Joker_on_Jack
Well-Known Member
Yes, I have done a search on this and I haven't found anyone with the same issue. (got that out of the way)
I brewed my Russian Imperial in October, when I was buying my supplies they didn't have the yeast I wanted so I got talked into WY1098 (ABV tolerance of 10% on WYeast page). Not thinking anything of it, I hit 1.125 on brew day and pitched a 3L starter. After 2 month primary I ended up at 1.040 FG (11.5%), it tasted really good and didn't ferment any further over the next 1/2 month so I moved to 2 month secondary. Then I bottled with the calculated corn sugar addition not thinking anything about it.
Of course, when I opened on last weekend to see how things were going there was nothing in the way of carbonation and I could taste the corn sugar in the background. Now I know that I am 1.5%ish above the fermentation limit of the yeast, but can there be anything left in these buggers? I am really hesitant to pop the bottles open and add a high alcohol tolerance yeast because of the really high FG that I had and the fact that I added sugar on top of it (sounds like a recipe for bottle bombs or over carbonated RIS). Now I know that time can really help on these and it has only been 1.5 months since I bottled, plus my house has been pretty consistently in the 66F range so getting these into higher temps may help out. But, has anyone pushed yeast this far beyond its Alcohol tolerance limit or am I just dreaming that it will come back to life? And if it wont, what is my best course of action, trying to find a yeast with just the right Alcohol tolerance to get me some carbonation without overdoing it?
Sorry for the long winded question but I really don't want to mess up 5 Gal of RIS.
I brewed my Russian Imperial in October, when I was buying my supplies they didn't have the yeast I wanted so I got talked into WY1098 (ABV tolerance of 10% on WYeast page). Not thinking anything of it, I hit 1.125 on brew day and pitched a 3L starter. After 2 month primary I ended up at 1.040 FG (11.5%), it tasted really good and didn't ferment any further over the next 1/2 month so I moved to 2 month secondary. Then I bottled with the calculated corn sugar addition not thinking anything about it.
Of course, when I opened on last weekend to see how things were going there was nothing in the way of carbonation and I could taste the corn sugar in the background. Now I know that I am 1.5%ish above the fermentation limit of the yeast, but can there be anything left in these buggers? I am really hesitant to pop the bottles open and add a high alcohol tolerance yeast because of the really high FG that I had and the fact that I added sugar on top of it (sounds like a recipe for bottle bombs or over carbonated RIS). Now I know that time can really help on these and it has only been 1.5 months since I bottled, plus my house has been pretty consistently in the 66F range so getting these into higher temps may help out. But, has anyone pushed yeast this far beyond its Alcohol tolerance limit or am I just dreaming that it will come back to life? And if it wont, what is my best course of action, trying to find a yeast with just the right Alcohol tolerance to get me some carbonation without overdoing it?
Sorry for the long winded question but I really don't want to mess up 5 Gal of RIS.