Saving an underattenuated beer?

Maybe 'underattenuated' is the wrong word, as it did ferment quite a bit. I made a 1-gallon test brew, intended to be a strong IPA, but forgot to account for boil-off and ended up waaay over target OG. I fermented anyway with some bottle-harvested Pacman.

OG: 1.120
FG: 1.050 (measured WITH bottling sugar by accident, doh)

It fermented for ~2 months, and I bottled despite it being so high. After 4 weeks priming, I tried one last night. It's undercarbonated (but not completely flat, so the yeast must be at least a little alive), and grossly, terribly, undrinkably sickly sweet. Of course .

Is there anything I can do to save this? Will the cloying sweetness drop with time if I just leave it for a year? I want to play with a sour beer at some point... maybe I should put the bottles back in a jug and let some wild beasties in?

after fermenting that high gravity beer those yeasties are cashed. You will need to pitch some fresh yeast to carb it properly. Worst case scenario, you learned from your mistakes and that is not a bad thing at all.

You have a stuck fermentation.

You CANNOT pitch new yeast into the bottles. You will create bottle bombs and injure yourself. Dump the beer out of the bottles back into the fermenter and add fresh yeast.

subscribed. i have a feeling i will need to do this in a few weeks. should we just pitch the yeast as usually? would a new starter help?

In my case I'm looking at something that's already probably over 9% ABV, so I'll need a pretty tough strain to take it farther. Would a champagne yeast finish it ok, or would that give odd tastes?

mrmekon said:

In my case I'm looking at something that's already probably over 9% ABV, so I'll need a pretty tough strain to take it farther. Would a champagne yeast finish it ok, or would that give odd tastes?

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Champagne yeast is very neutral and alcohol tolerant (17% or so). It would probably give you some more points. I'd pitch a pack with some nutrients and a little o2 and see what happens (although the o2 could oxidize the beer).

Brett would take it down as well, up to about 12% ABV, but I'm thinking the combo of brett in an IPA might not work too well.

You're at nearly 60% attenuation currently...I'd be shooting for 1.036 which is 70% attenuation.