Would You Dump Cone On Slow Fermentation?

[pinemarten]

I have a painfully slow fermentation going in a unitank with a massive (9lb/Bbl) dryhop charge. The fermentation is slow due to an under pitch of Imperial Juice (The starter was doing its best impression of a volcano. There were significant losses). The hops have now been in the tank for 11 days and I’m getting pretty concerned about having an expensive glass of lawn clippings once it’s done. Crashing and dumping would get plenty of the hop matter out, but it would take the yeast along with it and I’m still about 7 gravity points from where I want to end up. I’m guessing most of the hop matter is down in the cone and hopeful some of the yeast that’s still on the job is floating about. If you were in this situation, would you leave the temp alone and dump what’s in the cone?

 

[VikeMan]

Hmmm, before doing anything, are you sure the FG you're looking for is attainable? If you post your grain bill, mash temp, mash length, (and yeast strain (Imperial Juice)), I'd be happy to provide an opinion.

That aside, I think flocculated yeast at the bottom of your fermenter are doing little or nothing regarding attenuation. I could be wrong, but I've never seen anything scholarly to suggest they do anything significant.

 

[pinemarten]

Thanks @VikeMan

The recipe came from a pro who scaled it to 5g. I scaled it up to 12 in BeerSmith. BS, of course, has a terrible app or I’d paste it here but the gist is below.

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters)
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
OG: 1.083
FG: 1.016

GRAIN BILL
11 lb (5 kg) Pilsner
2.1 lb (936 g) unmalted wheat
1.6 lb (709 g) flaked oats
12 oz (340 g) acidulated malt
5 oz (142 g) Crystal 40

30 min mash at 149. Fly sparge 168. 75 minute boil. Pitch at 65 and let free rise to 70. Hold for one day. Day two free rise to 73 and dry hop. It’s supposed to reach 1.016 in 9-10 days. Sounds quick but I figured 73 would speed it along.

I generally don’t bother with dumping anymore. With most of my beers I think they taste better left on the yeast. With this one, my concern is too much time with the hops. I think they have probably dropped into and dumping might get them off the beer but I became a much better brewer when I accepted I don’t know anything at all and should always ask the crowd.

 

[VikeMan]

With that grain bill, mash temp and length and yeast strain, for an OG of 1.083 BrewCipher predicts an FG of 1.019. The Oats and the C-40 are not very fermentable, and the short mash also limits the overalll fermentability. What's your gravity currently?

 

[pinemarten]

With that grain bill, mash temp and length and yeast strain, for an OG of 1.083 BrewCipher predicts an FG of 1.019. The Oats and the C-40 are not very fermentable, and the short mash also limits the overalll fermentability. What's your gravity currently?

Thanks for checking the recipe @VikeMan! At the time of the post, the gravity had been hovering at 1.022. Interesting to see BrewCipher predicting a different FG.

Funny enough I was washing the dog over the weekend and got a YouTube notification the Genus Brewing live stream was starting up. I popped it on and typed the same question in the live chat and they answered it right there on the show! They said after that long on the dry hops getting the hops out should be the top priority and to dump warm post haste. I saw loads of hop matter in the dump bucket. Dumping it without crashing did not take all the yeast out. Over two more days it dropped two additional points to finish at 1.020. I’m thinking disturbing the cone might have created the happy accident of rousing the last remaining yeast soldiers.

 

[VikeMan]

Thanks for checking the recipe @VikeMan! At the time of the post, the gravity had been hovering at 1.022. Interesting to see BrewCipher predicting a different FG.

BeerSmith doesn't take the makeup of the grain bill into consideration when predicting attenuation. I'd expect a different FG prediction most of the time. Sometimes pretty significantly different.