high gravity + no fermentation = panicky neophyte

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Slacky

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I'd be grateful for any advice or even a cheery hello.
I had a bit of brewing experience in my youth and recently made a nice a cider. Flushed with success I purchased a 7 gallon pot and a belgian trippel kit.
So I brewed it for maybe a little longer than I should and added a bit of extra honey from the cupboard because, well, you know why.
I chilled the wort in 20 minutes using my super sweet homemade wort chiller, partially inspired by a thread on here but with the addition of a sump pump (but that's another story).
Anyway, the gravity came in at at 1090. Its been about 19 hours and no bubbling through the airlock. I read here that it can take 72 hours to get going but I'm panicking that the gravity is too high.

Jason.
 
Well I can help chime in with the hello! And welcome to the forums! :mug:

What yeast did you use? Liquid or dry? "model number" would be handy to help. Some yeast can handle a higher starting gravity than others.

Also, airlock activity is many times a poor indicator of whether fermentation is taking place or not. Sometimes the lid doesn't seal well (may have been warped at one point?), or the little grommet that holds the airlock in place leaks. Or maybe there's just enough headspace in there that it hasn't produced enough CO2 yet to push it out.

RDWHAHB. :mug:
 
Did you use liquid or dry yeast? Did you make a starter? From what I have read from the expirenced guys around here, is that with a big beer like that you would definitly want to do a starter. It may have even needed to be a steped up starter.

If you didnt, RDWHAHB and see what happens. I am sure it will be fine.


And welcome to the forums!
 
Thanks for all the replies.
I'm pretty sure the seal is good on the fermenter.
I now know I should have used a starter but I really didn't expect the gravity to be so high.
I used white labs Trappist Ale Yeast - wlp500. Liquid.

I guess I'll just have to wait this one out.
 
Adding more yeast isn't really an option. I'm an hours drive from the homebrew store and its a holiday weekend.
 
One more thing we forgot to mention: Are you absolutely sure you stirred up the wort very well right before taking the reading? This applies to partial boils where you top off the wort with straight water in order to get to 5 gallons volume for the batch. If it wasn't mixed thoroughly enough the readings can be way off.
 
If you can't add more yeast you are basically stuck with "wait and see". I'll bet it takes off eventually it's just lagged because of the gravity and low amount of starting yeast.
 
Slacky said:
I'd be grateful for any advice or even a cheery hello.
I had a bit of brewing experience in my youth and recently made a nice a cider. Flushed with success I purchased a 7 gallon pot and a belgian trippel kit.
So I brewed it for maybe a little longer than I should and added a bit of extra honey from the cupboard because, well, you know why.
I chilled the wort in 20 minutes using my super sweet homemade wort chiller, partially inspired by a thread on here but with the addition of a sump pump (but that's another story).
Anyway, the gravity came in at at 1090. Its been about 19 hours and no bubbling through the airlock. I read here that it can take 72 hours to get going but I'm panicking that the gravity is too high.

Jason.
Click to expand...

HI, jason......

The last experience i had with a Belgian triple went like this: 1st day, nothing. Second day, Nada. Third day, foam, lots of foam, too much foam, where's the mop foam, help! I've got a bomb here foam. It's OK! Papazian: RDWHAHB.
:)
 

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