beerisambrosia
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Ok, I'm on my 3rd brew, and I'm pretty sure I goofed. I just want some corrective help, if possible. Thanks in advance.
I brewed an Old Ale (it's my own recipe, wouldn't fit a style to my knowledge, but Old Ale seems closest), but with Belgian yeast (Safale T-58, which ferments at 59-75 F, per label). Pitched 3 packets at about 68 F (OG measured 1.070, though I had calculated 1.075). Let it go in primary for 1 week with max T capped at 75 (can't warm it, can only cool it). I didn't monitor T during ferm, so it could have been lower than 75, but I think it was probably right at 75 F. I had an active fermentation that no longer bubbled at least a couple of days before racking. I broke my hydrometer (my second broken hydrometer actually), so I have no specific gravity reading for end of primary. (Yes, I chose to rack to a secondary. Now I'm reading the forums that say secondary is not really needed. I probably won't do it again without cause.) I let the wort rest for about 1 day, then lowered the temp to 50 F. (I did this for better clarity and based on what I had read in "Brew Like a Monk"--apparently, some breweries crash their ales to very low temps--46 F and even below freezing--in the secondary. I figured I had a Belgian yeast, I would just emulate a Belgian recipe.)
The problem is: I think I've likely driven the yeast into dormancy
, and I think I'll have problems carbonating when I prime and bottle condition in after 2-3 weeks in the secondary vessel. The wort's been in secondary for 9 days at 50 F now.
Will I need to pitch more yeast when I prime? (I've got some yeast from a blue label Chimay I cultured, which I think is Brettanomyces, but other than that, I've got no brewer's yeast on hand, so I'd have to buy some more from the LHBS.)
Can I salvage the batch by raising the temp cap for the remaining time in secondary? I've read that Belgian yeast tend not to recover after the temperature has been lowered, so I'm not sure that would work.
Will bottle conditioning reach the same end point (only in more time, maybe 5 weeks instead of 3?) assuming there are some, far fewer but still some, partially active yeast?
Or is there some other work around?
I brewed an Old Ale (it's my own recipe, wouldn't fit a style to my knowledge, but Old Ale seems closest), but with Belgian yeast (Safale T-58, which ferments at 59-75 F, per label). Pitched 3 packets at about 68 F (OG measured 1.070, though I had calculated 1.075). Let it go in primary for 1 week with max T capped at 75 (can't warm it, can only cool it). I didn't monitor T during ferm, so it could have been lower than 75, but I think it was probably right at 75 F. I had an active fermentation that no longer bubbled at least a couple of days before racking. I broke my hydrometer (my second broken hydrometer actually), so I have no specific gravity reading for end of primary. (Yes, I chose to rack to a secondary. Now I'm reading the forums that say secondary is not really needed. I probably won't do it again without cause.) I let the wort rest for about 1 day, then lowered the temp to 50 F. (I did this for better clarity and based on what I had read in "Brew Like a Monk"--apparently, some breweries crash their ales to very low temps--46 F and even below freezing--in the secondary. I figured I had a Belgian yeast, I would just emulate a Belgian recipe.)
The problem is: I think I've likely driven the yeast into dormancy
, and I think I'll have problems carbonating when I prime and bottle condition in after 2-3 weeks in the secondary vessel. The wort's been in secondary for 9 days at 50 F now.Will I need to pitch more yeast when I prime? (I've got some yeast from a blue label Chimay I cultured, which I think is Brettanomyces, but other than that, I've got no brewer's yeast on hand, so I'd have to buy some more from the LHBS.)
Can I salvage the batch by raising the temp cap for the remaining time in secondary? I've read that Belgian yeast tend not to recover after the temperature has been lowered, so I'm not sure that would work.
Will bottle conditioning reach the same end point (only in more time, maybe 5 weeks instead of 3?) assuming there are some, far fewer but still some, partially active yeast?
Or is there some other work around?
