Pliny the Elder - not attenuating

MonoLoco · 04-02-2010, 03:21 PM

Full-boil. Made a 1L starter using 2 vials of WLP001 and nutrient. Aerated wort with pure O2 for 50 seconds. Pitched and fermented at 67 degrees, brought temperature up to 70 gradually over 2 weeks. Temp control was perfect.

Recipe: "Hop Hammer" from Brewing Classic Styles.
Light LME: 10.9 lb
Corn Sugar: 1.5 lb
Wheat LME: .5 lb
Ton of hops

OG = 1.080
FG = 1.013

My OG was 1.09 since I used less water due to kettle size. Fermentated 2 weeks, and then racked yesterday to secondary. There wasn't as much of a yeast cake on the bottom of the primary as I expected. It is currently at 1.030. Very sweet. Any tips on getting it going again? Can I simply pitch another WLP001 starter? Will it survive in all that alcohol?

Thanks!

**drez77** · 04-02-2010, 03:54 PM

WLP001 has a high alchol tolerance. You should be able to pitch a starter into it to get it down a bit more. The starter would have to be active though. You could also use S-05 dry and activate that and drop it in.

**humann_brewing** · 04-02-2010, 04:05 PM

Also, you don't know exactly what kind of fermentablility you are getting out of the extract. You are sitting at about 66% attenuation right now and WLP001 should average 75% but who knows. That is why it is hard to brew a dry beer with extracts where you can control your mash temp to create super fermentable wort by mashing low.

It sound like you have done everything right with your starter and oxygen and such, it may be the sugars problem.

my pliny beer went from 1075 to 1010 but I mashed at 149 and used 1 vial of WLP001 on a starter.

MonoLoco · 04-02-2010, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drez77

WLP001 has a high alchol tolerance. You should be able to pitch a starter into it to get it down a bit more. The starter would have to be active though. You could also use S-05 dry and activate that and drop it in.

Any need to aerate again? Racking yesterday added some air, but I probably won't be able to get more yeast into it until Sunday.

babalu87 · 04-02-2010, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonoLoco

Any need to aerate again? Racking yesterday added some air, but I probably won't be able to get more yeast into it until Sunday.

Why in the World did you rack it?

MonoLoco · 04-02-2010, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by babalu87

Why in the World did you rack it?

So I could dry-hop it in secondary. Should've taken a gravity reading first, though. Wasn't thinking!

babalu87 · 04-02-2010, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonoLoco

So I could dry-hop it in secondary. Should've taken a gravity reading first, though. Wasn't thinking!

You can dry hop in primary too, just wait for the fermentation to slow.

Your beer could be done, extracts (depending on quality/age) tend not to ferment very dry.
Maybe another pound of table sugar next time to help that?

Ooompa Loompa · 04-02-2010, 05:42 PM

With that much corn sugar in there I think it should have dropped a little more. I don't know about 1.013, but I don't think that 1.025 or even 1.020 would be out of the question. The problem is you have already racked it, leaving a ton of viable yeast behind. You could try pitching a couple packets of US-05 just to see what happens. It's cheap, so you won't be out too much if it doesn't do anything, but it may get you a few more gravity points.