Back story: I had a stuck fermentation. SG 1.151 stuck at 1.085. Repitched from a 1 gallon yeast starter of Danstar CDC-1 (cask barrel aging yeast) after cold crashing the carboy in my fridge at 31 degrees F for 5 days. Gravity got down to 1.065, and stuck again with one small bubble every 1 minute and 45 seconds. Today before I was about to toss it down the drain as a failure I decided to run some hot tap water to keep the sink from getting all sticky...as soon as the water hit the sides of the carboy (maybe 30-45 seconds) the blow off tube started chuggin along again 1 bubble every 5-8 seconds. This was my first big big beer (greater than 9%), and I made alot of mistakes along the way. I was not expecting it to start bubbling. Any one know whats going on with that?
You don't say what the temperature of your beer was at the time, but warmer liquid holds less gas than colder liquid. So just by warming it up, co2 would come out of solution. I doubt your yeast kicked into gear again that quick.
Its been 1 hour since, and the water around the carboy is now room temp. The blow off tube is still pumping at the same rate of 1 bubble every 5-8 seconds.
Yeah, probably just CO2 leaving solution from warming, as stated above. I'm still confused why you would cold crash a beer that hadn't finished fermenting? I wonder if part of your problem was yeast strain selection. I've never used CDC-1, but I think that is mainly for bottle and cask priming/ conditioning. Not sure how well suited it is for primary fermentation.
It was my first beer above 9-10% abv. I forget what yeast was used during primary (it was a 15-16% tolerance though), and then I pitched a cuvee yeast after 2 weeks at the suggestion of a local brew shop. I was then advised by a member on BA that the cuvee yeast would not digest the simple sugars I added to the recipe to raise the ABV, and that champagne yeast may neutralize beer yeasts (I never verified that though). So I cold crashed it to remove as much of the cuvee yeast as possible. I chose CDC-1 after researching it, and found it was reported to be a very strong albeit slow fermenting yeast. It's alcohol tolerance was listed as 12-14 or 15% on Danstars website...So thats why I chose CDC-1...maybe it was not the right choice...but this brew has been an experiment/learning experience from the get go.
I bet the bubbles were CO2 coming out of solution. Gases of more soluble in cold liquids. If the temperature increases, gasses want to come out. Hence the airlock activity. I'm not sure what to do with about the yeast, I'm not knowledable on the CDC.
I believe you meant that champagne yeast (cuvée) would only ferment simple sugars? Anyhow, probably not great advice, as wort, derived from starch has more complex sugars than wine and champagne yeasts are equipped to deal with. There were some BYO articles over the last 10 or so years on high gravity fermentation. You may try googling those.
What? A LHBS gave poor advice? You'd think with all their "training" that wouldn't happen. To the OP: Next time just come to this forum for questions. Chances are it will be more helpful. Lots of knowledgable Brewers on here.
So I'm curious what the more experienced brewers here recommend? Last we heard: the gravity is 1.065, had been cold crashed, then brought to room temp. I don't think OP mentioned what style of beer it was / ingredients / fermentation temps / etc. Take another gravity reading and see if fermentation is still going on I guess. I was thinking: throw it in a fermentation chamber and get to pitching temps and pitch a packet or two of Nottingham dry yeast, or US-05 to finish up fermentation. Don't cold crash, bottle condition for a couple months, and write this off as a couple lessons learned?
I hesitate to recommend adding yet a fourth yeast, but given the OP doesn't know what the first strain was, the second strain was a wine/champagne yeast, and the third was CBC-1, it might not be a bad idea to add an alcohol tolerant ale strain that will actually eat some of the maltotriose. OP: FWIW, in case your wine/champagne strain was indeed a killer strain, simply cold crashing it wouldn't have got rid of it, unless you also racked off of it after crashing. Even then, there would be some left in the racked beer.
Get a starter going with two vials of wyeast 3711 and pitch that. Maybe? It's a high attenuator, I expect it's got alcohol tolerance. The downside is that the yeast flavors may or may not work with your beer. Plan B is Brett, with the same flavor issue plus it can be slow and most newbies probably are not mentally ready to go Brett
How long has this batch been fermenting? You may just be trying to rush it, when it needs more time than you expect.
+ 1 to Nottingham yeast as long as the gassing of has stopped. Otherwise it might be fermenting again.
It's been a week OP @Kmh8288 I'm curious whats going on with the brew. Have you taken another gravity reading and adjusted for temp on the reading?
The beer bottomed out at 1.061 after I pitched a big starter (1 gallon) of WL099. Ive given up on it at the moment. I am hanging on to it for the moment, but only because I may try freezing it once I bottle my other beers I have going. Sorry for the late response. Long hours at work, and I've been working alot on my all grain set up.
