Another Chicago-Land Home brewer (Downers Grove)

Hello everyone. I moved to Chicago about 6months ago and have finally started brewing up some beers. I am on my 3rd brew at the moment (its in the secondary). I got into brewing from a buddy who got me to help him make Jug Wine in college (2cans juice concentrate, couple cups of sugar, water and yeast... it was disgusting) and I have always wanted to brew after that. My father also brewed when I was younger but I was much younger so I never got interested in it. I did get to pick a ton of dandelions for him to make into wine with one summer though.

I started off with what was going to be an IPA but they didn't have the amber malt I wanted so I grabed Chocolate malt... Kind of a mistake but gave me a Very dark hoppy beer.

I next moved to recreate the Holy Grail of beers (in my mind), the DFH 90min IPA. That was bottled up 3weeks from yesterday and I have controlled my self to only trying one so far. It was good but needs to age a bit to let the flavors combine a little.

So My most recent beer (I know this is getting long but I have a question about this one) is a Irish Red. I brewed it 3 weeks ago today but I got the bright idea to rack it way too early... So I transfered it with a Gravity of 1.024 and It needed to get down to 1.014 (OG was 1.06). I figured it was just stuck fermentation and didn't know if I could do anything. So to try to get it down more I had another great idea... Pitch some champagne yeast... So now today I have a secondary fermenting pretty well and it has been for 2 days and I"m wondering if I should just let it take its course or if there is a way to stop it but still be able to prime it later?

Whats the worst that happens if it ferments a little to much?

Long Story Short: I pitched champagne yeast into a beer that had stuck fermentation and I'm afraid it is going to ferment too much now. Suggestions?

I'm also looking for a good spruce beer recipe (unless someone can talk me out of it).

Hello from Lisle! There are getting to be a TON of us on here from the Plainfield/Naperville/Aurora/Downers/Bolingbrook area....

Welcome to HBT. Unfortunately, I've never used champagne yeast before, so I can't be of much use there. Personally, however, I'd just let it finish out and see what you end up with.

Welcome! As far as what to do with the beer I will leave that to other, more experienced to comment. Spruce beers - lot of good threads if you do a search on them. Seems to be something a lot of people like to try. Enjoy.

Welcome from a suburb a bit further west!

As to the beer in the secondary...I ran into a similar problem with my very first brew. It was much more impatience on my part, but I racked from primary to secondary after only three days. I drank my first bottle of it a day ago...and it was very, VERY good! From what I've read on this board, beer is EXTREMELY forgiving of the dumb things we do to it!

Check your s.g. several days in a row. When you get three days of identical readings, it's done and you can go on to the next step.

Again, welcome!

glenn514

Welcome

Welcome, I grew up in Downers.

welcome to the forum