I brewed my first high gravity beer, an imperial stout about 10 days ago and I am a bit concerned about what has happened or what I may have done. I made a starter using white labs Irish ale yeast and it seemed to work just fine, fermentation began about 14 hours after I pitched it in the wort. It was aggresive and all seemed good. In fact it blew the cap off of my airlock. I let it go (with the cap replaced) for 8 days and checked the gravity. The O.G. was 1.075 and the gravity when I checked it was 1.042. This is still to high for this beer, but I racked it anyway (probably dumb on my part, but it was a mess and it didn't seem as if anything was going on). After I racked it it began to bubble again in the airlock and thought I was still safe. I have not rechecked the gravity since then. It has been in secondary for 3 days.
Have I ruined the chance to get the gravity much lower (down to about 1.018)? Or is there anything that can be done in situations like this? I'm still learning and think this is a good lesson for me.
Have I ruined the chance to get the gravity much lower (down to about 1.018)? Or is there anything that can be done in situations like this? I'm still learning and think this is a good lesson for me.