1.150 OG Scotch Ale down to 1.050 - Hold on for one more day?

[skoodog]

Pardon the terrible Wilson Phillips pun, but quick rundown:

Did a brewday about a month and a half ago doing this recipe. This was easily my best brew yet, but I greatly underestimated my efficiency and ended up with a hydrometer-measured reading of 1.150 going into the fermenter.

Given the size of this monster, I let it sit in the ferm chamber at 65 for a good month, pulled a sample two weeks ago at 1.070. Tasted pretty green so left it for another couple weeks and pulled another reading at 1.05 - now tasting pretty much exactly like an uncarbonated scotch ale similar to Old Chub.

I'm planning to split this batch across a keg and a 2.5G bourbon barrel for 6 months of aging, so I wanted a little community advice on how to proceed - do I give it more time and see if I can get it at least into that "beer range" FG (~1.030), or just go with it and rack to keg/barrel now?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[imasickboy]

Wilson Phillips was mostly fun to look at, and the harmonized well, so you are definitely forgiven.

Having said that, I'd consider building up a big starter of the same yeast strain, and pitching more, just to see if it'll help bring it down. Since it sounds like you are in no hurry, the worst that can happen is it all drops out after a couple weeks.

 

[ChelisHubby]

I would give it a week more, HMMM 13% i would think this should age well.

 

[RedlegEd]

I'm planning to split this batch across a keg and a 2.5G bourbon barrel for 6 months of aging, so I wanted a little community advice on how to proceed - do I give it more time and see if I can get it at least into that "beer range" FG (~1.030), or just go with it and rack to keg/barrel now?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Wilson Phillips was mostly fun to look at, and the harmonized well, so you are definitely forgiven.

Having said that, I'd consider building up a big starter of the same yeast strain, and pitching more, just to see if it'll help bring it down. Since it sounds like you are in no hurry, the worst that can happen is it all drops out after a couple weeks.

I don't know that you'd have to build a starter, but if you used US-05 per the original recipe, you may want to rehydrate another packet and pitch it. US-05 is a great yeast, but the "rule of thumb" data below seems to indicate you probably underpitched, especially if you had an SG of 1.150. Ed


Single pitching for a <=1.070 will ferment out to a 1.010-1.005
Single pitching for a > 1.100 will get you 1.040-1.030
Double pitching for a > 1.100 will get you 1.020-1.010

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I found this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=214387&page=2that suggests you might be at your ceiling for US-05. When I plug the numbers in, I get between 13-16 percent ABV depending on whether I use the standard or high grav formula. Since your beer is clearly high gravity, my guess is you are up against the high end.

 

[RedlegEd]

I found this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=214387&page=2that suggests you might be at your ceiling for US-05. When I plug the numbers in, I get between 13-16 percent ABV depending on whether I use the standard or high grav formula. Since your beer is clearly high gravity, my guess is you are up against the high end.

Good point! I didn't think about the ABV ceiling of US-05. Maybe @skoodog can pitch some Pacman, White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast, or a neutral champagne yeast to get the FG down some more, assuming there are still fermentable sugars. It seems that an FG of 1.050 might be a little too sweet, even after aging in a keg. Ed

 

[skoodog]

Thanks so much for all the interest on my post! Also apologies - I forgot to mention that i pitched two packets of US-05, so there was lots of little fellas to crap out some nice warming alcohol for the winter months.

I pulled a reading yesterday and it got down to 1.030! This is easily the strongest beer I've ever made and I'm really really impressed with how attenuating US-05 is - I am too lazy/bad at making yeast starters so I may just pitch in an extra US-05 packet with my next brews that need a little more oomph to get through those fermentables. The only complaint I have is that the yeast character compared to other beers isn't really there...which for a scotch ale is what I want, but other brews I might want to go another direction.

Currently rehydrating my barrel and tomorrow it gets transferred after cold crashing...the vanilla and oaky odors wafting through the air from the barrel are really making me optimistic for how this one turns out!

 

[BarrelAgedForrest]

Cool to hear this attenuated well! I was going to add that technically a wee heavy finishing in the 50s is still to style though to sweet for some. I just brewed my Wee heavy this weekend and was excited to be at 1.108... 1.150 sounds freaking nuts. How the hell did you get such great extraction?! I used 2 packs of Nottingham so hopefully they attenuate well. I'm really hoping I get into the upper 20s or lower 30s

 

[BarrelAgedForrest]

As an update to my comment those 2 packs or notty got me to 1.019. 13 percent abv. Pretty excited to see how it turns out.

 

[ChelisHubby]

Notty is a beast and it is a hungry beast!