Big beer

[burnsie8791]

Im looking to do my second big beer. My last was a wee heave that ended up being 12%. I did a scotch ale and put the wee heavy directly on that yeast cake. Oxygenated the crap out of the wort and let it sit for about 6 months in the primary. The beer ended up thin and some of the feed back I got said it was over attenuated. I want to do another big beer and am looking to avoid the same results. Any suggestions.

 

[Double_D]

If you post your recipe and process it would help.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Mash hotter and/or be more careful with sanitation and a fresh yeast source. My last couple batches came out thin which I attribute to using the built in thermometer on my kettle and or letting the mash sit and cool off to long before boiling or not mashing out properly. My chiller also vented some hose water into my wart while cooling. I'm not sure if I saw some "ice pack" before racking but my final gravity ended up low before pitching the bret. I ended up pitching some orval dregs and re dry-hopping in the keg, And these beers became quite tasty in their own way (intended as a belgian and a ESB). I found that even a few weeks(at ~70f) after the orval dregs were pitched, the complexity started to cover the thin body to balance the big hop stands I used. But it still tasted way fresher and fruity compared to the couple bottles oval that I pitched from. It was a 2014 bottle and had a bit too much of the gym socks funk going on.

 

[burnsie8791]

Looking at my notes it does look like I did mash lowish, 150. I took a gallon of the first runnings and reduced it. Also sparged with my first runnings. Don't have the recipe on hand at the moment. OG was 1089. The yeast was fresh. as the wort was cooling I transferred the smaller beer to the keg and put the chilled wee heavy directly on that yeast cake.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Looking at my notes it does look like I did mash lowish, 150. I took a gallon of the first runnings and reduced it. Also sparged with my first runnings. Don't have the recipe on hand at the moment. OG was 1089. The yeast was fresh. as the wort was cooling I transferred the smaller beer to the keg and put the chilled wee heavy directly on that yeast cake.

An entire yeast cake will be your problem then. That's going to be a massive pitch of yeast and it will blow past expected FG. You may not even necessarily have to mash hotter or take any other precautions, if you use the same technique try and take half or 3/4th of the cake off and save it for other batches. Half or 3/4th of the cake will still be a massive pitch of yeast and they probably wont even go into a reproduction phase.

Since you reduce a gallon of the first runnings you should definitely had a very full chewy beer, but the massive pitch of yeast burned through everything it could.

Edit: To be clear, I have no problem with the idea of using a whole yeast cake, I've done it without problems. With one small caveat, I'll use it on huge beers that I want to attenuate really well. If I'm doing a style like a BW or WH that require a good chewy malty finish I won't use a whole yeast cake.

 

[GnenieGone]

Im looking to do my second big beer. My last was a wee heave that ended up being 12%. I did a scotch ale and put the wee heavy directly on that yeast cake. Oxygenated the crap out of the wort and let it sit for about 6 months in the primary. The beer ended up thin and some of the feed back I got said it was over attenuated. I want to do another big beer and am looking to avoid the same results. Any suggestions.

I'm working to perfect my Russian Imperial Stouts as your are with the Scotch Ales. My last was on a full yeast cake (safale05), came out at 1.027 and feels thin for what I want.

Plans:
Mash 154F from previous batch at 151F, add 1lb lactose sugar, start with higher OG, and use Wyeast 1056 for lower attenuation. But will use full yeast cake just because I don't want to mess around with the cake, possible introducing contamination into the bucket. For me, FG at 1.035 gives the right feel to the beer I desire.

Possible these ideas would help you also.

 

[Calichusetts]

Often, when we want to do a big beer the easy solution is mash low and add sugar. Sure that gets the OG there, but it leaves you with a highly fermentable beer. Mashing at 155 is a great counter-balance to this. I just did my strong ale at this mash temp and should still finish around 1.012. Even that is a little low for me as I like sweeter strong ales.

Caramelizing the wort and doing a longer boil also helps the FG to finish a few points higher than normal in my experience. I do 90 minute minimum boils. Mash in the low to mid 150s and never exceed 10% sugars or added fermentables is the easiest way to get there.

 

[Saxomophone]

Just my opinion but I wouldn't add lactose. I think you are looking for more body but not necessarily sweetness. I find big sweet beers to taste syrupy.
With a wee heavy or imperial stout you probably want a nice malty backbone, not a sweet beer.

 

[GnenieGone]

Just my opinion but I wouldn't add lactose. I think you are looking for more body but not necessarily sweetness. I find big sweet beers to taste syrupy.
With a wee heavy or imperial stout you probably want a nice malty backbone, not a sweet beer.

I tend to like sweeter RISs. However, mine are more bitter then sweeter, even ending at 1.027. I also plan on grinding the darks separate then rinse the dust prior to mashing in case this issue is tannin related. Still hunting..