Help requested with my 1st high gravity beer

[wizardofwoz]

I'm looking for advice on how to save my 1st big brew.

I tried my hand at an Scaldis extract clone (OG of 1.12) on 2/13
I don't have the recipe on hand but I think it was around 10-12lb of extra light DME.

Due to timing constraints and being a newb I only pitched 1 smack pack of WY 1388XL. Considering this is supossed to have a FP of 1.02 I severly underpitched.

By the end of February it was still only at 1.072 and not moving down much so on 3/6 I pitched a pack of nottingham (rehydrated)

Fast forward to last week (3/20) and yesterday (3/27) and I received two identical readings of 1.06

While the beer is still slightly sweet its quite drinkable but my question is what can I do to continue to drop the gravity at this point?
would pitching some champaigne yeast help or and additional pack of notty?

The other question is since I'm not at my FG if I were to bottle, even considering the stable gravity readings from the last two weeks, am I at risk of bottle bombs?
I've been in the primary for about 6 weeks now but I'm afraid to move it into secondary for fear of losing what active yeast I have.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[tmurph6]

What temperature are you fermenting at? It may not hurt to rouse the yeast a little bit and see what happens. Maybe upping the temperature a little bit on the higher end of the yeast could kick start things again.

 

[wizardofwoz]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I've rousted the yeast twice now... once when I added the notty and again one week later (1 week ago) temperatures have been fluctuating between mid 60's to low 70's.

After I added the notty I had about a week at around 72/73 but earlier today I checked and it was down to 64... I'm at the mercy of the house temperature. I thought about buying a heating element but considering I had almost a week at 72 and it didn't drop at all I'm unsure if that would help at this point

 

[Rockape66]

I'm no expert by any means, but with the amount of extract you used your FG sounds right on. If you are worried; go ahead and rack it into a secondary and see where it is in a month. As long as you don't splash it around much you shouldn't get oxidation. If it remains stable go ahead and bottle normally.

 

[dcp27]

while the FG is stable, thats nowhere near complete unless you scorched the hell out of your extract. you're only at 50% attenuation, and I wouldn't risk having the yeast decide they'd like to go back to eating. I would make a highly aerated starter with more of the 1388 and pitch it while its at high krausen, that should get it going more. Unless you used a lot of sugar, I don't see this getting to an FG of 1.02, but 1.03 is within reason.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

The challenge now is that there's already quite a bit of alcohol in there that's not good for the yeast. If you don't like it as is, then it's dead to you unless you try something drastic. If it were mine, I'd do like dcp27 has advised and make an activated starter that was designed for the original beer (to accomodate the alcohol content). Take 3-4 packets of the dry yeast, rehydrate and pitch it into a 2L starter at 1040. You're just looking to get it rolling to krausen and then pitch to your beer.

Problem is that you may just have a stuck ferment that will never recover...

 

[wizardofwoz]

Thanks for the advice everyone
The beer tastes fine as is..slightly sweet but completely drinkable.
while further attenuation would be great my largest concern is bottle bombs.

Regarding pitching more yeast when you say pitch at high krausen should I use the entire contents of the starter or do a cold crash?

Also should I pitch the liquid and the dry at the same time?

Finally would making a starter with some dry champagne yeast accomplish the same thing? I ask because I have some on hand.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Well, I was saying to take the dry yeast, rehydrate it and make a starter with it. Not a true starter that you're trying to grow your yeast count significantly, just one to get the yeast churning. If you have some more of the DME, just use that. You can use whatever size you want as long as there is some DME in there for the yeast to work on. Make it smaller if you're worried about the taste of the beer being 'off'.

Once the yeast are showing activity, swirl the yeast and pour the entire thing into your beer. Just remember, this may not do a damn thing to your beer except make it less drinkable. Of course, it may drive down the FG like you want to do.

 

[dcp27]

Thanks for the advice everyone
The beer tastes fine as is..slightly sweet but completely drinkable.
while further attenuation would be great my largest concern is bottle bombs.

Regarding pitching more yeast when you say pitch at high krausen should I use the entire contents of the starter or do a cold crash?

Also should I pitch the liquid and the dry at the same time?

Finally would making a starter with some dry champagne yeast accomplish the same thing? I ask because I have some on hand.

for this you'd want the yeast to be active since you're adding them to a harsh environment so you want to pitch the whole starter while its actively fermenting. I would just use the liquid yeast, dry yeasts aren't meant to be used in starters, it messes up the reserves that the manufacturers put into the packs. besides, you already tried the notty and it didn't really get you anywhere (which is surprising).

Also, the champagne yeast won't help. IIRC it can't eat some of the more complex sugars that the ale yeast can. WLP099 is a different story, but you're not at high enough of an ABV where that'd be necessary. it couldn't hurt though if you want to make a starter with that instead

Here's some reading for the next time you do a big brew:
http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.htm
http://beerdujour.com/Howtobrewabigbeer.htm