After a long hiatus, I brewed a couple of beers. One was a Trippel, but instead of using a # of sugar, I used 1.5 lbs of honey, as it should have had the same gravity contribution. OG 1.092 I fermented with OYL 028. 1 month old, no starter. And it petered out too soon, 1.026. Probably my fault for letting it be too cold ~62.6 F. Increased temp to 72.5 F. Rechecked every few days, SG decreased to 1.020 Added a little bit of nutrient and pitched OYL 500, which is supposed to be a hybridization of french and belgian saison yeast. A week later, no real change. Hard to see the hydrometer in the fermenter, but it is between 1.019 and 1.020. With the amount of times I've opened it and sampled the carboy the risk of contamination was high. I decided to keg and carb rather than keep fiddling with it. Can I get your thoughts/feedback on why it didn't go to the expected FG of 1.013? Would making a starter have really helped and made the difference? Would having the temp higher at the start of fermentation really made a difference? Why do you think the saison yeast didn't chew it down more? 0.5# cara pils 3.5# Munich 1.3# Pale Ale 1.5# honey RO 3g CaCl, 4g CaSO4, 0.5 g MgSO4, 1g NaCl, 0.5ml Lactic. Magnum and EGK
OK, a few things: What size was your batch? You list a total of 5.3 lbs. of malt (with the majority being Munich Malt) and 1.5 lbs. of honey. Which brand of Munich Malt (some Munch Malt has higher Diastatic Power than others)? How did you mash the malt? Did you mash such that you created a less fermentable wort? “OG 1.092” & “Would making a starter have really helped and made the difference?” If this was a 5 gallon batch a yeast starter would have been needed. If a smaller batch it would depend on the size (e.g., 1 gallon, or 2 gallon, or…). Once you provide answer to the above question perhaps we can zero in on the issue here. Given that you added an additional package of yeast with no substantial difference leads to me think there is a wort production issue here (e.g., a less fermentable wort). Cheers!
I would say your beer is done. 1.095 to 1.020 sounds reasonable to me. Do you not like the flavor? I'm not familiar with the yeast you used but to get that high of a gravity beer down to 1.013 You would need enzymes. I ferment my Belgian beers at minimum 65 degrees ambient and then after 4-5 days raise it a few degrees. Good luck!
Jim, 1.092 is stated above. With a FG of 1.020 that yields an Apparent Attenuation of 77%. As a reference point I always achieve an Apparent Attenuation > 80% when brewing with Belgian/Trappist Ale yeast; my last batch of Dubbel was 86%. Ergo my thought the wort in this beer is a lesser fermentablity thing. Cheers!
I also think this is a fermentability issue. A half pound of carapils is a lot in what I'm assuming is a 2 gallon batch when you're looking for high fermentability. What was your mash regimen?
I see the 1.5# of honey and I raise you a pooped out yeast. They would probably sluggishly get to where you want them with some rousing, but they found a good stash of simple crack like sugar to satisfy their urges and went for it, and got blotto and lazy. Fortify the little monsters with all that aggression you can shake into the fermentation vessel with oxygen BEFORE you close it up. If you got some goodies like (old) dried yeast or something in your kitchen. Pitch a supplement of them somewhere before flame out, so your roused and up for it yeast have some food to grab on to BEFORE they decide to check out the main course.
