High FG

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Abrayton

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Hi all. I brewed a extract RIS in 12/23/16 with an OG of 1.100 (5 gl). I shook for 5 min to aerate and pitched what I estimated to be a buttload of harvested Notty. Fermented at 64 degrees. Bumped temp to 70 degrees for the 4th week. Went to rack to secondary last night and my gravity reading was 1.034.

I left it in the primary vessel and gently swirled to get some yeast back into suspension to see if that might bring gravity down a bit. As of now there is no "visible" activity. I plan to secondary for 3 months. Should I just rack to secondary and let it sit? The sample tasted great but I'm concerned about possible bottle bombs when I do bottle. Should I pitch some more Notty? Would CBC work? I do plan to use CBC at bottling.

Sorry for the long post. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
 
What has been helping me lately is adding some corn sugar or invert sugar (1/4 to 1/2lbs) and amylase enzyme (little less than teaspoon).

The added sugar will get the yeast active again and the amylase will break the remaining maltose down into smaller bite sized pieces and will be easier for the yeast to consume. *edit- I have never brewed an extract batch but assume it would produce similar results.

I was reluctant to try this method before because I read a lot of posts saying the amylase will drop the gravity too low but so far that has not been the case for me. I've done it 3 times and the latest I added 1/4tsp of amylase and some candi syrup to get an ESB that stopped at 1.018 down to 1.014. It took about 4 days to drop the 4 points and has set an addition week with zero drop in gravity.

Over the past 3 years I've tried a few (if not all) of the methods for encouraging the yeast to go after some of the remaining maltose and this is the only one that has really worked well for me and the only method I will use from now on. Every once in a while (even when your procedure is spot on) everybody gets a stuck fermentation. At least that's what I've been told.
 
Would I be better off doing this after racking to secondary? The beer has been on the yeast/trub four weeks now.
 
The other question I would have would be is 1.034 really to high if the beer taste good? I would like to get down to 1.020-26. I do plan to add bourbon oak cubes to secondary.
 
Notty should have brought that gravity down more than that. It wont hurt to leave it in primary; in your case it would be best to have all the yeast working that you can. I and others have left in for extended primaries and not much validity in statements about getting small batches into secondary as fast as you can.

Nottingham has the potential to get it to 1.022 or 1.020. I've gotten over 80% attenuation but never used it on one as big as your RIS

I you have the ability to cold crash it for 2-3 days before you add amylase and sugars and then bring back to fermentation temp it would help even more.
 
The other question I would have would be is 1.034 really to high if the beer taste good? I would like to get down to 1.020-26. I do plan to add bourbon oak cubes to secondary.

The only thing that matters is that you like it. Personally I don't often like super high gravity beers mainly because they have too high of a FG.
 
Posting your full recipe may be beneficial information for us to help you out. Sometimes the recipe can dictate a high FG if it was heavy handed in unfermentables.

Another strategy you could employ is to use say a pound of table sugar. The table sugar will thin there beer out a little, though obviously kicking up the ABV.
 
I don't think I've read this - just an idea. I believe there can be two possible causes for high FG - mash issues and fermentation issues. Mash issues would mean too many unfermentables - fermentation issues would be yeast health, fermentation temp, etc. I think excess unfermentables would be helped by alpha amylase, but fermentation issues wouldn't. I'd like to hear other opinions.
 
OG of 1.100 (5 gl). Fermented at 64 degrees. Bumped temp to 70 degrees for the 4th week. Went to rack to secondary last night and my gravity reading was 1.034.



Cheers!


I'll admit that I did not read all of the responses. But 1.034 sounds about right. What did your software say?
That's a good 8.6% ABV (if I'm doing my math right).

There may be a lot of Unfermentable sugar or the yeast might be stressed. But for such a high OG, a FG of 1.034 seems perfectly okay.

What is the recipe?
 
Those dark malt extracts are not known for high fermentability. Chances are 1.034 may be your FG...

...unless you follow @wingnutbrew advice and add amylase and a little sugar. A little stir with the back end of your stirring spoon will help to bring the yeast back into suspension.

Use good sanitation when handling your beer.

I just saw you fermented at 64F, which is great! But when it slowed down, did you bring the temps up a bit to keep the yeast going? A slight drop in temp at that point may put the yeast into dormancy and stall your beer, especially at lower temps. I had a 1.090 old ale on S-04 end up at 1.030 for that reason.
 
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Thanks for all of the great responses. I did bump the temp up to 70 after krausen dropped and visible fermentation stopped
 
Adding extra enzymes in fermenter can make for some unpredictable results. That can dry out a beer horribly, from what I've heard.

Adding a simple sugar probably isn't going to do much to encourage the yeast to keep working on the more complex sugars. It could dry it out a bit more, though.

Time should help out a lot. Next time consider an extra aeration at 12-18 hours post yeast pitch.
 
I probably just need to pull the trigger and purchase an oxygenation system. I've heard of aerating post yeast pitch. Aren't there negative effects of introducing oxygen after fermentation has begun? I had active fermentation within 8 hours.
 
Ended up racking to secondary at 1.034. Will see what 3 months does.

Why move to a secondary? What did you put it in, a glass carboy? If so, it should be filled to 1-2" under the bung.

I probably just need to pull the trigger and purchase an oxygenation system. I've heard of aerating post yeast pitch. Aren't there negative effects of introducing oxygen after fermentation has begun? I had active fermentation within 8 hours.

You can re-oxygenate within 12 hours from pitching yeast. 18 hours is even possible. The yeast is in her lag phase during that time, especially in higher gravity beers. During this time it's multiplying, and hasn't started to produce alcohol yet. This is only recommended for high gravity beers to eek some extra vitality out of the relatively huge pitch of yeast, which may have used up all oxygen reserves before it's grown to its optimum size.

Once alcohol is present, you risk oxidizing it with a new O2 injection.
 
Up until the time krausen is at its peak it should be safe to aerate. In their Yeast book White & Zainasheff say that with big beers they recommend aerating again at 12-18 hours after yeast is pitched (or after fermentation becomes visible maybe, I'm not sure). They recommend using pure oxygen, but I think I'd only use it for the first aeration and (IMHO) definitely only for things as strong as barleywines, strong ales, and doppelbocks.

I've heard that at that point the yeast have probably gone through a cell division and could use a little more oxygen to do things like strengthen cell walls, and so they'll get whatever oxygen they can before it has much of a chance to interact with other things that can lead to oxidized flavors.

You certainly don't want to aerate again after krausen has finished.
 
I moved from a six gallon to a five gallon glass carboy for 3 month aging before bottling. I thought transfer to secondary was necessary for lengthy aging. There is significant headspace. I've aged two other beers this way with no noticeable effects. Is this an incorrect method?
 
I moved from a six gallon to a five gallon glass carboy for 3 month aging before bottling. I thought transfer to secondary was necessary for lengthy aging. There is significant headspace. I've aged two other beers this way with no noticeable effects. Is this an incorrect method?

The headspace isn't great, but otherwise this is fine. I brewed with a friend of mine and he put the barleywine in a carboy for 5 months with a lot of headspace, and I think it was even in sunlight for parts of the day. At bottling it still tasted fine. I should really try a bottle now that it has been carbonated before I try to use that as an example.

But I have had a couple other strong stouts that sat in secondary for a couple months, they turn out fine. There is some debate as to if secondary improves the beer, but if you are good with your sanitation and you transfer it without aerating then you really shouldn't be harming anything either.
 
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