Stuck Imperial IPA

[jazzyeric]

Extract imperial ipa
1.095 OG
Ferment 69F degrees.
Wyeast American Ale yeast smack pack (no starter... being a noob is a *****)

This thing fermented off the hook for quite a while, about a month in it was down to about 1.040, about a month from THEN its been at 1.037 or so for quite some time. I would just rack it and roll but the things just way too damn sweet. Any way to bring 'er down a few points? The guy at the local brew store (well, 2 hours away) told me to stir it and get the yeast up and moving. Did that a few times randomly. Not much. She's been in a carboy the last couple of weeks and cleared out really well. what say you?

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Try some champagne yeast. It can handle a high alcahol content and should bring it down for you.

 

[Calder]

You can try champagne yeast, but I suspect the initial yeast has eaten most of the simple sugars and the champagne will not do too much.

Since you didn't make a starter, the yeast was probably stressed, did what they could and gave up. probably a better direction would be to make a smaller beer, rack that to secondary after 2 to 3 weeks and rack this onto that yeast cake.

 

[jazzyeric]

Yeah i've got kind of an amber hop ale brewin right now, i was thinking about that. if i repitched it onto that cake should i siphon gently onto the cake then give a few swirls? or should i agitate it quite a bit to get some oxygen mixed in?

if i did champagne yeast, would i need to make a starter for that too, since its already at 1.037? or just sprinkle (or pour if its liquid) into the beer?

thanks

 

[jazzyeric]

anyone have experience doing either of these?

 

[Calder]

If you rack onto the cake, try to minimize oxygen. Do it gently. The yeast will probably scrub any oxygen you have in there, but you are not going for reproduction at this stage, you are just trying to introduce lots of yeast.

Champagne. Just sprinkle on top. don't aerate. The yeast will search out any sugars it can ferment.

 

[maltbarleyhops]

im with calder on this. sprinkle a pack of Montrachet in and DONT aerate, agitate or stir.

 

[jazzyeric]

thanks guys, i appreciate the help. ill let you know how it turns out

 

[jazzyeric]

pretty wild... just, for the complete and utter hell of it/ see if i should dump it out and free up a primary, checked the beer out.... and crazily enough it was actually down to 1.011. so thats like 11%, tasted about a spoonful of it and it tastes like it should, a strong ass IPA. so this really has shown me the virtue of patience. so this thing is like 5 months in the making at least. im shocked and very happy. thanks again for the suggestions