Is it likely my ferment is done?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rahahb

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
308
Reaction score
13
Location
Eastern
I should have taken a reading a week ago but I'm just now getting to it.

Anyway, brewed a wee heavy 3 weeks ago that had an OG of 1.12. Pitched wyeast 1728 starter I had ramped up over a day and a half. Fermented in low 60s. Allowed temp to rise about a week and a half ago. Gravity is 1.034 now. According to a calculator, apparent attenuation is 68.34 with an abv of 11.5. Alcohol tolerance up to 12% according to wyeast and attenuation from 69-73. So at the low end of attenuation and upper end of alcohol tolerance. I was going to rack to secondary but now I'm just going to leave it alone for a bit and see what you guys think.

:cross::drunk: This beer is potent!
 
Will leave it another week and see if anything happened.

It has been at 70 for at least a week now. :)
 
Checked gravity and it *may* be a 1.033. Hard to tell when you can't look at the hydro straight on. So it might still be a 1.034. Safe to transfer to secondary?

That brings me to my next question. Since this beer has plenty of sugar left, I'm assuming the yeast stopped working due to the alcohol level. Is that correct? And if so, will the beer have a problem priming?
 
Checked gravity and it *may* be a 1.033. Hard to tell when you can't look at the hydro straight on. So it might still be a 1.034. Safe to transfer to secondary?

That brings me to my next question. Since this beer has plenty of sugar left, I'm assuming the yeast stopped working due to the alcohol level. Is that correct? And if so, will the beer have a problem priming?

I would not assume the yeast is kaput. It's tolerance is approximately 12%, which means (with proper treatment) it can go higher, or might not. I had emailed Wyeast (a while back) about pushing 1728 to 12%, or above. You need to do some work to get the yeast to go above 12%, and sometimes even TO 12%. Proper oxygenation of the wort early on is critical. As is giving it nutrients while brewing it. If you just did the shakey-shakey method, then chances are it's about done. Of course, without knowing the recipe for what you made it's hard to say. If you brewed this as an all grain batch, we would need to know the mash profile. If extract, then it could be done due to the extract used.

BTW, I have a wee heavy in aging vessel currently (target ABV is 12%). It was brewed in December of 2011 and has been sitting with oak for some months. Not sure what the FG is yet, since I've not taken the reading. I DID give it over 8 weeks in primary, on the yeast cake, though. IME with 1728 (and the other ale strains I use from Wyeast) more time on the cake does no harm. Chances are, once you remove it from primary, chances of the yeast doing anything more is pretty much nil.

I'll be kegging my wee heavy, so I don't give a fig about if the yeast is not going to do anything for carbonating the batch. IF you really want to be sure of carbonation happening, then give it more time in primary, then age it as needed (it will need time to age) before going to bottles. You could add a packet of dry (champagne) yeast like Lalvin EC-1118, which is very neutral, to help bottle carbonate. I would add that a day, or so, before you go to bottle it (before racking to the bottling bucket). You could, also, add it as you're racking into the bottling bucket, but be sure to fully rehydrate the yeast first. Also make sure the priming solution is cooled down in the bottom of the bucket so you don't kill off the yeast due to high heat.
 
I would not assume the yeast is kaput. It's tolerance is approximately 12%, which means (with proper treatment) it can go higher, or might not. I had emailed Wyeast (a while back) about pushing 1728 to 12%, or above. You need to do some work to get the yeast to go above 12%, and sometimes even TO 12%. Proper oxygenation of the wort early on is critical. As is giving it nutrients while brewing it. If you just did the shakey-shakey method, then chances are it's about done. Of course, without knowing the recipe for what you made it's hard to say. If you brewed this as an all grain batch, we would need to know the mash profile. If extract, then it could be done due to the extract used.

BTW, I have a wee heavy in aging vessel currently (target ABV is 12%). It was brewed in December of 2011 and has been sitting with oak for some months. Not sure what the FG is yet, since I've not taken the reading. I DID give it over 8 weeks in primary, on the yeast cake, though. IME with 1728 (and the other ale strains I use from Wyeast) more time on the cake does no harm. Chances are, once you remove it from primary, chances of the yeast doing anything more is pretty much nil.

I'll be kegging my wee heavy, so I don't give a fig about if the yeast is not going to do anything for carbonating the batch. IF you really want to be sure of carbonation happening, then give it more time in primary, then age it as needed (it will need time to age) before going to bottles. You could add a packet of dry (champagne) yeast like Lalvin EC-1118, which is very neutral, to help bottle carbonate. I would add that a day, or so, before you go to bottle it (before racking to the bottling bucket). You could, also, add it as you're racking into the bottling bucket, but be sure to fully rehydrate the yeast first. Also make sure the priming solution is cooled down in the bottom of the bucket so you don't kill off the yeast due to high heat.

There was no special aeration going on with this one. Just shook it several times before pitching.

All grain. Decoction mash. 40 minutes @ 146, and 40 minutes @ 156.

I'm pretty concerned about adding champagne yeast. I did that before to a beer and it went to a 1.008. I definitely don't want this one finishing even close to that. Would sticking a spoon in and lightly fluffing up the yeast cake be a bad idea?
 
I had a beer that gave up at 1.034, sent in wlp100 slurry to finish it and it got down to 1.017, carbonated like a treat.
 
I have used that yeast before without aeration and I got about the same attenuation as you did. I did the shakey method to aerate originally and tried to suspend it when it seemed done. The yeast is done IMO, and especially at that %. It seemed to me like the yeast is a slow worker but is probably at its max capacity based on your conditions.

