Monster IPA OG/FG question...

Brewed a huge IPA one week ago. OG was 1.130, pitch a starter that I stepped from 500ml to 1000ml on a stirplate, used WLP001. Heavily aerated. It has been one week. Still bubbling once every 5 seconds. Took a hydrometer reading tonight, still at 1.050. Temps range from 62 to 66F degrees Dry pitched a sachet of Nottingham a few minutes ago. How much will the Nottingham help? I'm trying do dry it out to about 1.020. Wondering what options I have left. I'm thinking patience or wlp099

I have never personally pitched more yeast to finish out a beer, I have always been able to get my beer to finish by rousing the yeast. For a beer that big, a 1L starter was probably a little small, so you likely underpitched and adding the fresh yeast might help, but I don't know. With that said, any beer with a gravity that high needs pure oxygen, not aeration, in order to attain the proper amount of oxygen in solution. You can aerate all you want but will stop out well short of the desired oxygen concentrations. Good Luck, and hopefully someone else can be more helpful than I am.

An OG of 1.130 is not an IPA. You've made a Barley Wine or a Hoppy Barley Wine. Call it what you want though

You're already at 10.5%. If you make it to 1.020, you'll be at almost 15%.

To get that low, that WLP099 might be a good option.

As mentioned, you might have under-pitched as well. Try making another starter that is at least 2 or 3 liters.

According to Mr. Malty, you should have had a 5 liter starter.

Oh, and you might want to increase ferm temp. Could help out the yeast. 62-66 is pretty low.

By the way, what is your recipe? It would be good to know how many specialty malts vs. base malts were included.

Haputanlas said:

An OG of 1.130 is not an IPA. You've made a Barley Wine or a Hoppy Barley Wine. Call it what you want though

You're already at 10.5%. If you make it to 1.020, you'll be at almost 15%.

To get that low, that WLP099 might be a good option.

As mentioned, you might have under-pitched as well. Try making another starter that is at least 2 or 3 liters.

According to Mr. Malty, you should have had a 5 liter starter.

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Not even close to a barleywine, doesn't fit the profile. Surely you have heard of big IPAs such as DFH 120, KDBC Simtra, and RR pliny the younger.
Anyways...used 2 row, crystal 10, and a pinch of victory, along with corn sugar. I'm keeping the low temps to ward off any cidery flavors or aromas that might impart due to the corn sugar.

Mash schedule? To ferment out that much grain down to 1.02 it's going to have to be highly fermentable wort. 148 for 3 hours, perhaps.

BitterBomz said:

Not even close to a barleywine, doesn't fit the profile. Surely you have heard of big IPAs such as DFH 120, KDBC Simtra, and RR pliny the younger.
Anyways...used 2 row, crystal 10, and a pinch of victory, along with corn sugar. I'm keeping the low temps to ward off any cidery flavors or aromas that might impart due to the corn sugar.

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I don't think DFH 120 is an IPA as told. Tastes way too much like a barley wine to me.

I wasn't giving a specific classification, just my opinion. However, if you want classification, the BJCP shows that even an Imperial IPA is OG: 1.070 – 1.090. Even an American Barley Wine (Much hoppier than an English BW) is OG: 1.080 – 1.120. Which sounds more like what you're doing (And similar to DFH 120). I still haven't had Pliny the Younger, so I can't say whether I'd still consider it that.

So, according to a Judge or competition, you'd be out of range.

As I said earlier though, I was only originally referring to opinion and not actual classification of styles.

Let's agree to disagree
The Nottingham looks like it is doing its job. I was gonna throw in pack of champagne yeast instead, but was not sure how it would interfere with the beer's profile. Nottingham is fairly neutral, only downfall is that it doesn't have a high alcohol tolerance.

Based on another thread going on right now, Saffale US-05 would have been a good choice. It chewed my 1.080 (IIPA) down to 1.006. As said, your fermentables play a big role, but it is definitely tolerant to higher alcohol.

I would let it ferment for another week or two before worrying. If you are still not at your desired FG, I've had success with pitching a starter of WLP099. It'll eat any of the fermentable sugars left. If the notty is working, then you should be good. I've never had success with adding dry yeast in these situations but YMMV.

BitterBomz said:

Let's agree to disagree
The Nottingham looks like it is doing its job. I was gonna throw in pack of champagne yeast instead, but was not sure how it would interfere with the beer's profile. Nottingham is fairly neutral, only downfall is that it doesn't have a high alcohol tolerance.

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Agreed. Wasn't meant to be a knock at you .

I also think bierandbikes is correct in trying out US-05. I use it quite a bit and is very alcohol tolerant while still being very clean and neutral.

I've heard people using US-05 for beers at 20+%

Yes, luckily my LHBS was open for a few hours today. He gave me a vial of wlp099 as a Christmas present I'm just gonna wait at least another week. If its still above 1.020, ill let the beast yeast finish the job.

So you didn't rehydrate the Notty, assuring you destroyed 1/2 the viable cells instantly. The other half won't have much hope in such an alcoholic environment (10%+). That was clearly a waste.

As mentioned, you also underpitched by a large margin to begin with. I would guess this will crap out around 1.040 if you're lucky. Best bet at this point is to get a big starter of WLP099 going and pitch it at high krausen.

g-star said:

So you didn't rehydrate the Notty, assuring you destroyed 1/2 the viable cells instantly. The other half won't have much hope in such an alcoholic environment (10%+). That was clearly a waste.

As mentioned, you also underpitched by a large margin to begin with. I would guess this will crap out around 1.040 if you're lucky. Best bet at this point is to get a big starter of WLP099 going and pitch it at high krausen.

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I did rehydrate actually, as I usually do when using dry yeast as a remedial. But thanks for your negative input, macho man

BitterBomz said:

Dry pitched a sachet of Nottingham a few minutes ago.

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Sounds contradictory to me. Good luck with your 15% "IPA".