Need help drying out a stout.

[BradTheGeek]

Need a little advice here. I made an extract/steeped grain stout (intended to be very dark and strong, around imperial style but aged with jack barrel chips).

It started as a kit that I modified, I don't have the recipe handy but can get it if needed. I was aiming for 8-9% abv. OG was 1.081. There was malodextrin in the recipe for some residual sweetness.

Yeast was US-04, rehydrated in hot water, then added a some cooled wort during the boil to get it started on some sugars. It was very active, I had a very short lag time and vigorous start to fermentation.

I let it sit in primary for 2 weeks @63-65F. Today I put the jack chips into secondary and racked, pulling a sample for gravity measurement. As a side note I used a very old (as in from the 80s-90s, bought at a yard sale with my kegerator) spare hydrometer as I broke my main one while sanitizing. It could be incorrect as the paper core may have slid with age. It does measure 1.0 in water.

The sample measured 1.030, for only 6.8ABV. The sample tasted good for so young a beer, but was definitely sweet. Being my first beer with malodexterin, that could be all it is, but if there are fermentables in there I want to dry it out.

My plan is to go to LHBS today or tomorrow get a new hydrometer and some yeast. Pull a sample and see if the initial measurement was correct.

What would you recommend to dry it out without changing the character too much? I am thinking Chanpagne yeast, or maybe EC-1118. I read that nottingham may be a good choice too.

I also have in my fridge already the following:
BRY-97
Abbaye
Nottingham
wyeast 3333 German Wheat
Wyeast 1968 London ESB
Cider house select

Also, if I pitch into my secondary with the jack barrel chips, could that cause issues?

 

[secondbase]

Nottingham would be a good choice. Did you take a gravity reading before racking to secondary? It's possible with a SG that high and a lower fermenting temperature that it wasn't finished fermenting. I would rehydrate the notty and see if that helps. With extracts, there are always some unfermentables. Let us know how this turns out.

 

[ThunderpantsBrewing]

I usually dry out my stouts with a towel. Ba-dum ching!

Anyway, the champagne yeast should do the trick if there is anything fermentable in there. Otherwise, it might be a good batch to put some brett into for a good time. That would certainly dry it out.

 

[BradTheGeek]

I usually dry out my stouts with a towel. Ba-dum ching!

Anyway, the champagne yeast should do the trick if there is anything fermentable in there. Otherwise, it might be a good batch to put some brett into for a good time. That would certainly dry it out.

Brett may dry it out, but i am not looking for a saison or belgian flavor.

 

[EO74]

Amylase enzyme might help?

 

[BradTheGeek]

Not sure amylase will help. I have never used it, but my understanding is that is mainly used in AG brewing to help break down starches in to sugars from a less than optimal mash (mashing produces its own alpha and beta amylase).

Since this is mostly extract would it really have any starches left for amylase to breakdown? I think this may just be the yeast giving out but I am not sure.

 

[EO74]

It has been used to dryout beers in the secondary Sri Lanka has a couple recipes that use it in the secondary on here I've never used it in an extract recipe but I can't see that being any different when it's at the point of going into the secondary? you can also use beano but that will dry it out way too much I think?

 

[EO74]

If you look up miller light (really triple hopped) in light hybrid recipes its discussed in the threads!

 

[DarthCitra]

Ive heard of pulling a cup or so of the beer mixing in a pound of corn sugar and throwing it back into the fermenter. Reagitate and warm up the yeast to kickstart fermentation. It most likely will dry out your beer, raise the abv and not change the flavor since you wont be using another type of yeast.

 

[BradTheGeek]

So, I boiled some water and rehydrated the notty. I also boiled some corn sugar (a primer pack from a kit, 5oz). I added both. After a day there was slow activity. then for the past three there has been moderate activity.

the thinking was to give the notty some simple sugars that the US-04 had probably converted already to kick it off and give it a good start on the ones that the 04 had left. It seems to be working.

I do not know how to calculate how much ABG/OG adding 5oz of sugar in the middle did, but once it slows I will sample and see how low it is getting.

given the activity I am seeing I thing the notty has done far more than covert the corn sugar, so my hopes are up.

 

[paperairplane]

Next time, leave it in primary longer and after the initial 4-5 days, warm it up a little to clean up.

I am not a big fan of messing with beers after the initial inoculation other than dry hop.

With extract and malto, on a beer that big, I wouldn't expect to get much below 125- 130anyway.

 

[BradTheGeek]

Welp, it dried out another 5 or 6 points to 1.025 or 1.024. Not quite where I wanted it, but that is all the yeast will do!

Thanks for the help!