Brewing my first RIS. Couple ?'s

The wort is still cooling/settling (whirlpool) so no OG measurements yet, but I had a few questions.

1) If the wort doesn't taste too sweet, then if I get stuck fermentation, it won't be too sweet to drink right?

2) I'm about to add 4oz unsweetened baker's chocolate to the primary. With all the fat, won't that destroy my head retention? I ask because I saw another's recipe on here where they added 8oz and thought it was real chocolaty, but they didn't say anything about head retention.

Side note: I am aiming for a 1.105 OG, we'll see where I come in.

To soon to worry about stuck fermentations. Making sure you use the proper amount of yeast, and aerating well, can be your best insurance against that. 1.105 is a very big beer in my book. It's going to finish pretty high anyway. As far as the chocolate, most RIS don't have a big head anyway, so...if you want the chocolate go for it.

Well my OG came in at 1.102. I added roughly .25lbs of DME and .3lbs of turbinado sugar which, according to brewersfriend.com calculator, puts my OG at 1.106-1.107.

I pitched this onto a Wyeasy 3787 yeast cake. Yes I know it's a Belgian yeast, but Avery's Mephistopheles uses that yeast so I figured I'd try it. So because I am over pitching, I doubt I get stuck fermentation, but I also can only aerate, not oxygenate.

Good point about the head retention. I dumped the chocolate in anyway and just said "let's see what happens".

So I locked the lid on at 1pm yesterday, but today, I have no air lock activity and no krausen at all...
Pitching onto a yeast cake would make me think it would take off faster than just pitching a 2L starter. Should I pick up a couple packets of US-05 and pitch them in after work today?

How old was the yeast cake? Still, it's been less than 24hrs. I wouldn't sweat it yet. But if the 05 is on your way home, it might be good insurance for the long weekend. Besides, I always keep a couple packets of the 05 in the fridge anyway....never know when an impromptu brew day will pop up.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with it just yet. Give it a bit more time. Yes, I see where you would normally expect a batch on a yeastcake to take off like a shot, but yeasties often have a mind of their own, so my recommendation is to be patient. Could be if you're fermenting really cool it could take a bit longer for the yeast to wake up?

Hammy71 said:

How old was the yeast cake? Still, it's been less than 24hrs. I wouldn't sweat it yet. But if the 05 is on your way home, it might be good insurance for the long weekend. Besides, I always keep a couple packets of the 05 in the fridge anyway....never know when an impromptu brew day will pop up.

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Well, I brewed my tripel about 2.5-3wks ago, racked it to secondary yesterday around 11am and racked my RIS ontop around 12-12:30. I noticed there was still a fair bit of yeast in suspension in the tripel. Now that the tripel is in secondary, there's a decent layer of yeast at the bottom. Could I have carried away too much yeast?

Yeah, i will still pick up a couple packs on the way home, because I'd hate to have to wait till Wednesday to get more yeast (the next day they open).

beowulf said:

Personally, I wouldn't mess with it just yet. Give it a bit more time. Yes, I see where you would normally expect a batch on a yeastcake to take off like a shot, but yeasties often have a mind of their own, so my recommendation is to be patient. Could be if you're fermenting really cool it could take a bit longer for the yeast to wake up?

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My wort was around 72º when I pitched onto the yeast cake (technically the yeast cake was only partly washed, so there was still some trub in it) and I left it upstairs (thermostat set at 74º) till about 7pm. Now it's in my basement in a tub of water. Basement temp is 68º.

There is still plenty of yeast in the fermenter. No worries, you didn't rack it away.

I very rarely have 'airlock activity' in my bucket fermentor, but it always comes out just fine.

mountainman13 said:

I very rarely have 'airlock activity' in my bucket fermentor, but it always comes out just fine.

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Well, I will get home and look for krausen. If by the time I get home from work (18:30) and there's no activity, I'm gonna dump two packets of US-05 in. After 30hrs I should have a little foam. *crossing fingers*

The yeast finally woke up. I have some krausen building and my air lock is bubbling about 3 bubbles every 2 seconds. Guess I will save the US-05 for my next stout.

Sounds good! Hope this one turns out good for you, a stout of some variety is on my brewing bucket list.

milesvdustin said:

Sounds good! Hope this one turns out good for you, a stout of some variety is on my brewing bucket list.

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I hope so too. Typically I drink two types of beer year round - tripels and imperial stouts. I throw in the occasional IIPA and seasonal, but I need a solid recipe to keep an RIS on constant supply.

I was thinking about it, but it's been about 24hrs since I got home and saw some good activity. Should I aerate?

Just an update. I did not aerate again, I just left it alone. I took a gravity reading today after 3 wks and am at 1.027, which equates to ~10.4 AbV. I drank the sample and was surprised how good it was for only being 3 wks old. I'm real glad I added the 4oz bakers chocolate, because that's exactly what I was looking for - just a bit of chocolate. I'll bottle half of this soon and age the other half on some bourbon soaked oak cubes.

I'm real glad the swamp water contamination didn't ruin this beer.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-son-created-swamp-water-stout-333069/

Is it too soon to call this brew session a success? Do I have to wait till it's bottled?