Brewed a Belgain Quad (first time) with an OG of 1.090 and used White Lab wlp 530 abbey ale yeast. It's been in the primary for 2 1/2 weeks and the gravity right now us 1.030. Somewhat new to brewing... this number seems a bit high? Will it finish in secondary or should I pitch more yeast? Same yeast or I do have a packet of dry yeast lying around?
Belgian Quad finished?
- Thread starter Bagojake9
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Hydrometer.
Did you make a yeast starter? Oxygenate the wort well when pitching?
If not, this is probably as low as it will get.
You could let it sit for a few more weeks, but I doubt it's going to drop much, if any. You should protect it from air (and subsequent oxidation) if you let it be for a while longer. Flush headspace with CO2 if you can. Or rack to a tight fitting secondary without introducing air.
It will be very difficult for a new yeast to do anything at this point, but it may by pitching a large starter at high krausen. Now it will only resume if there are any fermentables left.
If not, this is probably as low as it will get.
You could let it sit for a few more weeks, but I doubt it's going to drop much, if any. You should protect it from air (and subsequent oxidation) if you let it be for a while longer. Flush headspace with CO2 if you can. Or rack to a tight fitting secondary without introducing air.
It will be very difficult for a new yeast to do anything at this point, but it may by pitching a large starter at high krausen. Now it will only resume if there are any fermentables left.
I will check it tomorrow. Other beers that I've done, I've let sit for around two weeks to "finish up". Does this style of beer ferment different than say an ipa?
The directions said to start it out fermenting around 65° F and increase by a degree a day. Didn't have much activity the first couple days.
mashpaddled
Well-Known Member
Sounds a lot like you underpitched and the yeast are at a point where they are not equipped to take the beer the rest of the way. A starter at high krausen is going to be your best bet to get the beer down to where it should be.
That yeast is most likely a diastaticus strain and will continue to ferment, but very slowly. take another reading in 5 days to see if it still is working. I let my Quads primary for 4 weeks,then keg condition for........until I need it. A complete recipe and we would be better able to help.
It's been 4 weeks now. Still sitting at 1.032. Is there anything I should do now? Planned on transfering to secondary for at least 3 months (per the instructions). This was the Northy 12 extract recipe from Northern Brewer. What happens to the final product when a beer doesn't completely 'finish up'?
mirthfuldragon
Well-Known Member
How old was the yeast? Ultimately, it doesn't matter now, but this style and the Westy XII clones are all about the yeast. That high a FG is really unfortunate - mine finishes around 1.008. Re-pitching is questionable, unless you plan on making a starter, and even then, a partially-fermented beer is going to be missing the easy nutrients of fresh wort. At some point, it becomes a question of throwing good money after bad.
For an extract batch to finish that high, the yeast is probably toast and I have concerns it will not carbonate if you bottle condition. If you are kegging and force carbing, and you think it tastes fine, then by all means go for it.
If you plan on bottle-conditioning, I would think about either (a) pitching a fresh pack of dry yeast and seeing what happens, or (b) making a session-strength beer with a mild hop profile and using that as a starter and moving the partially-fermented quad onto that yeast cake.
This situation might be one place to use champagne yeast as a salvage technique. Champagne yeast won't do much to drop the gravity because wine yeast only handle simple sugars, but they do it really, really well and in rough conditions. If you pitch a packet, it will eat out any remaining sugars (leave it a couple of weeks), then it should have enough gumption to carbonate, even if the FG will remain a bit high.
K1 (V1116) might be a better choice here, since it can ferment maltroise (a slighly more complex sugar).
Danastar Belle Saison or Safbrew Abbaye might work as well and would be more in-line with Belgian-style yeasts, but again the partially-fermented wort is going to hurt their performance - how much, I do not know.
(BTW, my profile pic is the real thing in Belgium. The CSI recipe on the forums here is really close).
For an extract batch to finish that high, the yeast is probably toast and I have concerns it will not carbonate if you bottle condition. If you are kegging and force carbing, and you think it tastes fine, then by all means go for it.
If you plan on bottle-conditioning, I would think about either (a) pitching a fresh pack of dry yeast and seeing what happens, or (b) making a session-strength beer with a mild hop profile and using that as a starter and moving the partially-fermented quad onto that yeast cake.
This situation might be one place to use champagne yeast as a salvage technique. Champagne yeast won't do much to drop the gravity because wine yeast only handle simple sugars, but they do it really, really well and in rough conditions. If you pitch a packet, it will eat out any remaining sugars (leave it a couple of weeks), then it should have enough gumption to carbonate, even if the FG will remain a bit high.
K1 (V1116) might be a better choice here, since it can ferment maltroise (a slighly more complex sugar).
Danastar Belle Saison or Safbrew Abbaye might work as well and would be more in-line with Belgian-style yeasts, but again the partially-fermented wort is going to hurt their performance - how much, I do not know.
(BTW, my profile pic is the real thing in Belgium. The CSI recipe on the forums here is really close).
I don't know if you have enough equipment to do this but here gose. The quad can stay in the primary fermenter for a month to 6 weeks, make another beer and blend the two. Or just keg it and drink it. If not the best but palatable drink it alone,but it might be alright when carbed up o share. If you bottle , now is a good time to invest in kegging.
