Second brew help. Belgian Tripel and yeast... (White Labs 550)

I started a Belgian tripel two days ago and am a bit concerned with my yeast choice. I could not find any resources specifying this yeast for particularly high gravity. White labs says medium-high alcohol tolerance for the 550, in reviews I have found 1.084 coming down to 1.10.

My OG was measured as 1.12@80. I was shooting for more like 1.090 but for some reason it came out very high.. I am going to forgo my original plan to add another pound of sugar at 48 hours.. maybe it was the homemade candy sugar that brought the OG up so unexpectedly. I pitched the WLP550 liquid yeast into 98 degree water with a small bit of sugar an hour before adding it to the wort in my primary fermenter.

Fermenting at 68 degrees F. There were bubbles coming out at 12 hours and continue still at 48.. at a pretty good rate, 1 per second or two, but I am still concerned. So I am wondering... Is there a good chance that this yeast could die as the alcohol levels continue to rise. Should I attempt to pitch some higher alcohol tolerance yeast still? Thank you for the help!

Confused with your numbers. But everything should be fine.

Did you do a yeast starter? More the merrier.

Yeast nutrients are available to help them have a happy home.

Check the gravity occasionally and if stalls out before it has gotten to its final destination, then you can try to repitch. For now, keep it revived (swirl the carboy around everyday or so in order to recirculate the yeast).

It sounds like the yeast is mingling very well with the sugars. I'd keep an eye on your airlock and check the gravity in about three weeks when the yeast should be exhausted. A common practice for bigger beers is to repitch yeast to consume any leftover sugars.

good luck!
D

Just my personal prefrence WLP500 trappist ale this is what they use in Chimay cinque cents triple though they ferment alot lower temps in the 65 range to keep esters at bay. Also very tolerant of high Abv just used it to brew a belgian dark strong brought it no problems from 1.090 to 1.018 in three days no joke 3 days !!!! finished a few points lower so where talking about appx 9.8% abv and and about 83%. just my .02

Brewchef33 said:

Confused with your numbers. But everything should be fine.

Did you do a yeast starter? More the merrier.

Yeast nutrients are available to help them have a happy home.

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I didn't do a starter the proper way.. I should have given it a day or two for a good starter. I just pitched it into some warm water with a pinch of sugar for an hour before pitching to the wort, not enough time for the yeast to even wake up really.. next time I will have a proper starter.

Duffman53 said:

It sounds like the yeast is mingling very well with the sugars. I'd keep an eye on your airlock and check the gravity in about three weeks when the yeast should be exhausted. A common practice for bigger beers is to repitch yeast to consume any leftover sugars.

good luck!
D

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yes! It seems that the yeast is still doing its job! Airlock bubbling has slowed to every 7 seconds or so now and it has been 5 days. Fermenting temps have been 64-68 which is a little low for this yeast according to White Labs (suggested 68-78) so I am going to warm it up a bit to the lower 70s.

I'll take a gravity reading in two days and let you guys know how it is doing.

How many vials did you pitch? If the OG is really 1.120, you would have needed about four to get a proper pitching rate. If you only pitched one, you may get a more pronounced ester/phenol profile and run into underattenuation problems.

FancyMac said:

I pitched the WLP550 liquid yeast into 98 degree water with a small bit of sugar an hour before adding it to the wort in my primary fermenter.

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Ok tell me this is a typo

Next you really needed more yeast, I use 1.8-2L starter for a 1.078 beer.


Don't even look at the beer for another 2wks then check the gravity, airlock bubbles mean crap.

A proper yeast pitch with wlp550 will often go down into the single numbers.

Checked up on it yesterday, it's down to 1.04 now. It had a nice healthy looking head on it.

I have a wlp530 abbey ale yeast starter going that I will add tonight to help it finish out in high alcohol conditions.

It also taste deliciously spicy!