dasz

Recipes 

So I'm making a Russian imperial stout and the initial fermentation went nuts. When I moved to secondary the other day, there was almost no yeast submerged and the specific gravity was a little high (1.026 instead of 1.018ish). Should I add some yeast to the secondary? It's still going to be ~7% but I don't want the taste to be off/too sweet. I'm going to age it for a while but just curious about adding some yeast now a couple weeks in. TIA.

Kahless

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How long was it in the Primary for?
There might be enough yeast floating about to finish the job, although they could be doing it at a slower rate if they are under odd conditions or a bit unhappy. I might take another reading in 3 days and see if it is changing - If it has not changed at all after 5 or 6 days and doesn't look like it will hit the final gravity, then you will know whether you need to add some yeast.

I wonder what people would think of adding yeast nutrient at this stage, to help the yeast if it is going at a slow rate, but still kickin' - It might be that they would use that earlier on, while multiplying, so not as usefull now, but I don't know.

duboman

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Did you verify a stable FG? If the FG was high then you should not have moved the beer and tried to figure this out then while it may still drop it may not.

Was this AG or extract? What yeast? What temp? Did you mash and if so what temp? Lots of unknowns, while yes, you can repitch you will need to repitch with an active starter since you can no longer aerate and there is a fair amount of alcohol present.

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zacster

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I would have left it in the primary and given the yeast at the bottom a gentle stir. You'd be surprised at how much that can help. My last batch dropped 10 points after I did that.

dasz

Recipes 

Thanks all. I'll take another reading, and think about repitching with an active starter. To answer some of the questions. It was an extract kit. I had it in primary for 2.5 weeks (was on vacation the 2nd week). I didn't see any more bubbling and since it had been in there so long, I just assumed it was done (we all know what they say about "assuming"). I didn't bother taking a reading until it was already syphoning to the secondary (although I clearly should've). As for stirring up the yeast at the bottom, there really was very little of anything on the bottom. It looked like, after the initial fermentation caused all the foam/overflow, most of the yeast ended up caking around the top of the bucket above the wort/beer, where I guess it was left to die. As for temps, my temps were pretty good. I didn't pitch until around 70, and I kept it in a stable area in my basement that's about 70. I don't think the yeast were unhappy until the "explosion" left them out to dry! Hopefully there are still a few guys working in there that got kicked up after the transfer. I'll take another reading and see. Thanks again!