Imperial fermentation

[maynardtl8]

Designed a recipe for an Imperial english IPA with a calc OG of 1.092 and an estimated abv of 8.91%. Will pitching a starter be enough to finish the job or will the high abv cause a stuck fermentation without a champagne yeast?

 

[bluemoose]

Depends on the yeast and process. Many yeasts will go that high without a problem. Make sure you put to O2 to it.

A bit more info gets you a bit better answer. What are you using for yeast? What type of aeration? At what temp will you be fermenting? How big a starter?

 

[maynardtl8]

Im using British Ale 1098 in a roughly 1000mL starter. The wort is aerated by a vigorous pouring back and forth between my brew pot and primary bucket which always seemed to work really well. Fermentation will kept at around 72*F with a secondary transfer after the second week.

 

[joshjv]

I would probably shoot for a bigger starter. I've used that yeast several times on a lower gravity brew (~1.06-7) w about a 1L starter. It worked good, but given your extra gravity, I personally would use more yeasties.

and like moose said, make sure to get lots of o2 in there!

 

[prpromin]

Also, for a beer that big (or any beer using that yeast), I'd keep fermentation temps in the low-mid 60s. 72 is the top of that yeast's range. Figure the actual wort temp is going to be higher. You might end up with some flavors you don't want.

 

[maynardtl8]

I almost forgot about the yeasts range. Yeah 72 does seem kind of high. It wont be an issue finding a way to keep it around 68. Thanks for the tips guys!