guess at what the final gravity should be. If it is a normal Brown Ale that may have had a starting gravity of 1.056 then it may finish out somewhere around 1.012.  If you are anywhere over 1.020, you probably have something to worry about.

If the Pale and the Brown had similar quantities of fermentables to start with they should have similar final gravities.  Why not measure them both to get a feel for where you are?

Try rousing the yeast by swirling the fermenting vessel as vigorously as practical.  You can also pitch another bunch of yeast.

If you do have a stuck ferment on the Brown, you can wait until you rack the Pale off the yeast, then transfer the Brown to the Pale fermenter and let the pale yeast finish the job for you.

Happy Brewing, Chris

Chris Bushman
Maltose Falcons
North Hollywood, California