12% Beer original OG 1.124

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SpencerHeit

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I have made this beer and put it in a primary with a blow off tube and it has been 36 hours. I is still bubbling but the Krussen has gone down and doesn't look like it is threatening to over flow anymore. The blow off was violent and some wort got into the blow off contatiner which I think is normal. I used a starter yeast of 1300ML and pitched it 3 times (so 3 cups of DME).

My question is should a beer with this high of starting OG still be violently blowing off into the blow off container? Was my yeast not able to handle it? Should I add another pack of yeast? and if so how do I add it?

the yeast will die of osmotic shock before even getting a foothold in a solution of that gravity. (did this happen)

Thank you for your time!
 
sounds like your yeast handled it just fine.

I made a beer that big, I used the instructions from Zymurgy mag for an imperial pumpkin ale

Use whatever monster yeast you have a lot of. Ferment at 68F for two weeks, add more oxygen 24 hrs after pitching yeast.

Add maple syrup and more yeast nutrient on day 4 of primary fermentation.

Add 1 lb beet sugar and additional yeast on day 6.

Add 1 lb beet sugar on day 8.
Click to expand...

mine actually over-attenuated, going from 1.125 to 1.006.

it's a year & a half old now, haven't had one in 6 months or so, I might have to break out a bottle and try it
 
What do you mean by add more Oxygen? This is what I used to make the beer as well as a yeast starter which I did by using one cup of DME with 1300ML of water and then putting on a stir plate for 36 hours. Then I would pour off the starter wort and add another 1300ML to the yeast cake. I did that three times.

Monday night is when I finished my main wart and added the yeast cake to the top of it and put the blow off tube in.

Right now I have an airlock on the top of it because the blow off tube was really dirty and there was no threat of it spilling over at this point.

Also should I add that much more sugar? And what process do I go about to add it to the beer? Thanks a lot!

Amount Fermentable Maltster
6.62 lb Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract
6.0 lb Pilsen Light DME
1.0 lb Barley, Flaked
1.0 lb Caramel Malt 120L
1.0 lb Black Malt Briess
0.75 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose)
0.75 lb Cane/Beet Sugar (Dextrose)
Hops

Amount Hop Time Use Form AA
1.0 oz Columbus (US) 60 min
1.0 oz Chinook (US) 30 min
Yeasts

Name Lab/Product Attenuation
British Ale Wyeast 1098 74.0%
Extras

Amount Name Time Use
1.0 tsp Cardamom Seed 10.0 min Boil
2.0 each Vanilla Beans 10.0 min Boil
12.0 oz Corn Sugar 14.0 days Bottle
 
SpencerHeit said:
I have made this beer and put it in a primary with a blow off tube and it has been 36 hours. I is still bubbling but the Krussen has gone down and doesn't look like it is threatening to over flow anymore. The blow off was violent and some wort got into the blow off contatiner which I think is normal. I used a starter yeast of 1300ML and pitched it 3 times (so 3 cups of DME).

My question is should a beer with this high of starting OG still be violently blowing off into the blow off container? Was my yeast not able to handle it? Should I add another pack of yeast? and if so how do I add it?

the yeast will die of osmotic shock before even getting a foothold in a solution of that gravity. (did this happen)

Thank you for your time!
Click to expand...

EDIT: Disregard, you beat me to it, and I now understand you did a stepped starter.

First, there's no way to know whether your yeast will fully attenuate or not, at least with the information given. What size batch is this? Was this all-grain, or extract? Did you aerate, and if so, what method? If all-grain, what was your mash temp? What's the recipe, specifically, how much crystal malt is involved? What yeast?

Secondly, 3 cups of DME in 1300ml is way too much. Your starter should have a gravity around 1.040, which is about 1 cup per 1000ml (although it's much better to measure by weight, 100g per 1000ml.) Your starter may have stressed the yeast, which could cause them to under attenuate, even though you may have the proper cell count.

Don't rush to throw in another pack of yeast, it may still finish. But, be prepared to invest in a highly attenuative yeast (I've had great luck with WLP099) and do a 2000ml starter.
 
SpencerHeit said:
What do you mean by add more Oxygen? This is what I used to make the beer as well as a yeast starter which I did by using one cup of DME with 1300ML of water and then putting on a stir plate for 36 hours. Then I would pour off the starter wort and add another 1300ML to the yeast cake. I did that three times.

Monday night is when I finished my main wart and added the yeast cake to the top of it and put the blow off tube in.

Right now I have an airlock on the top of it because the blow off tube was really dirty and there was no threat of it spilling over at this point.

Also should I add that much more sugar? And what process do I go about to add it to the beer? Thanks a lot!

