Bryce

Recipes 

I've attempted to make an Imperial Nut Brown Pumpkin Ale and have fears that I have under pitched. This would have been my 11 batch of beer so I'm not all that experienced in high gravity brewing.

I meant to make a beer with an OG of 1.078-80 but ended up with a 1.090. I used BeerSmith for my calculations but didn't account for some of the boil off that raised the gravity and possibly a couple other factors.

I pitched a Wyeast American Ale II 1 Liter Yeast starter and used a aeration stone for 45 minutes after pitching. I also added yeast nutrient to the last 15 minutes of the boil.

My Fermenation has been very stong and alot has come out of the blow off tube. Fermentation started with 5-6 hours after pitching and has been going strong for 3 days.

My concern is that I've underpitched and I will need to add addtional sugar and yeast to finish fermentation. I'm going to take a gravity reading tonight but I wanted to see if I were to re-pitch should I use the same yeast I started with or maybe Nottingham?

Also if you do underpitch and still hit your FG do you get off flavors because there were fewer yeast cells that caused them to be over worked?

Thanks!!!

Primary:
Anchor Steam Old Foghorn Clone
Imperial NutBrown Pumpkin

Secondary:
Imperial Winter Ale
Cream Ale

Bottled:
Hazelnut ale
Hefewiezen
Oatmeal Stout
Barleywine
90 minute IPA
Honey Brown
Blonde Ale

sigurdur

Recipes 

RDWHAHB

or as we say in Iceland,
SÁEÖFÞH

You may have underpitched which may result in some off-flavors and aromas that were not initially designed in this recipe, but you like the end result.

I do not recommend that you pitch more sugar/yeast, since the flavor is already in the beer.

Over-airating can result in off flavors aswell, so you may look into the aeration stone time aswell.

Underpitching results in some flavors that may or may not be desireable, it all depends on what you are trying to make.

Your final gravity will probably be higher than usual since this is such a high gravity beer, so don't let high FG fool you (I would expect somewhere around 1.020-1.023).

Bryce

Recipes 

Thanks for your reply. I was thought to that it would come in around 1.020 myself. I guess I will really see what I have after taking the gravity tonight.

I have re-pitched yeast with a barleywine recipe from Extreme Brewing book that came out well so I'm just wondering if I should look at the same process with a half pack pr whole pack of dry yeast.

sigurdur

Recipes 

If your fermentation will get stuck, I would look at piching some additional yeast (or rousing the yeast on the bottom of the fermenter).

Worst case scenario will result in beer

Bryce

Recipes 

Thats a great way to think of it!!!

Bryce

Recipes 

Update I checked the gravity it had a OG 1.090 5 days later I'm at 1.028..... It still bubbling some and has a moderate foam head on it.......

Do I see where I'm at on Sunday and decide then if I should pitch a little more yeast or wait. If I'm trying for a 1.020 gravity should I pitch a half pack of nottingham?

Thanks!!

sigurdur

Recipes 

It takes a bit longer for yeast to ferment from 1.090 than from lets say ~1.050 - 1.060.
What I would do is wait until it has finished fermenting (the gravity has not changed in at least 3 days), then look at if I have a problem or not.
If there is no problem (the FG is approximately where it should be), then just leave it for conditioning (transfer it to a conditioning keg/carboy) og bottle it and leave it to condition in the bottle.
If the yeast do not attenuate to the approximated FG, then I would try to find out why and take the appropriate actions.

I think that the yeast will finish attenuating properly and you will end up with the FG that you desire. Give it at least a week to finish.

Good luck