Scotch Ale - Bad and Good News

Ok, first the bad news.

I'm an idiot. It didn't strike me that I might have a stuck fermentation until this morning. I guess I didn't think of it because it was still bubbling and normally stuck fermentations seem to stop altogether. However, the SG reading I took (1.032) confirms the stuck fermentation. I really should have seen this coming because I've been keeping the carboy at pretty low temps and this beer had a pretty high OG.

I doubt this will have any major effect on the beer. It tasted fine when I pulled the sample (as fine as a half-fermented beer can taste). If I've learned one thing about home brewing it's that it's pretty idiot-tolerant. I think that's why it's such a great hobby. The learning curve is such that any shmuck can start homebrewing and make a pretty decent beer even his first time. He can make tons of mistakes and still make a good beer.

Anyhoo, I digress.

The other bad news is that this throws off my brew schedule. Assuming I'm able to bottle next weekend it will only have been in the bottle two weeks come graduation and won't be optimal or maybe even drinkable (it really should age 4-6 weeks). Also, I'll have to push back when I brew the Light, although that should still be drinkable by graduation as it really only needs about a week to brew and a week in the bottle to carbonate. There's still a slight chance it might not be ready though.

So the good news is that I pitched some dry Nottingham Ale yeast and that should get things going again. If you'll remember, Nottingham is a relatively fast fermenter so odds that I can bottle next weekend are good. The other good news is that now I will be more cognizant of a stuck fermentation when brewing high gravity beers at low temperatures.

I'll post again when the Nottingham starts kicking in, so stay tuned.