Stuck Belgian, can I restart it?

CouchFarmer · 11-22-2008, 04:26 AM

I have a Belgian Trippel that's supposed to get up to about 8.3%. Originally brewed on the 10th, racked to secondary 5 days later, then racked to a keg today (11 days after brewing) after the airlock had been dead for a few days. I finally checked the final gravity after I had put it in the keg (not a good idea I know). The stats:

Starting Gravity: 1.070
Finished Gravity: 1.030 (current)

As I see it I can do one of two things:

1. Drink the beer. 5.25% low for a Belgian but is not too bad otherwise, and women often like beer a bit sweet (who else buys Smirnoff Ice??).

2. Rack back into a fermenter and add yeast to restart fermentation. I've never tried to do it this way. I can either add the Nottingham dry yeast packet I have in my fridge, or go buy fresh White Labs yeast first thing in the morning.

So my question is having racked the beer off the yeast twice now, is option 2 a good idea? My sanitation is good enough that I'm willing to risk another transfer. Has anyone tried to do something like this before, and what would you do with your beer?

scinerd3000 · 11-22-2008, 05:29 AM

id say thats pretty damn high...try to swirl some yeast back into suspension....maybe add some nutrient to get it goin again....i had this problem only once and i opened up a capsul of servomyces from whitelabs and dumped it in, swirled and it restarted. If you dont have enough yeast in suspension because its been racked so much i would repitch. 1030 is still super high

noremorse1 · 11-22-2008, 05:41 AM

On a 1.073 Belgian, 5 days is WAY too early to take off your yeast cake. Just because bubbling has slowed does not mean it has stopped. Also. I am only a fan of secondaries if you dry hop or add fruit.

I would say just go with it here and take it as a lesson learned. Next time leave it and check at 10 days... i bet its below 1.020.

CouchFarmer · 01-31-2009, 12:48 AM

Belated update-

First, thanks for the help. I decided to re-rack back into a secondary and added a yeast starter (from liquid yeast) on November 28th. I let it go till December 6th (8 days), when I had to put it in a keg for a party on December 10th. I would have liked to let it go longer but I ran out of time.

Final gravity: 1.022 / 6.3% ABV

Next time I do this I'll definitely go with a starter and allow more time. The beer still turned out well, it didn't last too long in my keg =)

What do you use to "swirl the yeast back into suspension"? Would a sanitized coat hanger work, or is it more high-tech than that?

ibrewdou · 01-31-2009, 01:37 AM

hello, i've brewed several belgians, my last a strong gold. they require patience which is hard i know. i alway do at least two weeks in primary and the same in secondary. Bottle condition and don't open the first one for two weeks and then let them age for a month! It helps to add the fermentables in phases, grains and let it go till the bubbling slows then adjuncts also in steps with appropriate amounts of sterile water to finish at the desired volume in primary. This take a while but lets the yeast work slower. I think the results are a better beer. to "rouse the sleepy drunken yeast", i remove the airlock and replace it with an un-drilled stopper. I ten ease the car-boy onto its side,(one hand to keep the stopper in place) and roll the car-boy back and forth several times and then up-right it and take the air-lock stopper out of the san stuff and replace it and thats it. this is important if you age for long periods of time in secondary.

CouchFarmer · 02-03-2009, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibrewdou

It helps to add the fermentables in phases, grains and let it go till the bubbling slows then adjuncts also in steps with appropriate amounts of sterile water to finish at the desired volume in primary. This take a while but lets the yeast work slower.

So you are doing more than one boil? How big is your primary?