Amount Fermentable Maltster
6.62 lb Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract
6.0 lb Pilsen Light DME
1.0 lb Barley, Flaked
1.0 lb Caramel Malt 120L
1.0 lb Black Malt Briess
0.75 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose)
0.75 lb Cane/Beet Sugar (Dextrose)
Hops

Amount Hop Time Use Form AA
1.0 oz Columbus (US) 60 min
1.0 oz Chinook (US) 30 min
Yeasts

Name Lab/Product Attenuation
British Ale Wyeast 1098 74.0%
Extras

Amount Name Time Use
1.0 tsp Cardamom Seed 10.0 min Boil
2.0 each Vanilla Beans 10.0 min Boil
12.0 oz Corn Sugar 14.0 days Bottle
Click to expand...

Well, you beat me to it. That's a pretty decent starter for a beer this size, so you may be ok. Don't expect it attenuate too low, since this is an extract batch. I definitely would not add any more oxygen at this point. You will only risk oxidizing the beer.
 
"add more oxygen" - big beers like this the yeast will do better with oxygen rather than aeration, but either way works. I aerated in my usual way; paint stirrer attached to a drill. original pitching, I mixed it into a froth. just a quick hit the 2nd time. it won't oxidize the beer if you do it 12-24 hours after pitching.

if you've already added all the sugars in your recipe, don't worry about it. the recipe recommends holding back on some of the sugar to keep the yeast feeding to help dry out the beer.

did you find this recipe? or made it up yourself?
 
On the oxygen part, a huge beer like this is going to need really healthy yeast to ferment properly and finish off all the malt sugars. Yeast need oxygen to replicate properly, and without enough oxygen in the fermenting beer they get all stressed out and may not be able to finish. This is a common cause for beers to stall in the 1.020 range, or just stall in general. Also can cause increased ester production and other yeast byproducts you may not be expecting.

So for really big beers, hitting it with another blast of pure oxygen or other means of areation is a really good technique. The common time frame is to do this 12-18 hours post pitching, because it takes roughly 12 hours for the first cell replication to occur.
 
GrogNerd said:
"add more oxygen" - big beers like this the yeast will do better with oxygen rather than aeration, but either way works. I aerated in my usual way; paint stirrer attached to a drill. original pitching, I mixed it into a froth. just a quick hit the 2nd time. it won't oxidize the beer if you do it 12-24 hours after pitching.

if you've already added all the sugars in your recipe, don't worry about it. the recipe recommends holding back on some of the sugar to keep the yeast feeding to help dry out the beer.

did you find this recipe? or made it up yourself?
Click to expand...

He said it's been 36 hours, so adding oxygen at this point will only be detrimental.
 
I found it online on BrewToad. https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/creme-brulee-imperial-milk-stout-1

It has been 33 hours. Should I still add Oxygen? And how do I add it. I have never had to do this before and have no Idea. This is only my 8'th batch of beer. The FG is suppose to be 1.032.

Also I still think I'm a little confused on how to read my hydrometer. the numbers I got from it when I frist put it in the primary were 22.5, 12.5%, and 94. (these numbers were all the different numbers around the hydromter on all the different sides. Thanks for the help.
 
SpencerHeit said:
I found it online on BrewToad. https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/creme-brulee-imperial-milk-stout-1

It has been 33 hours. Should I still add Oxygen? And how do I add it. I have never had to do this before and have no Idea. This is only my 8'th batch of beer. The FG is suppose to be 1.032.

Also I still think I'm a little confused on how to read my hydrometer. the numbers I got from it when I frist put it in the primary were 22.5, 12.5%, and 94. (these numbers were all the different numbers around the hydromter on all the different sides. Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Definitely don't add oxygen. You should have numbers on your hydrometer that look like the attached picture, with or without color. In your case, if you hit your target gravity, it should have been floating right around the second notch under the 20 in this picture.

maxresdefault.jpg
 
Agree on not adding oxygen at this point.

So, that 94 you were seeing was probably 1.094 like in the picture Zymurgist posted? That would be the gravity. And the 22.5 is plato, another unit of measure for wort sugar that is more commonly used by commercial breweries. The 12.5% is an estimated finishing ABV, but doesn't really mean a whole lot because beers can finish at all different points and that will be the ultimate deciding point for alcohol content.

So you know you started at 1.094, when the beer is finished fermenting take another hydrometer reading, and you can then use a alcohol calculator to find the actual ABV by determining that difference.
 
Ok mine read 22.5 so right below the 20 so that s good.

I attached a picture of what it looks like right now. There is only about an inch of krossen on the top, but as you can see from the picture it use to be overflowing into the blow off. I just don't want it to stop fermenting to quickly. I was planing on having it in the primary for two weeks before going to the secondary.

IMG_6841.jpg
 
So does that mean that this beer wont turn out how it is suppose to? because it was suppose to have a starting OG of 1.124. What will this do to the final product in terms of taste and alcohol content.
 
