BIG Beer, should I take some extra steps?

[Grimster]

So I made a 2 can 5 gallon batch of Munton's Bock, and guess I sorta misjudged my addons. Ended up with a SG of 1.110!

I hydrated and started a packet of Nottingham and one of the packs that came with the Bock and it was nice and foamy and looking good. It's in the basement where the temps stay in the mid to low 60's for fermenting.

Just let it sit for 3 weeks and don't fret? Or are there steps I need to take to get this fermented down completely?

 

[toman8r]

What kind of yeast came with the bock kit? Here is the description from Munton's site:

Bock Beer - A dark lager popularised in the Bavarian region of Germany. This beer has all of the character of lager with the body of a dark beer. Serve ice-cold. OG 1040° to 1044°.

It sounds like it comes with a lager yeast, which is not good given that your temperatures are in the low 60s. If it is a lager yeast and you continue to ferment at those temps, you will likely end up with some unwanted esters, diacetyl, and other off-flavors. Also, using two cans should only get you a gravity of 1.080-1.088 based on what the Munton's site says. You may have an inaccurate gravity reading, possibly from topping up with water and incomplete mixing.
If the yeast that came with the kit was indeed a lager yeast, I guess you have a few options here. You can leave it as is and hope the production of off-flavors is not too bad. You will have the Notty fermenting the beer as well, so it is possible you could be fine. Or, you could cool it down to the low 50s and pitch some more lager yeast. The Notty should be inactive at those temps, leaving you with not enough lager yeast to get the job done properly.

Actually in this thread people report Nottingham working well in the low/mid 50s. So I think your best option is to do that - try to ferment in the mid 50s so both yeasts will be active. That should minimize off-flavors produced during fermentation. Consider doing a diacetyl rest near the end of fermentation if necessary.

 

[Trevor57]

Bock = lager. regardless of the og, it's going to taste weird fermenting at 65

 

[XXguy]

I've never seen a kit where the yeast under the lid was a lager yeast. Even IF the kit said it was a lager.

You probably did the right thing pitching extra yeast & rehydrating, but I'd say let it ferment more than just 3 weeks. I'd say something like 6-8 weeks for that high of an OG.

What was your recipe & add-ons? You really would need to add a bunch of sugar or DME to get the OG up that high, even with 2 cans of extract.

 

[Grimster]

Well I didn't really measure but I added honey, a half a bag of brown sugar, a pound of amber DME, and about a pound of plain old sugar. I was shooting for a high 7 to low 8% potential yield guess I overshot a bit. Yeah the kit instructions didn't mention lager temps, hmm.

 

[broadbill]

I'd just see what happens. Let her go 3 weeks and taking another gravity reading. If it stalls and stills have a high gravity, then take a look at some recommendations for kick-starting a stalled fermentation (Search should give you several threads).

Sounds like you were looking for a high alcohol beer and I think you are going to get it. Its probably not going to taste like either a lager or a bock and it will be whatever it will be. Good luck!

 

[broadbill]

BTW...I ran your #s through mr. malty and it sounds like you might have underpitched:

336 Billion yeast cell req'd.
19g of dry yeast
3.7 packages of 5g packets
1.6 packages of 11g packets.

Hope this helps.

 

[Grimster]

Yep guess I'll just let her go and watch the process and when it quits fermenting if the FG looks too low look into kick starting, if it ferments down to an acceptable level then bottle and wait a month and try one.

Worst case scenario I end up with some undrinkable mess my buddy can distill into something interesting, right?

 

[Grimster]

BTW...I ran your #s through mr. malty and it sounds like you might have underpitched:

336 Billion yeast cell req'd.
19g of dry yeast
3.7 packages of 5g packets
1.6 packages of 11g packets.

Hope this helps.

Actually isn't the nottingham 11g and the yeast that came with it a 5g? Oh yeah probably 4 grams short, I'll hydrate and start the other Munton's packet and add it tonight unless someone has a reason not to?

 

[iron_city_ap]

The book I'm reading right now has a chapter on Big Beers that I haven't gotten to yet. From glancing at it, it looks like the mininum maturation time in the recipes start at 4-6 months minimum. It might not be ready after a month.