s04 too hot primary, will it clean?

[Tiroux]

Hi!

I brewed a barleywine (1.102) which was supposed to be fermented with WLP007 and added maple syrup to boost up to 1.110-1.115.. but I had a problem with my starter and I didn't want to take a chance so I went with 2 packs of s04 for about 4 gallons of wort, and decided not to add maple syrup. The room was cold but the fermentation went crazy and for the first 2 days, it raised over 72F.. after I managed to get it down in the 65-68 range... But it fermented really quick.

After 5 days, I transfered to secondary because the activity was really low and the yeast had dropped pretty good. I'm at 1.036 and 8.8%, and it taste... boozy and fruity. Like cheap alcool esters fruity. I was planning to add a pack of us05 just to help the attenuation, would you think the yeast will clean a little bit those esters?

By the way, hops were 100% chinook and it was basically Maris Otter and dark caramel.

 

[skunkfunk]

Your beer is only 5 days old? And it's a mega-high-OG-barleywine???

Don't even worry about it yet. You've got months before it'll be at it's best. Probably a little early to have moved it to secondary, but so it goes.

You're pushing that yeast pretty hard with that OG. Are you kegging or bottling? You might want to add a stronger, higher tolerance yeast so that you'll be able to carb it.

 

[ten80]

I brewed a similar beer with a 1.103 SG. Pitched three packs of S-04 at 68f and the temp rose to ~71f after one day. Fermentation was so vigorous that I collected nearly half a gallon of yeast and wort from my blow-off tube. I hit 1.018 after 5 days and have left the beer on the yeast to clean up off flavors. At 14 days, the beer is very clear, so I am only going to transfer to a secondary to let it sit on oak chips for ~4 weeks.

You should have left it on the yeast for a while longer to give the original yeast a chance to hit maximum attenuation and produce a clean beer. I understand the temptation to mess with the beer as it will be hard for me to wait ~6 weeks before bottling my barley wine!

If fermentation has not resumed in the secondary, then I suggests that you make a good S-05 starter (2 packets S-05 in ~2000mL and 1.040 OG) and pitch the S-05 yeast when it is very active (after ~15 hrs).

bonne chance!

 

[kako187]

I suggests that you make a good S-05 starter (2 packets S-05 in ~2000mL and 1.040 OG) and pitch the S-05 yeast when it is very active (after ~15 hrs).

bonne chance!

I think that is too much yeast for that size starter and would stress out the yeast. I would recommend simply re hydrating 1 pack of S-05 in water instead.

 

[ten80]

I disagree, the yeast would not be stressed by overcrowding in a starter if it was pitched while still active. Active, vigorously fermenting yeast are not stressed, or else they would not be vigorously fermenting. If one was to wait till the starter had fermented out, then the yeast would begin to deplete their glycogen stores and would their viability would decrease, therefore they could be considered stressed.

I should clarify that I recommend 2 packets dry yeast in the starter because I like to pitch only the most active yeast from the starter (krausen and some of the suspended yeast). I leave the less active, yeast on the bottom. This might waste some of the dry yeast, but dry yeast is pretty cheap.

Pitching a re-hydrated packet might work, but why not pitch a larger amount of actively fermenting, highly viable yeast to improve the odds of re-starting the fermentation? The active yeast may have a higher tolerance for alcohol due to the presence of alcohol in the starter. A little extra work, but worth it in my opinion.