Other Wyeast Marathon

[Tetrarch]

Started a Sadler's Resrerve Merlot Syrah kit on April 15, substituting kit yeast with WYeast Activator 4028 Chateau Red, must SG 1.099
Racked to secondary May 6 SG 1.020
Checked SG on May 28 - 1.001
Racked again today June 13, SG 0.999
Still fermenting (slow bubbling in the airlock), tastes fine.
Will this never end?
Have you experiences with Wyeast products?

 

[richmke]

WYeast 4028 has a 14% ABV tolerance. At 1.099 starting SG, you are right at the limit. So it might slow down a lot at the end. If the kit has grape skins, that would add even more sugar.

What temp are you at? The yeast has high temp tolerance (90 Fahrenheit, 32 centigrade), so you might want to try boosting the temp to help it finish.

 

[Tetrarch]

WYeast 4028 has a 14% ABV tolerance. At 1.099 starting SG, you are right at the limit. So it might slow down a lot at the end. If the kit has grape skins, that would add even more sugar.

What temp are you at? The yeast has high temp tolerance (90 Fahrenheit, 32 centigrade), so you might want to try boosting the temp to help it finish.

This makes sense, I use a brew belt to control the temp but I try to keep it around 22C. Overnight the temp goes higher and in the morning it is around 26C so I unplug it, even though the yeast activity is visible on the suface of the brew.
I wiill leave the belt on and see what happens.
For future reference, I will add water to the must taking the yeast ABV tolerance into account.
Thanks for the advice.

 

[Boatboy24]

You can try to pitch some EC-1118 to finish it off. It has a tolerance of around 18%.

 

[Tetrarch]

You can try to pitch some EC-1118 to finish it off. It has a tolerance of around 18%.

Would it need to be started before pitching?

 

[Boatboy24]

Would it need to be started before pitching?

Probably not, but getting it started certainly won't make things worse.