A Monster Beer. What to do from here?

[YouHadMeAtASL]

The numbers don't add up, though--with what you posted (14 lbs of LME, 1 lb crystal 55, .7 lbs carastan in 5 gallons of beer), there's no way your OG was 1.122--even with 100% utilization of the steeping grains you wouldn't get that high, and on a typical steep you only get 40%ish utilization.

There was a hydrometer measurement error (due to topoff or bubbles or user error or something else), or you didn't make a full 5 gallons, or the actual fermentables you added were something different, or something.

I think you may be right about not making 5 gallons Sumner. We may have been a little low. Need to start marking the 5 gallon mark on the carboys.

 

[rcbishop]

wow... you guys are braver than me!

I'd personally recommend using a 1.25 inch blowoff hose. I've had a couple of the 3pc airlocks get shot into the ceiling already, even with the top removed.

 

[Amnesiac503]

wow... you guys are braver than me!

I'd personally recommend using a 1.25 inch blowoff hose. I've had a couple of the 3pc airlocks get shot into the ceiling already, even with the top removed.

we be loco ese

 

[YouHadMeAtASL]

Just took a gravity reading on it. 1.059 and still bubbling like a madman. We've pitched 2 of the Wyeast Trappist high gravity 3787. Going to pitch another one soon just to make sure we keep on fermenting through it.

 

[zgardener]

Just took a gravity reading on it. 1.059 and still bubbling like a madman. We've pitched 2 of the Wyeast Trappist high gravity 3787. Going to pitch another one soon just to make sure we keep on fermenting through it.

Sounds like a good plan (and a better beer) y'all. Wish I could try the final product!

 

[starrfish]

let 'r ride if it's still bubbling (esp w/ 3787) let it ride... if your worried about final gravity add a us05 at bottle to carb it, but other wise you"ll be fine.3787 is a beast & a half! should wake up enough to carb! I wouldn't add any more!

 

[YouHadMeAtASL]

So a bit of an update: on 3/1 before we pitched the 2 smack packs of 3787 the gravity was 1.046. We pitched them and gave it some time. Took a gravity reading today and the gravity is still 1.046.....obviously the fermentation stalled. Being relatively new to brewing and not having dealt with this issue yet is there anything we can do to restart the fermentation? Looks like our current abv would be 11.66 but we were targeting around 13%. I'm not worried about the abv so much as it being way too sweet. Thanks!

 

[Stratotankard]

You can try swirling the carboy to get your lazy yeast into suspension and moving the carboy to a slightly warmer location (not too much or you may get off flavours).

My 999 Barleywine was way overshot at ~1.165 (my scale ends at 1.150) and stalled at about 1.050. I shook it every day and put it in a warmer closet and it went down another few points. Eventually I made a gallon starter of WLP099 High Grav and pitched that. It finally gave up at 1.032 after nearly 3 months. After another 6 months it was just becoming drinkable and at a year it was good. I'm down to just 3 bottles and they last one I had a month ago was spectacular. I guess the moral here is patience is key when dealing with big beers.

Terje

 

[emjay]

Swirl the fermenter around and increase the temperature 1 degree or so per day, up to 75 or so if necessary. So much fermentation has already gone on and it's such a massively flavorful beer, that any off-flavors created at this point are going to be negligible and possibly just add a tiny bit of complexity. Drying out a beer with an increase in temperature towards the end is a very acceptable technique and since only a small fraction of presumably higher-order sugars are left, it's nothing like fermenting the whole beer too warm.

You DID severely underpitch so you might need even more, I don't really know for sure. Since it may just be that the yeast is having difficulty eating up the polysaccharides like maltotriose, it's probably important to be providing them with additional FAN and other good stuff with a quality yeast nutrient supplement when you start raising the temperature. I've also had great success adding amylase to the fermenter as well.