It was a total disaster of a beer so now I'm trying to figure out what went wrong.
It was a simple little stout - OG 1.044. Grain bill was Maris Otter (~85%) , Chocolate Malt (7.5%) , and Roasted Barley (7.5%). It was only about 3 gallons. I pitched a fresh smackpack of Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale). I didn't do a starter as the gravity was low and the batch was small. Mash was about 75mins at the mid-temp range. I don't have my notes here at the moment but around 67C.
So 2 weeks in I racked it off the yeast cake assuming it would have been well fermented out. I checked the gravity and it was only at 1.024. Not nearly what I would have expected. I racked it back onto the yeast and agitated it a bit to try to get it going. Nothing happened so I added a pack of Danstar Windsor and still no effect. About a week later it had picked up a white film and some funky looking bubbly blooms of grossness. Gravity didn't really change after a few weeks of that, but it was tasting a little off. I considered holding on to it for a while to see what it would turn into but wanted to clear up some space, so I just dumped it.
Anyway, I think it picked up the infection from being racked in and out of the fermenter somewhere, but I have no clue why it was so under-attenuated. The only thing I would guess is that the Marris Otter was fairly old. Would that affect attenuation?
