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h4rdluck · 01-29-2010, 12:33 AM

Anyway I'm partly a fool and part mad brewer. Anyway I decided I wanted to make a Belgian Type ale...but I've had this WLP099 in my fridge for like 5 months now (Its 4 months past its "optimum date") So i decided I'd just use WLP099 as my yeast. Anyway long story short...

There were 9lbs malt extract, I added 2 pounds of candied sugar over the course of the week, and now things are settling down. The smell comming out the airlock is rather...alcoholic to say the least... I've decided and based on the more I read about the WLP099 that its not the tastiest flavor profile (Its worked well in the past for my super high gravity wild berry stouts I've made from my friends own summer harvest of berriers and things turned out awesome - but the stout flavors really offset the alcohol esters well).

This brew only had 1oz of challenger and 1oz of Hertztauller whatever....

I've decided this beer needs to quickly become a barelywine or else its not going to be as tasty as originally envisioned...

SO.... My question is..

Can I boil another pound of malt with some more extreme hops say 2oz of Magnum, or 2oz of nugget to bitter this bad boy up and just add it to the ferment? Then I will dry hop it a couple months down the road after its been conditioning in the carboy before bottling...

Any suggestions?

OG was 1088 I'd assume its closer to 1.100 now with the candied sugars...I pitched it as a 1gallon starter...not the best starter but its been fermenting strong and I oxygenated it with a aquarium stone.

I'm just wondering how adding a small volume of "Bittered wort" will help out the profile and offset the WLP099 supposed unpleasant flavors.

dwarven_stout · 01-29-2010, 04:25 AM

How about this for an option: stop smelling it until it's done fermenting. You'll worry less.

Every time I've used 099 it smelled like a fat hog in heat. Every beer I've made with it was plenty drinkable- the belgian blonde I brewed to make a massive 099 yeast cake was a little phenolic when green, but it settled down just fine.

One caveat- if the beer is warm, cool it down. A fermenting 1.100 beer is going to be 5-10 degrees above the ambient air temp, and if you don't take steps to keep it in check you'll get more hot alcohols in the beer. If you're doing this already, good on you.

**Poobah58** · 01-29-2010, 10:45 AM

I always wondered what a fat hog in heat smells like.

h4rdluck · 01-30-2010, 07:26 PM

Any ideas on the original idea i had...I am prone to leave it be and see what happens, but I posted in part to get an idea of what people thought about pitching another pound of wort that was hopped up.

I'll probably end up tasting it and seeing how it turns out but i was partially curious about my own idea.

Thanks for the input!

Polifemo · 01-30-2010, 10:54 PM

I've had a bad experience trying to add fermentables in the middle of fermentation in order to "adjust" a beer.

dwarven_stout · 01-30-2010, 11:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polifemo

I've had a bad experience trying to add fermentables in the middle of fermentation in order to "adjust" a beer.

Especially when you're talking about adding hop bitterness and such.

IMHO, you're far better off letting it go, giving it plenty of time to bulk age and let the yeast clean up. You should be fine. If you're not, you still have the option of blending.

h4rdluck · 01-31-2010, 12:36 AM

hrmm...well I haven't had any positive comments towards my idea so I'll refrain from modifying it in anyway. Whats done is done for this batch! Next time though I'll go ahead and get some trappist / chimay ale yeast, and save the ole 099 for barelywine specificially.