Under pitching anxiety

Anxiously watching an underpitched over gravitated batch ferment:

I boiled up a batch of Belgian Dark Strong Ale that weighed in at 1.107 OG which I pitched 2 packs of Wyeast Trappist Ale yeast into. Yes the cell count is a little low but this batch seems to be going to town. I’ll take a gravity reading about a week after it settles down and we’ll see what the situation is then. I also bought more yeast and DME to put together a starter if needed, but hopefully we’ll be fine without.

That is a big OG for no starter, but two packs should be able to chew through it. RDWHAHB and prepare for the next batch.

Was it Wyeast 3787?

Wyeast3787 it was. It’s still showing significant airlock activity. I started it at about 65 to 66 degrees and have slowly brought the temp up to 73-74 range where it’s at now. I think that’s helping the yeast stay active as well.

I’ll check the gravity in a few days here when I know things have settled down.

Kickass said:

Wyeast3787 it was. It’s still showing significant airlock activity. I started it at about 65 to 66 degrees and have slowly brought the temp up to 73-74 range where it’s at now. I think that’s helping the yeast stay active as well.

I’ll check the gravity in a few days here when I know things have settled down.

Click to expand...

3787 is a strong yeast.

Mrmalty says you need 375 billion cells for a proper pitching rate. According to Wyeast there are about 100 billion cells in each pack. It's a bit of an under pitch, but I still think you'll be ok.

Ok, curiosity overcame me and I had to check the gravity. I still have significant indications of fermentation (air lock activity, nice heavy churning, and elevated temp above ambient air temp) but I just wanted to see.

I’m down from 1.107 to 1.047 after only 5 days! I know, I know that’s like comparing mile #1 to mile #26 of a marathon but it’s still encouraging. I may not even need to bust into that additional pack that came in the mail yesterday.

If anyone out there cares, we (my Belgian Dark Strong and I) are approaching mile 26 of the fermentation marathon. 3 weeks after life began at 1.107 we have settled at 1.023! That’s nearly 11.5% ABV and the rest of the statistics are neatly positioned at the high side, but within the confines of the BJCP style guidelines.

Taste at this point is better than I expected. Very complex dark fruit and caramel sweetness with noticeable, but much less, alcohol heat than expected. I’ll probably be giving it 1 more week in the primary then off the secondary for a couple months.

My hat goes off to Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity strain.