Any idea what happened?

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jaytizzle

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It seems like the brews that I am most looking forward to are just bitterly disappointing.

I made the following recipe. It was a partial boil, started with 3 gallons prior to steeping. Began boil with around 2.5 gallons. Added all of the DME at the start of the boil, returned to a boil then started my hop addition and timer. After completion of the boil, I cooled down to 68F, topped off to 5 gallons, then pitched my yeast starter.

Fermentables
9lbs Light DME

Specialty Grains, steeped 155-165F for 30 mins
0.75 lbs roasted barley
1.5 lbs chocolate malt
1.5 lbs dark crystal 150L

Hops
1 oz Columbus @ 60

1 whirlfloc @ 15

Yeast
Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale with a 1L starter prepped with 0.5lb DME

OG was 1.090. Beersmith said I should be around 1.082 so I'm comfortable that I was close enough. I brewed on 5/27/2012. Placed in primary at 66F. Cold crashed at 32F from 6/14-16 then racked to secondary on 6/16 (I needed my primary for more brews). Sat in secondary until today (7/17). I put it in the fridge to cold crash again but before doing so I took a gravity reading.

My first gravity reading was 1.040 and the second was 1.033 (I didn't trust the first one)! What in the hell happened? Did I not give it enough time in primary then knocked my yeast down too far to finish the job by cold crashing? Did I measure wrong? With 1084 I was expecting a minimum 70% attenuation (75% max) for a FG of 1.027-1.023.

I'm tasting the sample that I used for a gravity reading and it isn't bad, just a bit sweet and possibly a bit oxidized (kind of a stale taste). I'm still going to follow through with kegging and carbing this one. Hopefully it will improve (I imagine it will).
 
Large gravity for irish ale yeast? Possibly too strong for that type of yeast is just a wild guess. I wonder if yeast energizer or nutrient would have helped.
 
My guess is that the yeast wasn't fully finished when you cold crashed the first time. Did you take a gravity reading when you racked to secondary?

I only cold crash prior to bottling, so I'm not sure of its affect on yeast when you do it mid-cycle. Either that, or the yeast doesn't do well with that high gravity as Jon mentioned ^^
 
I agree that is pretty soon to be cold crashing a 1.09 gravity beer.Im not familar with large beers but my average gravity beers usually take less than 5 days probably.Cant say from experience with that because i gave my few big beers at least a month.
 
I knew this yeast would have a challenge so that's why I made the starter. I'm thinking I may have cold crashed a but too early for this high of an OG. Fermentation definitely kicked off nicely so I thought the yeast had plenty of time. I did not take a gravity reading before crashing. I'll definitely do so before I cold crash anything in primary again!
 
Wow, that is an intense amount of dark roasty malts for 5 gallons... nice strong beer. Very intense, very dark... even along 9 poundsa dry extract. you use salts in your water?
 
No salts, just used good 'ol baton rouge tap water. I intended this one to be very dark and the color is definitely there. I'll know more about the flavor once it's chilled.
 
The FG is a little high which tends to lead to a sweeter tasting beer and the mouthfeel is probably a little syrupy. According to mrmalty's yeast calculator, you didn't pitch enough yeast. Even if using a stir plate, the calculator advises using a 2.3L starter (I had to increase the growth rate factor a little as well). I know that seems like an awful lot of yeast, but the calculator is usually pretty accurate in my experience. You could also pitch a second vial, but even so, a starter is still required. It seems like about half of the necessary yeast were pitched in your case. The length of fermentation time was probably ok, although I would wait until primary fermentation is done and stable before transferring to a secondary, if at all. Pitching the proper amount of yeast and having the beer attenuate fully will make a huge difference.
 
Yep, that was my very first starter and before I really knew what I was doing. I learned a lesson and will brew this beer again but make my starter calculation properly next time.
 
I've done the same thing, that's how I learned the importance of the yeast pitching rate..

Just a suggestion on the recipe, an intermediately kilned type of malt might add a nice touch. You have roasted barley, chocolate, and crystal 150L which are dark, highly kilned grains. Sometimes, something in the middle helps to bridge the light base grains with the dark malts. You may want to consider adding C60, C40, of munich malt and reducing the dark malts slightly to compensate. It's not a requirement, just an idea for a future adaptation.
 
It'll all depend on how this batch tastes compared to the real thing. I'm trying to clone Drake's Drakonic Imperial Stout. I'll make some tweaks as I think it needs more bittering to hold up to all of this body (1 oz @ 60 just didn't taste like it was enough) but I'll need to do a side-by-side tasting with the real thing.

From the bottle:
"A big, malty beast of a beer that exemplifies the way we roll here at Drake's. Two-row malt is blended with Chocolate malt, roasted barley, and dark Crystal malts to make up the grist. Only one hop addition, Columbus, is added for bittering, allowing the abundance of malt in this beer to shine through. Enjoy the dense brownish head, the silky maltiness, and flavors of licorice, coffee and chocolate, rounded out with a slightly dry finish. here's to those who don't fear the mighty!"
 
I would tend to agree with Pie Man; your main problem is that you didn't have enough yeast. For a beer that big, you definitely need either a larger starter or preferably to repitch yeast from a previous batch (use MrMalty or a hemocytometer for either option). in a perfect world, I would repitch on ales >1.060 and on all lagers (unfortunately, you have to grow the lager yeast somehow...).

Also, a tip on starters: make sure that the starter wort gravity is 1.030 - 1.040. That gravity produces the healthiest yeast while still giving them enough nutrients to grow. By using 0.5lbs of DME in 1L, you had a gravity around 1.090. So for half a pound of DME, you should be making ~2.5L of starter wort.

With as long as the beer was in primary, I doubt you did any damage by cold crashing, but it's good practice to take a gravity reading before cold crashing. All things considered, I think you should be pretty happy with where it finished. It sounds like a good candidate for bourbon barrel aging :)
 
Good point above about your starter gravity. As a rule of thumb, I use 4oz of DME per liter. Gives you lower gravity starters that enable your yeast to ramp up more quickly. (1.040)

If you don't want to add 2.5 liters of lower gravity beer to your wort, then just cold crash the starter, and decant most of the liquid.
 
I've got my starter procedure nailed down now. I use mr malty to determine my volume and I always use the 10:1 rule (1g DME for every 10mL of water).
 
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