Oak aged high gravity bottling/long fermentation question

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by BluebirdBrewing, Jun 24, 2013.

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  1. BluebirdBrewing

    BluebirdBrewing Initiate (0) Jun 24, 2013

    Wondering what to do about bottling my barrel.

    Brewed a Rochefort 10 knockoff (belgian strong ale), 60 gallons worth
    OG: 1.095
    CG: 1.020
    FG: ?
    yeast: Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale
    Primary: various fermenters, 2 weeks.
    Secondary: 60 gallon hungarian oak barrel that had Downslope's wine aged rum in it previously

    Beer has been in the barrel for about 8 months now. Gravity readings appear to be stabilized at 1.02, but the airlock is still bubbling about once every 15 seconds. Want to pull out of the barrel as its got plenty of oak flavor on it. Still a bit sweet, but would like a touch drier. Want to carbonate pretty high to balance sweetness. I would like to bottle and am trying to determine how much (if any) yeast to add at bottling time and also how much sugar to add. Don't want any bottle bombs and worried that the yeast is eventually going to eat up some of the existing sugars since it's still fermenting, so I'm concerned about adding too much sugar at bottling time. Need to get the beer out of the barrel so I can move out of my place and I don't want any more oak on the beer. No signs of bacterial contamination visually or by taste.

    Anyone have any experience with a beer fermenting this long, and what might I expect a beer like that to end up at for a FG? Any thoughts on whether I should add some champagne yeast to the barrel and see if that finishes it up, or add some champagne yeast at bottling but not add any extra sugar? Or some combination of sugar and yeast at bottling time?
     
    #1 BluebirdBrewing, Jun 24, 2013
  2. premierpro

    premierpro Savant (1,060) Mar 21, 2009 Michigan

    Do not add champane yeast to this beer. If you add any yeast it should be the same yeast you used for fermentation. I am sure that after 8 months your beer is finished. For 5-6 gallons I use .75 cup table sugar diluted in 2 cups of water.Good Luck.
     
    #2 premierpro, Jun 24, 2013
  3. reverseapachemaster

    reverseapachemaster Zealot (722) Sep 21, 2012 Texas

    The bubbling airlock is meaningless if you are taking gravity readings and they are stable over multiple days.

    If you want to dry the beer out your options are to either add a more attenuative beer yeast and/or add table sugar. Champagne yeast won't be helpful to you because champagne yeast does not do a good job of fermenting malt sugars, only simple sugars. Your ale yeast consumed all the simple sugars at the beginning of fermentation, which means the only available sugars left are malt sugars your ale strain couldn't/didn't consume and more complex sugars. You could bottle with champagne yeast but until you figure out what you are doing with this beer you don't even need to think about bottling yet.
     
    #3 reverseapachemaster, Jun 24, 2013
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