Want some thoughts on the Golden Strong I've got in the fermentor. Had an OG of 1.092, was hoping for attenuation down to single digits (wanting a lot of the yeast I know). Checked fermentation after a week, down to 1.022. Checking again today to see if changed. The part that makes me nervous is I fermented at 82 F. Let free rise from pitching starter at 70 F. Had vigorous fermentation for a couple of days. I left town for a couple of days and came back to find the fermentor had chilled to 70 F. (Ferment in a chest freezer with stc1000 controller). (I took the lamp I use to heat out to let free rise). I checked gravity a day after coming home to all the krausen had settled off. I put the heat source back in and temp has stayed in the 80 range since, but not much activity. The fermentation profile I found called for over 2wks at 82. Pitched white Labs Golden Strong BTW. My question is should I pitch another yeast to help clean up, I have white Labs monastery on hand. Or I could pitch a champagne yeast, I'm wanting the beer to be champagne esque anyways. Figured I'd check in with everyone here to get some brainstorming going. Thanks in advance.
Syrup or grain? I've found with a lot of high OG beers that you will end up with a lot of unfermentable sugar adding g points. Good way to test this is to take a small sample and add some sugar to it, test the gravity, let it sit a day or two, and test again. If the gravity falls then your yeast are fine, but your wort has infermentable sugars from what usually stems from too high mash temps. It won't hurt your beer to let it sit a couple days to do this, it should already have enough alcohol in it to protect itself from Most nasties. I would strongly advise against adding champagne yeast to what could be already and amazing beer, assuming everything else was done correctly, rather add more yeast of what you already had if you must, and do like the Trappist monks and add some plain old table sugar for some added Abv and use the extra gravity points towards some extra body in the long run.
extract or all grain? if all grain, what mash temp? how much sugar? did you do a starter? if yes, how big? did you use oxygen or aeration in the wort prior to pitching? what was the FG predicted to be? have you ever fermented Duvel yeast at 82F before? Stock up on aspirin!
Sweet baby Jesus, lol you can tell by the post he hasn't too much experience, don't badger the poor fellow,lol.
Everything @Brew_Betty asked (except the Duvel yeast question) could help the OP determine if there's an attenuation problem or if the beer is just done, without having to resort to an odd version of a forced fermentation test.
One of your buddies (who is a renowned wise man in these parts) brewed the exact same beer 2 days before with a different yeast. He tasted it and it tastes like a great beer so he ain't sweating it. Be like mike.
Appreciate the replies guys. That was a quick and dirty OP from mobile. Sorry for leaving out further details. All Grain. Mashed at 149 F. Did a slow rise after dough in at 118. Didn't go the full 4 hour insane mash called for in some duvel clone type brews, but mash altogether took around 2 hours. Used 15lbs pils malt, 3 lbs sucrose. Starter was 2L. Oxygenated with aquarium pump for 20 minutes, plus pour over filter/funnel when transferring from kettle to carboy. FG predicted at 1.009. Have never used this yeast before. Why aspirin when I have plenty of homebrew? LOL Probably need some whiskey to go with the homebrew and just give it some time as has been stated. I wouldn't be sweating if my fermentor hadn't dropped temp 4 days into fermentation. Still dropped only to regular fermentation temps for this strain. When I got back, the krausen had dropped off completely. Still miniscule amounts of fermentation going on, but I'm not being patient enough to let it slow ferment the last several points. Also true that I haven't checked gravity again yet, going to do so in the morning. This high gravity brew has definitely been a fun, yet stressing experience. Several different protocols than my normal brews.
According to White Labs, for WLP 570 Attenuation73-78% Optimum Ferment Temp.68-75°F (20-24°C) I calculate your apparent attenuation as 76%, and it appears that you tried to ferment higher than the optimum range. As fermentation has slowed, and you are already push the upper edge of the attenuation, I don't think you ought to expect it to ferment much more. The higher fermentation temp would be a concern to me - fusel alcohol can ruin my day.