What does it mean that my starting OG was 1.094 if that is correct, when it was suppose to be 1.124 OG. Also can I make up for this in another way? how will this affect my beer?

Also I attached a picture of what it looks like now. It only has about an inch of krussen on the top, but as you can see it use to have so much it was violently overflowing into the blow off container.

IMG_6841.jpg
 
Did you do a full boil, or did you top off after the boil? If you topped off, it's likely that it wasn't mixed up properly, which would throw off your gravity reading. Take a picture of your hydrometer if you can, and we can tell you exactly what you should be looking for. I'm guessing the 22.5 you read is Plato, and if you convert that to SG, your reading would be 1.106, which isn't too far off of your estimated original gravity.

At this point, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. This looks like a normal fermentation to me. Many fermentations show signs of diminishing fairly quickly, and the last few gravity points will drop fairly slowly. There's nothing you can do at this point except wait. Don't take another gravity reading until this time next week, no matter what it looks like.
 
Nice job. Good follow up to the last thread.

I wouldn't consider moving this to secondary for at least a month. (I don't secondary anymore at all). What are you hoping to achieve by doing that. Big beer will need time to clean up. It needs it's big fat yeast cake to optimize that process.
 
Haha I wish I could read it but it is totally ambushed by the krausen. I can extract some and take a reading (I have two hydrometers.) Or I can just test it in a week.
 
Just making sure my beer is still doing what it is suppose to do. The airlock is bubbling every 5 seconds. There is a thin layer of krausen but only about 1/4 of an inch high.

At what point do I rouse my beer?
 
Don't mess with it. If you didn't reoxygenate or aerate 12-18 hours after pitching the yeast don't rouse it shake it or otherwise assault it with oxygen.

Leave it be for 1-2months. Once all signs of fermentation have ceased well and truly Then consider a secondary. Then leave it be for months. Then bottle. Then leave it be for at least a month and hope for the best.

Beer this big requires patience in the extreme. More like making a wine than a beer in the timeline side of things.
 
SpencerHeit said:
Just making sure my beer is still doing what it is suppose to do. The airlock is bubbling every 5 seconds. There is a thin layer of krausen but only about 1/4 of an inch high.

At what point do I rouse my beer?
Click to expand...

Don't even look at it until the middle of next week. Close the door of whatever room it's in, cover it with a towel, or whatever you have to do to hide it from your sight. Leave it alone and let it do its thing. Come next Wednesday, take a look and see what it's doing. If there isn't much activity, then take a gravity reading. At that point, you may see bubbling, but it's likely just off gassing at that point.
 
This is what the beer looks like now. No Krousen on the top of the beer at all now. Not really any activity either.

IMG_1992.jpeg
 
TheZymurgist said:
At this point, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. This looks like a normal fermentation to me. Many fermentations show signs of diminishing fairly quickly, and the last few gravity points will drop fairly slowly. There's nothing you can do at this point except wait. Don't take another gravity reading until this time next week, no matter what it looks like.
Click to expand...

Gavin C said:
I wouldn't consider moving this to secondary for at least a month. (I don't secondary anymore at all). What are you hoping to achieve by doing that. Big beer will need time to clean up. It needs it's big fat yeast cake to optimize that process.
Click to expand...

Gavin C said:
Don't mess with it. If you didn't reoxygenate or aerate 12-18 hours after pitching the yeast don't rouse it shake it or otherwise assault it with oxygen.

Leave it be for 1-2months. Once all signs of fermentation have ceased well and truly Then consider a secondary. Then leave it be for months. Then bottle. Then leave it be for at least a month and hope for the best.

Beer this big requires patience in the extreme. More like making a wine than a beer in the timeline side of things.
Click to expand...

TheZymurgist said:
Don't even look at it until the middle of next week. Close the door of whatever room it's in, cover it with a towel, or whatever you have to do to hide it from your sight. Leave it alone and let it do its thing. Come next Wednesday, take a look and see what it's doing. If there isn't much activity, then take a gravity reading. At that point, you may see bubbling, but it's likely just off gassing at that point.
Click to expand...

first thing is LISTEN TO WHAT THEY'VE BEEN SAYING.

LEAVE IT ALONE. we understand the impatience, we've all been there, but there is NOTHING to do right now except WAIT

a beer that big is going to take WEEKS, if not MONTHS to finish. maybe in a couple WEEKS, think about transferring to secondary, then MONTHS in secondary before bottling, then MONTHS more to condition

you picked the wrong beer at such an early stage of learning to brew. biggest thing to learn at the beginning is PATIENCE. you can't rush the brewing process
 
one thing you could do that will help is to brew another one. of a different beer, maybe something more along the lines of a 4 or 5% pale ale. something that wouldn't take so long

what helps most is getting another batch going and getting a pipeline established, so you always have some homebrew available and always have different batches at different stages of development so you're not so obsessively focused on the one batch that might take longer
 

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