Has anyone ever tried to start up fermentation again (after a 4 week pause) on a batch of beer with a high FG? The reason that I ask....I kegged a wit too early. I did not realize the FG was too high until after I kegged and pitched the cake and cleaned out the fermenter. I did not carbonate the keg, but just set aside for a few days. It actually started up again in the keg and created it's own pressure and carbonation. I checked the FG again and it was still very high. Measuring around 2% ABV. Not too sweet, but not exactly the kind of beer that I like. This beer needed more yeast. I decided to rack on to an upcoming beer's yeast cake. When the cake was ready, I racked the low ABV batch. Fermentation started rather quickly. I am curious to know what this will taste like. I have decided to call this beer, 'The Re-Animator'. Let me know your thoughts on this practice.
well i certainly i haven't done as you've described...but i have had a beer not finish where i wanted. in my case the beer was still in the fermenter, my solution was to build another starter except i made the starter with an airlock in place to purge as much oxygen from the new starter as possible. i pitched the new starter at high krausen and let it go. if i can recall the beer was holding at 1.035 and i wanted 1.025, in the end i got the results i wanted. of course there is no way of knowing if the beer would have reached that number eventually, but i suspect not. in your case, obviously the fermentation is going. the only piece i would be curious about is oxidation. obviously we always run that risk when we move beers around and since this one has taken a few extra trips already its been more exposed than most batches would. so maybe you pick up some oxidation, a higher FG might hide it a little better so depending on the beer it might not be very noticeable if it does happen.
There is something I am missing... Your high FG beer is now 2% abv? Or is it off by 2%? In any case, a re-pitched using a 32.oz starter using I believe 8oz of maple syrup into boiling water. Yeast was White Labs liquid Champagne yeast. OG was around 1.120, S33 brought it down to about 1.038. The beer didn't need to get too much lower (1.029), but I wanted to make sure that it would carbonate in the bottle. Yeast starter as allowed to go for two days, and then was poured into the secondary fermentor after about 1.5 months. Keep in mind oxidation was not a big concern, because this beer spent time in an oak barrel and was already oxdized from the wood breathing. After a day, the airlock on the secondary was slowly moving. I have not checked the gravity since (about 5 months ago) but I am sure it was enough based on the airlock moving on a bucket. Your selection of yeast and also your pitching method will vary greatly depending on what the OG and FG is. Also, be aware that the yeast will have a significant effect on the flavor of something that is delicate like a Witbier, whereas on a barrel aged imperial stout it isn't as big of a deal. Hope this helps...
