Lower RIS FG by racking to lager yeast cake?

Thanks for posting an update!

Just goes to show that even moderate changes in gravity don't really impact the end product much when that end product is a high gravity one.

 

This brings up something I’ve been thinking about.. at what stage could you add a yeast strain that’s say POF+ but can handle higher alcohols and not get phenols? OP said he didn’t get any phenols but it was just a small gravity drop and obviously lots to mask any that might be there. Will phenols be created if there are basically only complex sugars left and the PH has already dropped?

 

Phenol production depends on two things: 1) precursors like hydroxycinnamic acids and 2) enzymes.

However, phenols can also be masked by things, as you said, like esters. That's why aged brett beers tend to be funkier over time. The phenols were always there, there were just other things there as well.

All that said, if you want to add a POF+ strain to an otherwise POF- fermentation and not get a lot of phenol production, you'd have to limit your phenolic precursors (like choosing grains that are low in ferulic acid and not using a lot, if any, boil hops as boiling vegetal matter will liberate caffeic acid), as phenolic yeast strains don't need (a lot of) sugar to produce phenolic compounds.