Near Perfect Attenuation? & Yeast Q/A

So I moved my Belgian Trippel to secondary. The gravity reading was about 1.008 from an OG of 1.080!!! I'm going to let it sit in secondary for a week or two before bottling.

Also, I saved 2 small jars of the yeast cake from this Belgian for pitching later. It was poured into 2 small sanitized jars, I put sanitized foil on top, then put the jars in the fridge. About how long can this yeast sit in the fridge before using?

5gB

90%? That fricken rocks man.:rockin:

After a few days in the fridge pour off the beer on top, then they should last a few months in the fridge if the 'lids' are tight. It depends on how well your sanitation was when making the original batch.
Oh, be sure to make a starter when you use one of the jars!

So what was the recipe. The ferementation obviously had almost optimum conditions. I'm not too sure that I'd want a beer with such a large ABV to be so thin.

Yeah, what Orfy sed. I've had a brew get too dry, and honestly, with all that alcohol, you need some sugar to lend balance to the palate.

With attenuation, the goal is not simply "as high as you can get". A low FG is not necessarily a good FG. 9.5% ABV w/ almost no sugars left over...well, unless it has a massive load of hops in it, I'd venture to guess that the alcohol might be, um, a bit much. But you never know till you drink it.

I'm curious about the recipe, too. I'm assuming there were a lot of highly fermentable sugars in there (not inappropriate for the style).

Big Belgians are weird beasties, because much of the initial gravity is candi which ferments 100%. I don't like the way the alcohol blasts through, although a regular Belgian can be nice. But, I'm not much of a fan of big beers, period.

Hope it works for you.

5gBrewer said:

...About how long can this yeast sit in the fridge before using?

5gB

Click to expand...

The last batch of harvested yeast I used had been about 1 month in the fridge, but I've had them in there up to 3 months and still woke right up in the starter.

Here's the recipe for those that were curious:

1 lb. Specialty Grains, Trippel Blend
6.6 lbs Briess Pilsen Extract
3 lbs. Clear Belgian Candi Sugar
2 oz Styrian Golding Pellets
1 oz Saaz Hops

1 WhiteLabs California Ale yeast vile
.5 small jar of harvested WhiteLabs Belgian Wit Yeast 2nd generation

- steeped the grains at @ 150F for a hour
- added 3.3lbs of the Briess at start of boil
- late addition of 3.3lbs Briess and candi sugar
- 1 oz Styrian at 10 minutes
- 1 oz Stryrian at 20 minutes
- Saaz at knockout

---------------

When i racked this beer to secondary, it smelled great, and not alcoholie at all. Taste is another thing though. I won't try it until the weekend at least.

5gB

Wow you all play loose and fast with sterility - me thinks.
But then I started brewing double batches when I swithched to liq yeasts - due to the cost of the yst.
The only time I've re-used yst was when the timing was right. It tasted the same in the next batch save for the taste of anxiety.
I go the one pouch for ten gallons and save the fridge space for cold lagering.

Although I amazed at such a high attenuation number, and give props for such an acheivement, that final gravity does seem kinda low to me as well. My trappist was 1.019 when I bottled it. The only beer I had drop below 1.010 was one with an OG of only 1.037. Did you taste it when you racked it to secondary? If it seems too dry, you could still add some lactose to it when bottling. Let us know.