20% abv beer, 100%fail.

[ReverseApacheMaster]

Champagne yeast will get you up to around 18% if you pitch a big starter at high krausen (so you don't need to aerate the beer and oxidize). The champagne yeast might even be pushed up to 20% or so.

If champagne yeast won't work get a solid brett strain. Brett has been known to go to 24% but you will have to be willing to let that beer sit for 12-18 months to fully attenuate.

Otherwise just dilute with water boiled with some hops until fermentation starts back up.

 

[Homercidal]

I've seen ads for Turbo Yeast that claims more than 20%...

 

[cwheel]

Have you raised the temperature? This often helps yeast get a little kick start. Something isn't adding up - that WLP099 is awesome. Don't see how it would stall at 1.078 with a big starter of that.

 

[November]

Sounds like you made a good base for BBQ sauce.

 

[emjay]

Is this something that amylase emzyme and a big new yeast starter can fix?

Jesus, no. Outside of the mash, it's rarely a good option to begin with, but when the cause of the yeast stalling is that it's pushing the limits of alcohol tolerance, it actually can ONLY make things worse (an even sweeter beer with the yeast still stalled).

This clearly isn't an issue of fermentability, so why are people even thinking of amylase?

Have you raised the temperature? This often helps yeast get a little kick start. Something isn't adding up - that WLP099 is awesome. Don't see how it would stall at 1.078 with a big starter of that.

Where are you seeing that he used a big starter of WLP099? I don't see him so much as mentioning the yeast at all...

 

[bryan567]

I did use a big active starter of 099 after the first 4 days of fermentation.

After reviewing your responses I'm going to give saccharomyces one more shot. I'm going to do a 2L starter at around 1.06 with 2 vials of 099 and let it completely finish then cold crash and pitch slurry into 2 gal of similar grist at 1.078. At high Krausen i will combine with fail beer and cross my fingers. Starter and mini beer will get massive doses of 02. I don't want to add 02 to base fail beer and oxidize it. Mini beer will also get one more vial of ultra ferm because **** it.

If all that business doesn't work then I'll go with my original plan and dilute down to 9% abv, pitch massive bugs and forget about it for a year or so.

Wish me luck.

 

[Zamial]

Wish me luck.

I will do 1 better! I chose to revise my opinion. I was reading what your plan is and I really liked it. I walked away and then it hit me...

Make a 2L Starter as you intend, Same with the 2 Gallon "mini batch", Instead of pitching or racking the "fail beer" to the 2G batch and hoping it works, why not add a small amount and step up the "fail beer" into the 2G batch while it is at high krausen? you would still need to siphon it over to the 2G batch but If you add (I am guessing at quantity and times at this point...FYI) 1/2 gallon then wait 6-10 hours and add in 1 gallon; then in 6-10 hours add in 2 gallons; then wait 6-10 hours later add the rest. The entire time keeping the 2G batch at high krausen until it becomes a 7 gallon batch. This assumes you have a big enough fermenter on hand to do this...

 

[bryan567]

Holy crap that's a good idea. Thanks! I will do that. The fail beer is only 4 gallons so it should fit in my fermenter.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I will do 1 better! I chose to revise my opinion. I was reading what your plan is and I really liked it. I walked away and then it hit me...

Make a 2L Starter as you intend, Same with the 2 Gallon "mini batch", Instead of pitching or racking the "fail beer" to the 2G batch and hoping it works, why not add a small amount and step up the "fail beer" into the 2G batch while it is at high krausen? you would still need to siphon it over to the 2G batch but If you add (I am guessing at quantity and times at this point...FYI) 1/2 gallon then wait 6-10 hours and add in 1 gallon; then in 6-10 hours add in 2 gallons; then wait 6-10 hours later add the rest. The entire time keeping the 2G batch at high krausen until it becomes a 7 gallon batch. This assumes you have a big enough fermenter on hand to do this...

That is by far the best idea I've read.

Also, 1600+ posts in a year and a half? Well done

 

[usfmikeb]

That is a pretty good idea...

 

[emjay]

1,600 posts in 1.5 years is well-done? Does that mean I win some sort of prize?

Maybe a Carboy Cleaner!

It's definitely a creative idea though.

But I'm still not sure why the OP keeps saying he might/will "dilute and add bugs", in a manner that implies that the bugs are going to help anything.

Again, this is an issue of alcohol tolerance, not fermentability, so if the bugs manage to further attenuate the beer after diluting, then so will pretty much any strain of brewer's yeast. Since this wasn't originally intended to be a sour beer, and since it's not going to help in any way with the current problem, then the best bet would just be to pitch more of the *original* yeast strain, to get a slightly less massive version of the beer he intended all along.

In fact, once he dilutes the beer, there's a very good chance that the yeast already in there will start back up again and do it anyways. If so, not only will it finish attenuating before the bugs can possibly have any appreciable effect, but unless he dilutes it to AT LEAST 4 - more likely, 5 - times his current volume (which isn't much better than dumping, IMO) then the ABV will once again be pushed up too high for the bugs, before they even really start doing anything! Which obviously makes them an absolute waste.

Don't get me wrong, it's not impossible to get bugs to work their magic here. I love sours and brew a lot of them, and I definitely don't want to discourage it, so if you really want to try and turn this into a sour beer, then by all means, go for it... there are ways it can be done. But don't just pitch bugs only because you think they might help fix the current problem, because diluting should allow *any* yeast to work, allowing you to still end up with a beer that's not too different from what you were intending (just a fair bit lighter). In fact, you can end up with a beer that's pretty damn close, if not virtually spot-on, by taking the resulting "lighter" beer, and freeze-distilling it to 20% ABV - which would basically just mean that you only *temporarily* added water to it in order to let the yeast finish the job, and then removed it once it was no longer needed. Of course, unless you like flat beer, you'd need to be able to force-carbonate it.

 

[oceanbrew]

What about adding amylase to break the maltotrioses down, then a Champagne yeast to eat up those sugars? Wouldn't this dry it right up?

 

[Zamial]

What about adding amylase to break the maltotrioses down, then a Champagne yeast to eat up those sugars? Wouldn't this dry it right up?

This thread was plenty dried up already. Put the tome down and step away from the graveyard.

 

[oceanbrew]

Have you tried after your beer yeast ferments adding ec 1118 with some sugar to your secondary increase your abv?