Beer Rescue

So, I was brewing what was supposed to be an Imperial IPA a couple of months back and in a moment of madness, threw in all the DME I had on hand in an improvised attempt at pushing the envelope.

Lesson learned: don't improvise.

Anyway, OG measured at 1.125, but I only had WLP001 Cali Ale yeast to hand, and obviously wasn't thinking through the entire process too clearly, so pitched it and gave it a few weeks to ferment.

A few weeks later it was down to 1.040 and horribly, horribly sweet.

First rescue attempt was to add some WLP099 Super High Gravity yeast at that point, which took it down to 1.035 but it stuck again and was still horribly, horribly sweet.

I then tried racking off to another fermenter in the hope that that would wake the yeast up, but that hasn't seemed to work either.

My last remaining idea was to try using the WPL099 again, but this time run it through a succession of increasingly higher gravity starters (e.g. 1.040, then 1.080, then 1.120) first to train it to up to the level of alcohol in the fermenter.

(I did use starters with the first two yeasts)

Anyone have any better ideas?

If all else fails, I'l just bottle it and stick it in a cupboard for a year. I was thinking if it's still that sweet, I wouldn't add any priming sugar in the hope that the yeast would eventually chew up some of what's already in there - any thoughts on that too?

Thanks in advance...

yeesh. you're already at 12% abv. that's barleywine territory there. i'm still a total noob at this, but my guess is that you're about as good as it's gonna get in terms of gobbling up the sugar. hopefully somebody smarter than me can chime in with some good advice.

It sounds like you need a super-attenuative yeast to get you down to a better FG. I'd try Wyeast 3711 (I just had a saison go to 1.005) or maybe try champagne yeast. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to try bugs (Roselare ?) to help attenuation. Take this w/ a grain of salt because I've never done this before.

actually, i have a semi-related question about this. hopefully somebody out there can give me an answer. if you pitch multiple yeasts in a situation like this, do you increase the amounts/types of by-products, or has it already past that point?

I dont know your process and grain bill so its impossible to say if your beer is not fermenting anymore because there is no more fermentable sugars (high mash temp, lots of carmel, long boil ect) or because high alcohol level. If 1st case is more possible then use high attenuation strain like 3711 or amylase enzymes if 2nd use high alcohol tolerance yeast like champagne yeast, champagne yeast+amylase for the best shoot

agree with champagne yeast, but you might be out of fermentable sugar and just have a sweet beer. I know its a stout but what about dryhopping to cut the sweetness? oak? bourbon?

I have a similar situation but opposite. I started with the champ yeast. Then it stalled in about 3-4 days after brewday. I added amylase today and made a started of wlp 099 to pitch tomorrow since i know the champ couldnt have eaten all the sugar in the slurry that i called wort. My story is on a few threads but here are some pics.











It goes from top to bottom over the span from monday to the gravity reading pic taken this afternoon right before putting in the amylase. Lemme know what you think.

I just took a peek at the carboy and i am seeing signs of co2 coming up to the top in the form of tiny bubbles. The yeast starter looks and smells to be taking well to the amylase treated wort. Lets just hope it finishes the job in the carboy for this primary ferm while im in new york until mid july.

Second ferment.

Pitch some Brett, bottle it, and check it in a year or so.

I don't think add Brett is really ever the right answer in the beginners forum, and I'm a bug promoter.

Probably not a real way to save this beer. Enzyme will take it to complete dryness, a bad beer with bugs doesn't magically become good, champagne yeast won't want to eat the leftover maltose anymore than the 001 does, and adding more and more yeast has a good chance of just adding more and more money. What you did wasn't experimenting, it was screwing around. And screwing around doesn't necessarily warrant rewarding. Drink the batch as a 5 gallon reminder of your mistakes, or dump it as a wallet reminder. Then make it again with the previous results in mind.

Personally I drink my mistakes as a two case punishment for messing up.

I had a similar experience with an 1.085 RIS. Bottomed out a little early, but then champagne yeast added later squeezed out about ten more points.

Try the champagne yeast, but if it dosn't work, odds are that you have too many unfermentable sugars left and the batch may well be toast.

Next time, have a brewing sponsor - someone to call when the madness grabs you, someone to talk you down from the ledge of doing something you probably already knew was a bad idea.

If you are to the point of throwing your hands up and are game for a little experimentation......

How about splitting the batch in half.

Bottle half and let it age. (Might consider some hop extract or hop tea to balance out the sweetness)

Take the other half and put it in a new fermenter with a gallon or so of water and some fresh yeast. Bring it back into a IIPA range and hope the yeast can dry it out the rest of the way.

billl said:

If you are to the point of throwing your hands up and are game for a little experimentation......

How about splitting the batch in half.

Bottle half and let it age. (Might consider some hop extract or hop tea to balance out the sweetness)

Take the other half and put it in a new fermenter with a gallon or so of water and some fresh yeast. Bring it back into a IIPA range and hope the yeast can dry it out the rest of the way.

Click to expand...

Its already into its second fermentation and going strong!