Fermenting an Imperial Stout

I'm a noob, only made 4 batches so far but they turned out well so i thought i'd try my favorite style. The recipe I got calls for adding champagne yeast to the secondary. So i guess i have a few questions, but any thoughts would help me out. is 10 - 14 days in the primary a long enough time? why the second yeast? should i keep the temp the same after racking to the secondary? i forgot to aerate the wort before pitching the yeast, but it started fermenting pretty rapidly, so hopefully no problems there. i assume i should NOT aerate it when i pitch the second yeast into the secondary fermenter? how long in the secondary? how long in the bottle? help! i searched the forums but could only find recipes pertaining specifically to imperial stout. btw, i love reading these forums. you all are very informative. thanks in advance - jf

please post recipe

it will help others give you honest advice

also include you original gravity

Did you make a starter? Was it a full boil?

jef179 said:

is 10 - 14 days in the primary a long enough time? why the second yeast?

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Have you taken a hydro reading? That will tell you when it is time to transfer.

jef179 said:

should i keep the temp the same after racking to the secondary?

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Dunno what temp it is now, can't say.

jef179 said:

i assume i should NOT aerate it when i pitch the second yeast into the secondary fermenter?

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I would not, you would be risking oxidation depending

jef179 said:

how long in the secondary?

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Depends on what you are looking for from the secondary, clearing? bulk conditioning? The 1-2-3 schedule is a good guideline and many bigger beers benefit from lengthening the last two phases (conditioning/bottle conditioning)

jef179 said:

how long in the bottle?

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Assuming that you have viable yeast in the bottle, it will carb up after a week/couple weeks but will likely benefit from additional aging in the bottle over the course of a couple months depending on recipe/ect. Try some samples as it conditions/ages to see when it hits its peak flavor.

Im not sure about the champagne yeast but most 1.11+ will need a huge starter...and several weeks to months in the primary and months to more months to bulk age in secondary and 6 to 12 months in bottle to condition. I just made one in January and plan on tasting my first in a few months. It will be ready for next winter.

I pitched on top of a yeast cake so I had plenty of yeast to get the job done. I would think champagne yeast would dry it out..mine had 1.12 OG and 1.022 final gravity.

jay

duh forgot to mention that the recipe prb intends for the champagne yeast for bottle carbonation. Does the recipe mention when to add it to the secondary?

the recipe i have says to add the champagne yeast after racking to the secondary, it only recommends 10-14 days in the primary. it is fermenting there now at 68 degrees. i thought maybe after a few months i should bottle or even do a tertiary fermenting so that it doesn't sit on the yeast for too long. i've heard that could give it some off flavors. i dropped my hydrometer while washing it and it smashed into many many tiny pieces right before i wanted to use it... so no reading was taken. i made a starter for the yeast, but only 1 day in advance, not 2 to 4 as the package recommends, it was the wyeast liquid propogator, irish ale. thanks for your help guys. any additional advice would be great!

Post your recipe, and we can figure out the OG (assuming it's an extract recipe?).

Get a new hydrometer, and check the gravity before you rack/pitch more yeast/do anything else.

Generally, I'd say champagne yeast is a bad idea, as it will dry out the beer too much -- I speak from the experience of a barleywine went from 1.108 to 1.008

With an extract batch, it might not be as much of an issue, as you might have more unfermentables available to keep it from drying out so much.

Your starter was probably undersized, but under the right conditions the 1084 might attenuate enough. Really need to see the recipe (and the current SG) to know.