What path to take to solve a high FG DIPA

[MockY]

I used a straightforward IPA recipe for a 5 gallon DIPA.

16 lb 2-row
2.5 lb Munich
1 lb C60
0.5 Acid malt

Mashed at 152 f for 60 minutes

OG: 1.080
FG: 1.021

Pitched a healthy starter of WLP007 and fermented it at 64f for 2 weeks. I have never had 007 stall or not done its job, so I was not thinking twice about it. I took a gravity reading while kegging and it ended up being 1.021. The OG was 1.080 which is lower than I intended. It is cloyingly sweet and not at all pleasant to drink. In hoped the character would change once carbed up and conditioned, but not at all. I may be so that 007 did it's job, but the result is not pleasant. But because the beer does taste good besides that, I'd like to see if I could bring it down even further.

And here are some of my ideas how to accomplish this.

• Bleed out the CO2 from the keg. Rack to carboy and pitch Champange yeast.
• Bleed out the CO2 from the keg. Rack to carboy and pitch Brett
• Brew a smaller batch IPA. Mash extremely low and long and ferment that batch with WLP090 and then blend these two beers
• Dump the beer and start from scratch

Any other ideas? And which option should I choose?

 

[m00ps]

I would add a small amount of any saison yeast. Ive started doing this with all my DIPAs and it gets them below 1.010 every time. I usually add it 2-3 days into fermentation so it doesnt impact the flavor profile too much. IM not sure champagne yeast will help since its not too great at fermenting complex sugars from malts. If your sacch yeast couldnt digest it, I doubt the champagne yeast could

That or try amylase enzymes

 

[MockY]

I would add a small amount of any saison yeast

One would think that the existing level of alcohol (7.7%) would kill any small amount of yeast. If any yeast is added, shouldn't it be a very healthy dose of it?

 

[m00ps]

Nah, most sacch yeasts are pretty tolerant of alcohol up to 10% or so. Ive seen a lot of people trying to fix stuck fermentation with Belle Saison, WY3711, or something like WLP090

 

[Arrheinous]

That looks like a lot of Crystal and Munich even for a 1x IPA.

In some cases people use 5-10% sugar to dry it out. BeerSmith says adding 1# table sugar to what you have now would only lower the FG to 1.018.

You could blend in a drier beer.

 

[Mer-man]

Since you have the option of blending in another beer, that would be a great option!

May I suggest a very low and long mash and that your fermentables be 85% 2-row and 15% sugar?

I would normally not do above 10% sugar but given that you're blending, you are not worried about strong and thin.

But in the future, consider switching out the C60 for straight up sugar. I have never seen a DIPA with so much crystal. If you listen to the Jamil show on DIPAs, plus read the BJCP guidelines, it should be lighter in body than an equivalent IPA.

WLP090 is a great choice, I just used it in a DIPA at got 85% apparent attenuation.

 

[MockY]

Yeah, I do now realize how much crystal there is. Whether I intended to have such amount or if something happened with the software when creating the recipe does not matter at this point, but to me that probably explains the high FG and the yeast certainly did its job.
With that said, I assume that no matter what yeast I pitch, nothing will happen. Maybe Brett would do something?

Blending seems to be the only option in order to save this one.

 

[Arrheinous]

Brett would take some time to work. A starter would help it go faster.

You could dry hop after to restore the hop character lost during aging.

 

[kdw2pd]

Second the saison yeast idea. I did this with a Heady Topper-ish clone that stuck at 1.02 with Conan. I pitched a 1L starter of harvested Saison DuPont yeast that took it down to 1.009.

 

[pdxal]

1.080-1.021 with 74% attenuation is decent.
In the future you could replace some of the base malt with sugar like many breweries do, mash even lower, or cut out the crystal completely.
Doubtful champagne yeast would do much. 3711 is a beast and could probably lower the gravity some more.
I hope this one turns out. The longer it takes to finish the more the hops will fade, so a renewed dry hop as mentioned above will probably be in order.

 

[MockY]

This brew was a club effort, so I'd have to pitch (pun intended) these ideas before moving forward. What's already favored is repitching something, as it requires less work and involves least amount of money.

I personally feel like going the French Saison route is the best one. Multiple people doubt there will any results from champagne yeast and I have no experience with it either.

Thanks for the input people. I will update you on what route we chose, and what the results were. Now I have to start bleeding this keg of all co2 (the beer is fully carbed) and shoved into a carboy.

 

[pdxal]

Transfer back to carboy could oxidize the beer, be careful or just finish fermentation in the keg.

 

[MockY]

After way to much debating, we bit the bullet and gently transferred it into a carboy and will pitch an active starter of French Saison 3711 tomorrow afternoon. We'll see on Monday if something happened. If not, this brew will have a party in the sink.

 

[MockY]

It's been 3 days since we pitched the 1.6 liter active starter of French Saison 3711. As predicted, this did not take off, and I consider this brew a loss. Normally I would not care all too much, but this one featured all homegrown hops, so it involved much more work than usual.

 

[Falcon3]

Even if it's sweet now, sometimes it will feel drier once you carbonate- or just carb a little higher than you might otherwise. Plus lots of dry hopping to cover the sweetness. I probably wouldn't have messed with it, and just drank it as is, and think about recipe formulation for the next batch.

 

[Arrheinous]

It's been 3 days since we pitched the 1.6 liter active starter of French Saison 3711. As predicted, this did not take off, and I consider this brew a loss. Normally I would not care all too much, but this one featured all homegrown hops, so it involved much more work than usual.

Take a gravity reading.

Maybe another way to balance out the high gravity would be to add hop extract so you've got more of a triple IPA that can mellow out the sweetness.

Is the beer at a good temperature for saison yeast?