Duvel yeast is known to stall right about where you are at now. It sounds like you pitched enough yeast and oxygen. The beer isn't finished unless your actual mash temp was a lot higher than you indicated. This yeast is a slow finisher. It might not be stuck. If it is stuck, getting a high abv beer unstuck can be tricky. First, I'd try to rouse the yeast and let it ride for another week. Or just let it ride without rousing. You still have yeast in suspension. Duvel doesn't drop clear quickly. If no progress is made, then pitching a higher than normal gravity starter at high krausen is something to consider.
Do you mean Belgian Strong? Or Belgian Golden Ale? Either way, with that mash temp and length, and that much sugar, your FG should be much lower. So there is still some attenuation to go. The question is whether or not the yeast is up to it. A few things come to mind... - 2L starter sounds big, but how old was the yeast? - Oxygenating with an aquarium pump. You could have let that thing run all day and not got the O2 levels you can get quickly with pure O2. - Did you add any yeast nutrients? Because that large portion of sugar didn't add any.
I just checked my notes on my only ever use of WLP 570 and I got 85% apparent attenuation, so maybe my comments in post #9 are conservative. However, I was brewing a lower gravity beer, that started at 1.062. @brewbetty in post #10 probably provides the best course of action to see if you can get it lower. In post#1, you asked about Champagne yeast -- while it's tolerant of the alcohol, it does best with simple sugars, and that may not be what is left in your beer. If your choice is the monastery strain or champagne, well you get the idea.
Well, I don't want to ruin this for you, but fermenting Duvel at 82F makes nail polish remover. Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt. Drank it anyway and suffered miserably through it. It might not bother you. People have different tolerances for hot booze. Extra cellar time smooths it out a bit. If you ferment at 68F for 5-7 days then increase the temp to 72F, there will be a noticeable pear ester and no nail polish remover. It's also less likely to stall. Getting the right amount of ester in this temperature range is something that can be managed with yeast pitch rate and oxygen concentration instead of high fermentation temperature. Too much of both, the ester is muted. Too little of both, the yeast might stall in a big beer. It's not an easy yeast to use.
Checked it today and has already dropped to 1.014. Was definitely 'hot' when I tasted at 1.020 a few days back, but that has already started to smooth. Appreciate all the advice and thoughts so far.
Hey everyone. I did not want to start a whole new thread, since I am using WLP570 in a Belgian Golden Ale. My OG was 1.113 and I pitched a 2L starter from a stir plate. I set my fermentation temp at 69.8, and after six days my gravity is now 1.050. Today I am increasing my temp to 72 (slowly over two days). I am posting this because I had been thinking of washing some of the yeast from my fermenter and making a new starter on my stir plate, then re-pitching it so that I can bring my gravity down further. Now, after reading several forum posts, I think I might be best off leaving the yeast to do its work and adjusting my temperatures up slowly. Am I being impatient?
That's a solution looking for a problem. (And a somewhat dubious solution, too... if I were going to add more yeast, it wouldn't be recycled from any 1.113 beer, let alone the same 1.113 beer.) That's a better plan. But I'm not even sure I'd raise temps just yet, unless it was always your intention to raise temps once you got to 1.050. Yes. But you're looking before you leap, which is a good thing.
Okay. Thank you. I am very glad I asked. Please help to educate me further, if you don't mind. Since I was thinking about washing this yeast and saving it for a later brew anyway, can you help me understand what specifically is bad about recycling from a 1.113 beer? Yeast washing is something I have not experimented with yet, but I built a fermenter that will allow me to start. As far as raising the temps, I had not planned to raise them at all, but after doing a bit of reading last night, it seems like it is a good common practice for Belgian Golden Ales. I have quite a bit invested in this brew, and I do not want to mess it up now. Thanks again! Mark
In general, the advice is to reuse yeast from low gravity batches so the yeast is not stressed. Too much alcohol kills yeast and a high gravity beer by definition has a lot of alcohol. You will still have live yeast left in the fermenter, but it will not be the healthiest yeast. For the future, when you make a starter, make it bigger than you need and save a little bit for next time. Then you can do another starter with fresh/healthy yeast.
Sounds good. I actually did make it a bit bigger than needed, but I missed my chance to save some. I will be doing that from now on. Thanks! Mark
