Pretty high FG...champagne yeast time?

A little over a month ago, I started a chocolate stout using this recipe:

0.5 lb roasted barley, and 0.5lb chocolate malt- steeped for 20 min @ 160f
4 lbs light DME
6 lbs dark DME
0.5 oz Nugget @ 60 min
1 oz Williamette @ 15 min
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 15 min
6 oz cocoa powder (emulsified and added to primary)

I got a SG of 1.1 @ 77F, which I am almost certain is higher than it should be due to me measuring while all that cocoa was in suspension. After two weeks in primary, I read the gravity as being 1.030 @ 68F. I let it sit in primary for two more weeks, and when I went to rack it to secondary, it was still at 1.030.

It's been in the secondary for a little over a week now, and while I haven't had the chance to measure the gravity yet, I'd be willing to be it's still at 1.030. I think this seems to be fairly high, and am wondering if I should try pitching some champagne yeast to knock it down a bit further. Good idea, bad idea? For what it's worth, the beer itself tastes pretty good, but is a little viscous in texture from the high gravity.

70% attenuation -- sounds about right to me.

Champagne yeast.....champagne....are you making champagne?

Seriously, Champagne yeast is strictly for champagne and the occasional barleywine or imperial stout, but it is iffy then too.

I say leave it as is.

Not to mention that you left out perhaps the single most important ingredient. Did you really just throw a packet of dry yeast in there and hope that it would be OK? Shame on you. Expensive ingredients but you skimped on the yeast.(or so I am guessing)

I forgot to add that- I pitched two packets of rehydrated Nottingham. Nothing wrong with 'ol Notty

I was already somewhat iffy on the idea of the champagne yeast, so I figured I'd run it past you all here before I just started throwing stuff in. Thanks for the swift replies!

With an OG of 1.100, this might be one of those times when champagne yeast is warranted. Your Nottingham is probably all pooped out. Pitching more Nottingham is almost certainly a waste of time and money. With the dark extract and roasted grain, there's probably enough unfermentable content to keep the FG fairly high, regardless of the yeast strain. Fermentation is nearly complete, so you won't get much more in terms of esters or fusels regardless of the yeast you pitch (i.e., the flavor profile is fairly stable). If you are unhappy with the terminal gravity and thick mouthfeel, it's time for champagne yeast. If you can live with the beer as is, don't mess with a good thing.

No nothing wrong with Notty, but for a $50 5 gallon batch, I would have sprung for some irish ale yeast. My $.02.

Thanks for the feedback Yuri.

cheezydemon said:

No nothing wrong with Notty, but for a $50 5 gallon batch, I would have sprung for some irish ale yeast. My $.02.

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what's wrong with nottingham in a chocolate stout? the irish ale yeast would also be less attenuative and probably would have left it with a much higher FG, causing actual problems. i don't get how he "skimped"...nottingham is a fine yeast for this style.

i would NOT use champagne yeast on this unless it truly needs it. if it tastes good, it's ready to go.

A malty chocolate stout at 9.2%?

Sounds like a fine beer to me.

If you're really worried about the high FG, a guy in my brew club who's diabetic crushes up beano tablets and adds them to his primary. I guess the beano breaks down unfermentable sugars so the yeast can further attenuate the beer. Word of caution though, this can leave your beer very very dry.

reshp1 said:

If you're really worried about the high FG, a guy in my brew club who's diabetic crushes up beano tablets and adds them to his primary. I guess the beano breaks down unfermentable sugars so the yeast can further attenuate the beer. Word of caution though, this can leave your beer very very dry.

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No, no, no! Beano should be a last resort to save a stuck ferment after all other avenues have been exhausted. Beano is basically just alpha-amylase in a tablet. It will not denature with time, only temperature or chemical interference. So, your beer will slowly "mash" itself and subsequently ferment the results until it's way too dry (assuming the yeast have not succumbed to alcohol toxicity). Beano is not the solution to a slightly high FG. You run a similar risk with champagne yeast, but the yeast will still leave unfermentable sugars and body in your beer (I'm guessing you don't see below 1.018 if you decide to pitch some). Beano will destroy it.

Yuri_Rage said:

It will not denature with time, only temperature or chemical interference. So, your beer will slowly "mash" itself and subsequently ferment the results until it's way too dry (assuming the yeast have not succumbed to alcohol toxicity).

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Sorry, I didn't know it never stops working, makes sense though. The guy I mentioned uses it as a last resort because otherwise the beers would have too much sugar for his body to handle. His beers are indeed very very dry.

Yeah, I've read enough bad things about Beano on here, to not want to try to use that.

My main concern with the high FG would be the slow creation of bottle bombs if there is indeed fermentable sugars left in there, but since the gravity hasn't moved in a while, I'm guessing that should not be a concern. Let me know if I'm right or wrong on that one. Like I said before, it tastes fine, and a little thickness in a big stout isn't a bad thing in my book Either way, I'm going to think on it a bit, and maybe get some more replies, before I decide to pitch more yeast or not. Seems like "leave it alone" is the way most here are thinking so far though.

You could bottle half of it now, then pitch champagne yeast into the other half and decide which version you like best. There's little to no risk involved, and it'd be a great experiment to increase your experience.

I did a similar beer with an OG of 1.1 and a final gravity of 1.030. I liked my big malty although sweet RIS.

But if you want some more attenuation, champagn yeast will get you a couple more points - note your not going to get to 1012. Remember you have a lot of unfermentable sugars in there. You can't just throw in new yeast Oh no! It's not that easy. I would prepare a well oxygenated starter that is about 10% of the volume and let it come to krausen stage. I would warm up your beer to about 72F. Then pitch the whole thing and hope for the best.

Yuri_Rage said:

You could bottle half of it now, then pitch champagne yeast into the other half and decide which version you like best. There's little to no risk involved, and it'd be a great experiment to increase your experience.

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That's not a bad idea at all...

Well, I think this is a moot point now. I checked the gravity (it's been in the secondary for 2 weeks,) and it has actually dried out a little bit, down to 1.028. That doesn't sound like a big change, but the beer is actually a lot less sweet than it was before, so there must have been a few fermentables left. I'm going to let it age as-is for a while longer; after tasting it again, I don't want to dry it out a whole lore more than it is now.