Any point in leaving beer in primary?

[jester5120]

I'm planning on brewing a 120 minute ipa-esque clone. I'm going to try to push the alcohol content to 18 at least. Last time i made a beer this big the yeast died and quit fermenting around 18.5%. The bucket I'm going to ferment in doesn't have a good lid on it so i'd like to transfer into a carboy immediately after krausen drops and fermentation has finished. My question is if all the yeast is dead is there a reason to leave the beer in the primary any longer? from what i've been told the reason this is done with any other beer is because yeast will clean up some of the off flavors given time. if almost all my yeast is dead is there anything in there to do the cleaning and also wouldn't autolysis be an immediate concern?

Also If I transfer early could i pitch a big starter of wlp099 into the secondary to do the cleaning before it dies.?

 

[Butter]

You have just opened Pandora's box.

 

[HopDr]

I am going to leave the pandora's box issue aside because it has been discussed endlessly, but you have to share more about your recipe- I am doing a 120 minute-type beer now too. Did you pitch your WLP099 in the primary? At all? I started with WLP001 and then added WLP099 from a big starter when the ABV got somewhere around 6 or 7% (around day 4). If you did something similar, there probably is no reason to add another dose of yeast to the secondary (or later in the primary) no matter what is happening, it probably won't do a lot more. Also, you did pretty good if you got up to 18.5%, that is right about where the real thing is. What was your FG with that?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

why pitch more yeast in secondary when you pitch enough yeast in primary? just wait til you reach a stable FG, then rack to secondary. you'll have no worries about needing yeast in secondary if you do it that way.

 

[jester5120]

I am going to leave the pandora's box issue aside because it has been discussed endlessly, but you have to share more about your recipe- I am doing a 120 minute-type beer now too. Did you pitch your WLP099 in the primary? At all? I started with WLP001 and then added WLP099 from a big starter when the ABV got somewhere around 6 or 7% (around day 4). If you did something similar, there probably is no reason to add another dose of yeast to the secondary (or later in the primary) no matter what is happening, it probably won't do a lot more. Also, you did pretty good if you got up to 18.5%, that is right about where the real thing is. What was your FG with that?

I'm doing a 60 minute clone with nottingham and when that gets racked to secondary I'll pour the 120 clone right onto the whole 60 minute yeast cake. That's what i did last time but it was a WWS clone. I'll make a 2L wlp099 starter with wort pulled from the 120 on brewday and add that 24-36 hours after visiual fermentation has started. From there i'll do the sugar additions and aerations. My WWS clone finished at 1.038 it's in the ball park of 18.2% to 18.7% so i just say 18.5

why pitch more yeast in secondary when you pitch enough yeast in primary? just wait til you reach a stable FG, then rack to secondary. you'll have no worries about needing yeast in secondary if you do it that way.

I'm going to do an open fermentation for this because i'll need frequent access to it. last time i took a beer this high alcohol the yeast was dead and gone after a week and FG was hit at that point too. typically i'd leave the beer on the cake for another few weeks but that's not real safe with open fermentations. so that's my dilemma