noobie yeast question

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baru

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Hi yall,
I'm on ny 8th batch and have used Muntons gold yeast every time so far.

My FG is allways on the high side when fermentation stops and the ABV is a

little on the low side. I have 5 gallons 48 hrs into the primary and am

expecting some Montrachet wine yeast in the mail today. I am planning a

half batch of apflewine this evening which will leave me some wine yeast left

over. Since montrachet is more alcohal tolerent than the yeast I have been

using would it hurt to add a half a packet to my primary in an attempt to

increase my ABV? Other than infection what dangers are involved. The OG on

this batch was 1.07.

3.3 lbs amber lme
4.o lbs amber dme
1lb. light brown suger
1lb. corn suger

1 hr boil with 2oz of cascade pellets @60min

1oz cascade @30 min

1/2 oz cascade @ flame off.

Tia ,
the baru'er
:drunk:
 
What I've been advised (and it has worked for me) is not to add more yeast, but rather to give your primary a stir with a sanitized racking cane or similar to get the yeast stirred up (without adding huge amounts of oxygen). Then place the fermentor in a warmer place - around 70F if you can. There are probably enough yeast in there, they just need waking up. Mine started bubbling again, and dropped from a "stuck" 1.020 down to 1.015.
 
the yeast won't raise the abv.You need more sugars for the yeasties to eat.If you want more alcohol work on your gravity.I'm assuming your doing AG if your gravity is off.Theres different ways of rectifying that.More grain would be the easiest solution:mug:
 
Ale yeasts should work just fine up to 10-12% given that you pitch the proper amount. An 11g dry yeast packet should be fine for your application. I would definitely make sure you are in the 68F-72F range, otherwise things could be a little slow.

I wouldn't shake it up much late into the ferment, because you only want oxygen at the beginning when the yeast are in their aerobic phase and are busy making more yeast as opposed to alcohol.

Proper pitching amounts, wort aeration, and fermentation temps should be the only things you would have to worry about all the way up to ~1.100.
 
Joos said:
the yeast won't raise the abv.You need more sugars for the yeasties to eat.If you want more alcohol work on your gravity.I'm assuming your doing AG if your gravity is off.Theres different ways of rectifying that.More grain would be the easiest solution:mug:
Click to expand...

I think Tia is saying the ABV is below what was intended because of the low attenuation. Those two are correlated. The fact that the current brew has an OG of 1.070 would lead me believe there isn't a lack of fermentables in the grain bill.

I'd be curious to know what the OG and FG's are each time that leads Tia to think the beer is underattenuated.

(If the current batch is 1.070 OG, 75% attenation would lead to a FG of ~1.017 and an ABV of 7.3%)

As for the intial question. The caveat I see is that the wine yeast will impart off flavors that seem out of place in a beer. However, I've never tried it...
 
Thanks Cisco kid,
You are right on with your assessment of the original question. And your reply is exactly the sort of response I was looking for. I read homebrew groups and books for hours every day but with less than 2 months of experience I'm not quite fluent with all the terms like attenuation. But that is what I meant.
I mentioned the wine yeast because I read in another thread that montracet yeast is more alcohol tolerent and allows you to finish up with a higher abv.
I'm pretty much obsessive about the temps ect. so it's not likely to be that. As a matter of fact it was in another thread that I read about muntons leaving a lot to be desired. On this batch I did use 2 packets of muntons :rockin: Sure am glad I read up on blow off tubes:) I had one ready and it sure saved me from having a major mess.
By the way, tia means thanks in advance.
Baru :mug:
 
Instead of drastic measures, like wine yeast, why don't you try ditching the munton's, and using a quality ale yeast? If you want to stick with dry yeast, you could use s-05 or nottingham. Both are around $1.39 a package and attenuate at about 80% or so.
 
I wouldn't say that Muntons gold is not a quality yeast, but you may need two packets to ferment something with that high a gravity. The yeasts that Yooper mentioned come in 11g packets, which is nearly twice the size of the Muntons.

-a.
 
ajf said:
I wouldn't say that Muntons gold is not a quality yeast, but you may need two packets to ferment something with that high a gravity. The yeasts that Yooper mentioned come in 11g packets, which is nearly twice the size of the Muntons.

-a.
Click to expand...

Just saying what I read in another thread about muntons. That what got me to thinkingabout other yeast.
I did use 2 packs of muntons on this batch. Glad I was prepared with a blow off tube:rockin:
 
YooperBrew said:
Instead of drastic measures, like wine yeast, why don't you try ditching the munton's, and using a quality ale yeast? If you want to stick with dry yeast, you could use s-05 or nottingham. Both are around $1.39 a package and attenuate at about 80% or so.
Click to expand...

Thanks YooperBrew,
I got some s-05 and s-04 in the mail this evening along with the wine yeast. I just had muntons left from my first order and it was brew day soo..

I try to order enough to keep me brewing all month in order to save on shipping and handling. If the yeast had come on Wed. I would have used it. (The s-05 or 04 that is.
Like I said, the idea came to me when I realized that I would have half a pack of wine yeast left over from the 2 gal batch of apfelwine. It's not worth risking off flavors to use wine yeast. I've been real happy with my brews so far. Especially after they condition for a month. I'm just looking to
fine tune things now.
Thanks again
Baru
 
trimpy said:
Ale yeasts should work just fine up to 10-12% given that you pitch the proper amount. An 11g dry yeast packet should be fine for your application. I would definitely make sure you are in the 68F-72F range, otherwise things could be a little slow.

I wouldn't shake it up much late into the ferment, because you only want oxygen at the beginning when the yeast are in their aerobic phase and are busy making more yeast as opposed to alcohol.

Proper pitching amounts, wort aeration, and fermentation temps should be the only things you would have to worry about all the way up to ~1.100.
Click to expand...

Thanks Trimpy,
I did use two packets of yeast time. It really took off. I hope it keeps up.
I have read that yeast is both aerobic and anaerobic. Am I to understand that it makes more yeast in the aerobic stage and alcohol in the anaerobic stage?
I think pitching the proper amounts has been the problem.
Baru
 
baru said:
Thanks Trimpy,
I did use two packets of yeast time. It really took off. I hope it keeps up.
I have read that yeast is both aerobic and anaerobic. Am I to understand that it makes more yeast in the aerobic stage and alcohol in the anaerobic stage?
I think pitching the proper amounts has been the problem.
Baru
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Papazian actually lays out the phases better (I think) in The Homebrewer's Companion than he did in The Complete Joy of Homebrewing:

1) Lag Time - A perios of a few hours when yeast cells take up oxygen and nitrogen-based nutrients (protein amino acids) from the word. This period is sometimes considered part of the respiration cycle.

2) Respiration - The period when reproduction occurs. Carbon dioxide, warer and flavor-related compounds are produced. No alcohol is produced.

3) Fermentation - The population of yeast is optimal and the metabolic cycles begin, whereby carbohydrates are converted to heat, alcohol, carbon dioxide and other flavor compounds.

4) Sedimentation - Mos of the conversion of fermentable carbohydrates is complete. Yeast enter a dormant life-preserving metabolic cycle and fall as sediment.

5) Aging - While not an actual yeast cycle, the aging process is a period in which flavor compounds produced by yeast can transform into other compounds, many considered favorable.
Click to expand...
 

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