Hey guys,
I seem to have hit a snag in trying to brew up a high alcohol beer. You can probably guess, but yea, yeast crapped out super early. The OG was 1.150, and dropped down to only like 1.120. Damn. Trying to figure out what I can do.
Pretty simple recipe. 85% Maris Otter, with the remaining grain a mixture of munich and vienna. I mashed for 3 hours and had a 90 minute boil. I used White Labs Super High Gravity Yeast to handle the high sugar content. I made a starter for it, then used the starter to make a "lighter" beer of 7%ish. After that fermented out, I racked the big beer on top of the yeast cake. So I felt good about the yeast.
So it fermented a bit and died. I read some posts and tried adding some champagne yeast. I hydrated and added 4 packs (5 grams) of yeast to the beer, but nothing happened. No krausen or nothing. I imagine it just dropped out completely.
As of now, looks like my only option is to thin it out and make 2, 5 gallon batches and re-add yeast. Just seeing if anyone has any suggestions before I do this.
On a side note, since I imagine someone will bring this up, I didn't do step up additions based on some advice I got from Dogfish Head. I was there and talked to the brewer and he said they never do step up additions for their beers. They make it strong, then dump it on the yeast. They don't seem to have fermentation problems, so I figured I'd try it well on a smaller scale. Didn't work through, so I guess I'm not as good of a brewer yet!
I seem to have hit a snag in trying to brew up a high alcohol beer. You can probably guess, but yea, yeast crapped out super early. The OG was 1.150, and dropped down to only like 1.120. Damn. Trying to figure out what I can do.
Pretty simple recipe. 85% Maris Otter, with the remaining grain a mixture of munich and vienna. I mashed for 3 hours and had a 90 minute boil. I used White Labs Super High Gravity Yeast to handle the high sugar content. I made a starter for it, then used the starter to make a "lighter" beer of 7%ish. After that fermented out, I racked the big beer on top of the yeast cake. So I felt good about the yeast.
So it fermented a bit and died. I read some posts and tried adding some champagne yeast. I hydrated and added 4 packs (5 grams) of yeast to the beer, but nothing happened. No krausen or nothing. I imagine it just dropped out completely.
As of now, looks like my only option is to thin it out and make 2, 5 gallon batches and re-add yeast. Just seeing if anyone has any suggestions before I do this.
On a side note, since I imagine someone will bring this up, I didn't do step up additions based on some advice I got from Dogfish Head. I was there and talked to the brewer and he said they never do step up additions for their beers. They make it strong, then dump it on the yeast. They don't seem to have fermentation problems, so I figured I'd try it well on a smaller scale. Didn't work through, so I guess I'm not as good of a brewer yet!