Help Me Fix My F Up

I am going to rescue this batch I swear!

PROBLEM #1: Super high original gravity of 1.10 when I was aiming for 1.086.

I am brewing a DFH Midas Touch clone in Tenerife. Recipe calls for malt extract, honey, hops, saffron and 3 days into fermentation the addition of grape juice concentrate. All these can be sourced locally and I am a big fan of this beer.

I am not new to fermentation but I am new to using Beersmith brewing software. After finishing my brew day I noticed there is a difference in calculating amount of ingredients between extract brew vs all grain brews. I adjusted the original recipe from the brewmasters book, which called for malt extract, for all grain. The software suggested to use like 20 lbs of barley but I chose to go with 11 lbs and double the honey to reach the 8.0 ABV. This was in extract mode. When I changed it to all grain or partial the values of ingredients were all different. WHAT????

So I end up with a beer that may turn to 15% ABV instead of the desired 8%. I did not add more more hops during brew but I did add a handful of sweat leaf leaf, which I think will work in my favor to increase bittering.

Which brings me to PROBLEM #2 - I used Safale US 05 yeast, and I don´t think it can handle all the sugars. I am in no rush to drink this beer so I am considering secondary fermentation and adding a high gravity yeast (based on suggestions by the community). What if I did secondary and pitched fresh US 05?

NOTES:
Fermentation temperature is 21C, 70F. Batch size is around 15L, 3.8 gal. It is fermenting like crazy from day 2 on (the airlock is muddy from krausen froth). Smells great. Added juice concentrate on day 4 instead of 3 like recipe called for thinking it needed an extra day because of high gravity. I did not boil the honey like recipe called for but added it after flame out to promote more honey flavors. And saffron seems to have floated to the top and into the froth, hopefully the aroma still transefers to batch.

Please offer advice on making this a drinkable beer that happens to be high alcohol. Currently day 4 of fermentation.

How much yeast did you pitch? For high OG Beer, you needed multiple packs. Adding yeast in secondary will only really help if you have a stuck fermentation. If you didn't pitch adequate yeast, I'd add more now, not wait. Switching out grain and honey may end up with the same OG, but could have huge flavor differences.

It sounds like you didn't take the time to properly set up your equipment profile. There's a few good, official YouTube videos on how to use that software that takes a lot of the "WTF???" out of it.

Tenerife? Congrats on the amazing vacation location.

As far as the amount of yeast, I used one packet or 11.5g and started it in 2 cups of water for about 15L of wort. If I were to add more yeast (of the same variety I am assuming) would it be wise to wait to the fermentation slows down or go for it right away.

Also the decision to use more honey was based on equipment restraints, I dont have a keggle or or pot that can hold 20 lbs of grain (11 was a stretch).

And Tenerife is a great place to live or visit. It is also lacking much of any USA expat character, so come explore the fortunate islands.

I'm not convinces more yeast is the answer.

If fermentation stops short, would you be disappointed? Personally I might just keg it, force carb, and enjoy slightly sweet. There will be plenty of alcohol to counterbalance a sweet note.

If you're bottling and it stalls, you might need a high ABV tolerant strain to finish it up.

Wait it out for now. Full attenuation on this yeast will be in the range of 1.023 - 1.026 IIRC.

Update: the primary is still bubbling after a month. I have not checked the gravity yet. I am going to bottle this eventually. Before that I will let it sit in secondary until it is drinkable. I am pretty curious to what is going on in that carboy by now.

Update: the primary is still bubbling after a month. I have not checked the gravity yet.

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I totally don't get that. At all.

It's not a shuttle launch, it's just a gravity check...

Cheers!

Bubbling airlocks dont mean that yeast are still active. Temp changes and a bunch of other things can make an airlock bubble. Pop the top off your fermentor and take a gravity reading. That is the only way you will know how well your yeast did. Post your results and we can help you out. If you are in the range like Thadius posted you are good to go, if your gravity isnt there yet then your yeast pooped out.

Last night I took a gravity reading: 0.997
Today I took another reading: 0.997

So I transferred the wort to a secondary. It tastes really good - malt, saffron, honey notes and a big muscat nose but not much for grapey taste. I may have added too much saffron. I think the ABV may be off after the addition of grape concentrate, I don't know but to think it is 13% to me is too high.

OG: 1.10
FG: 0.997
13.5 ABV

I am happy with it and I think people here are going to be blown away having never tasted a beer like this, and knowing two will get people feeling good is also nice.

That's a super high attenuation. Your US-05 should be attenuating in the mid- to high-seventy percentile.

0.997 FG would be an attenuation of 103%.

Edit: Just realized you added honey. I think you're right where you should be then. Prime those puppies up and let us know how they go down in a few weeks.

Probably a silly question, but isn't it impossible to get a gravity of under 1.000 (water)? I always thought of this value as a constant. Kinda like no protein purer than egg white (albumin) @ 1.0, or the speed of light.

Negative. Alcohol has a lower gravity than water. 0.787, in fact.

catdaddy66 said:

Probably a silly question, but isn't it impossible to get a gravity of under 1.000 (water)? I always thought of this value as a constant. Kinda like no protein purer than egg white (albumin) @ 1.0, or the speed of light.

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Nope. SG is simply a measure of density relative to water (which considered to have a density of 1). Lots of liquids are less dense than water.

The batch has been in secondary for ten days now and there is a white film on the top with large bubbles attached. Hmmm, looks like a mold. Should I add some campden to kill bacteria? Will that kill me if I drink it? Is it time to bottle it and drink?

Expert advice is appreciated. And once I get this in the bottle I think I will save a couple for the helpers on this thread.

Pictures would help, but I know that with my JAOM batch a few months ago I had some white foam that wound up being just CO2 coming out of solution, and the dissolved proteins/nonfermentables making for very long-lived, small CO2 bubbles.

Might be nothing to worry about, but I'd post a pic of it for us to diagnose if you can.

-Rich

Sounds like lactobasilus (sp?) to me.

Congrats on your sour.

FreeParty said:

The batch has been in secondary for ten days now and there is a white film on the top with large bubbles attached. Hmmm, looks like a mold. Should I add some campden to kill bacteria? Will that kill me if I drink it? Is it time to bottle it and drink?

Expert advice is appreciated. And once I get this in the bottle I think I will save a couple for the helpers on this thread.

Click to expand...

After reading 103% att on us-05 I was waiting for this post.

Unfortunately thru adding the grape juice/honey or while taking gravity readings you've infected the beer.
Pics would really help to identify strain, if your lucky you got some brett which wont lend so much funk as it does barnyard but it does sound like a lacto infection. Which will give you acidic sourness if not blanketed with co2

I believe the culprit is lactobacillus from cross contamination after using the same tubing for racking ginger beer (lacto presence) and this Midas Touch clone.

I tasted it and did a gravity check. The sugars have gone sour but there is a high alcohol presence, at the very least it has a complex flavor. The gravity was unchanged but there was quite a bit of tiny carbonation bubbles.

The minscus is a thin white layer that travels up the sides of the glass and form large white surface bubbles. The film is quite viscous. It looks like many other photos on the net of sours and lacto-b.

Have a look at the pics. Sorry about the Beyond the Black Rainbow photos but this is the best I got. The glass carboy is green and the plastic cover is grey...and my camera is off colored.

Will it keep evolving into something more sour-er over time?