Heating up isn't a bad idea, did you try that?

You could try to throw some other stuff in there but a wee heavy that strong probably would do well with that much malt backbone. Do you like the taste?

You could try throwing some white labs 1 or WY1056 in there (make a starter) to get it down a bit more if you want. With that % it might be hard for any yeast to survive the initial shock of almost 12% alcohol. I would stay away from the champagne for the attenuation issue like you mentioned.
 
I had a beer that gave up at 1.034, sent in wlp100 slurry to finish it and it got down to 1.017, carbonated like a treat.

Did you mean wlp99? I dont see 100 on their website... if it was 99 I would be careful with that one too because it can ferment the F&*% out of your beer like champagne yeast, and it's not a very good flocculator so it can keep going.

I have also heard WY french saison is pretty hearty and can chew through a lotta stuff. With that little left in fermentation you probably wouldn't get any character from it either.
 
Hopper5000 said:
Did you mean wlp99? I dont see 100 on their website... if it was 99 I would be careful with that one too because it can ferment the F&*% out of your beer like champagne yeast, and it's not a very good flocculator so it can keep going.

I have also heard WY french saison is pretty hearty and can chew through a lotta stuff. With that little left in fermentation you probably wouldn't get any character from it either.

Dam phone got me again! Was meant to say wlp001
 
I have used that yeast before without aeration and I got about the same attenuation as you did. I did the shakey method to aerate originally and tried to suspend it when it seemed done. The yeast is done IMO, and especially at that %. It seemed to me like the yeast is a slow worker but is probably at its max capacity based on your conditions.

Heating up isn't a bad idea, did you try that?

You could try to throw some other stuff in there but a wee heavy that strong probably would do well with that much malt backbone. Do you like the taste?

You could try throwing some white labs 1 or WY1056 in there (make a starter) to get it down a bit more if you want. With that % it might be hard for any yeast to survive the initial shock of almost 12% alcohol. I would stay away from the champagne for the attenuation issue like you mentioned.

I didn't heat it up past ambient which probably got to around 72 or so.

It smells delicious! And I'm good with the taste. VERY heavy mouthfeel. Sweet, and dessert like, which fit the bjcp description of it. It is young so there is the alcohol that needs to mellow, but for one this young, I'm looking forward to the aged version.

Overall, I think I'm ok with the gravity as is. It is still in the primary and I brewed it 10/20. Should I secondary asap? How long should I let it go in the secondary? Finally, will carbing be an issue?
 
I would leave it on the yeast for 3 weeks and maybe even it's a big beer. You could rack it into secondary but why are you going to secondary it?

For clarity? You basically can leave a beer in secondary for as long as you want because all it is doing is aging and mellowing out some more. You are basically aging the entire beer together vs aging in bottles. Lots of people skip secondary these days but it's up to you.

Because your beer is so big I would make a starter of that same yeast and pitch it before bottling just to be safe. I usually use some dry yeast because it's easy but in a 11.5% beer it would probably immediatly die.
 
I would leave the brew in primary for 6-8 weeks and then decide what next steps will be.

I have a wee heavy that's been in it's aging vessel for several months now. It went about three months in primary before I transferred it to age on some oak cubes. If you want to age this on oak for a few months, I would probably shift it to another vessel. IF you decide to give oak a try, I would recommend using something other than chips. Cubes, my favorite are medium toast Hungarian cubes, staves and spirals are all really sound choices. It's easy to use cubes, since you can add just a little and see how it comes out. If you want more (after two months, or so) then you add some more. I would go to the flavor is a bit more than you want, so that it will mellow to where you want it, with age. To 'sanitize' the cubes, I just boil some water in a tea kettle, have the cubes in a mason/Ball jar, pour enough boiling water to over the cubes, then seal the container up and let it cool down. Once the entire thing is at room temperature, I pitch everything into the brew. You can also just toss the fresh cubes into the beer. With it being close to 12% ABV, it's pretty damned safe to do so.

BTW, you don't need to worry about clarity with Wyeast 1728. It's rated "High" for flocculation. Which means if you give it just a little time (after done fermenting) it will drop out and be damned clear.

Also, do you plan to carbonate this in keg, or bottle? I'll be kegging my wee heavy to carbonate and then bottle some up off of keg. The rest will remain in keg, for serving from tap. It's going to be a good winter this year. :D
 
Brewed on september 20 so going on 2 months in primary. And I will be bottle conditioning. If I will get the same results by going to bottles at this point, I'll do that and cut out a step in the process. That's basically what I was asking on the secondary issue. Didn't know if it was beneficial to bulk age.

Is there a chance of overcarbing by pitching more yeast at bottling time? As much as was spent on this beer, I'd hate to have it out of style due to too much co2. As well as potential bottle bombs.

Thanks all for feedback!
 
It's possible to overcarb if there are redual sugars left over and you pitch a different yeast at bottling. I would just use the same one and have the priming sugar be on the lower end of the acceptable level.
 
Chances are, you have plenty of yeast still in the brew to do the carbonation for you. Just prime it, bottle it, and let it sit at 70F until carbonated. At the ABV% the brew is at, you could be looking at a few months before they carbonate. I would wait at least 1-2 months before checking a bottle. Chill it for 7+ days and pour into a glass. If carbonation is to the desired level, put more into the fridge to chill. If not, then give it another 1-2 months and sample again...

BTW, it could be rather 'hot' early on. Don't worry, that will get significantly better as it ages. :D
 
Back
Top