Bad DME - Will champagne yeast consume unfermentable sugars?

[Shock29]

Thus far, I've had beers finish from 1.007 to 1.013 using LHBS Briess DME. I recently bought a 50LB bag of DME from a local-ish Malting company. I'm 4 batches in with it, and this particular DME finishes at 1.019. Even my yeast starters finish at 1.019. I'm using Wyeast 1056 and WLP002 yeast. I am now 100% convinced it's the DME.

My question is... I made Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde ale. OG 1.042. Currently at - you guessed it, 1.019. It's very sweet, and 3% ABV when it should be 4%. Will adding Champagne Yeast (EC-1118) bring this down at all? It's a very light beer, also concerned about it affecting the flavour.

Thanks in advance, guys.

-Trevor

 

[TheMadKing]

Thus far, I've had beers finish from 1.007 to 1.013 using LHBS Briess DME. I recently bought a 50LB bag of DME from a local-ish Malting company. I'm 4 batches in with it, and this particular DME finishes at 1.019. Even my yeast starters finish at 1.019. I'm using Wyeast 1056 and WLP002 yeast. I am now 100% convinced it's the DME.

My question is... I made Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde ale. OG 1.042. Currently at - you guessed it, 1.019. It's very sweet, and 3% ABV when it should be 4%. Will adding Champagne Yeast (EC-1118) bring this down at all? It's a very light beer, also concerned about it affecting the flavour.

Thanks in advance, guys.

-Trevor

I don't think champagne yeast will do any good. If it's unfermentable, it's unfermentable.

You are describing a common problem that many extract brewers face where they cannot attenuate below 1.020.

You could try adding some lactobacillus to sour it and turn it into a berliner-weisse style beer. The lacto bacteria will likely go to work on some of the more complex starches.

On your next batch, you could hold the DME water at 148F for about 30 minutes and add some amylase enzyme and perhaps improve the fermentability of your DME.

In the long run, I would consider switching to all-grain You can control the fermentability of your sugars that way.

 

[IslandLizard]

There maybe a load of unfermentables in that DME, from crystal, carapils, and/or overly hot processing. Who else is using that DME; is it specially made for a certain brewery or purpose?

Using WLP002 (WY1968) the attenuation will be lower, but with WY1056 (WLP001) it should not. Attenuation is typically determined by the yeast's (in)capability of fermenting Maltotriose. But if there are tons of dextrins in the wort, the odds are off for either, unless you use Brett and patience. Champagne yeast won't help, it cannot ferment maltotriose at all (or dextrins).

Do you boil all the DME for an hour? That could cause excessive caramelization and unfermentability too. Maybe this malt is particularly sensitive to that. It's better to only add 1/4 to 1/3 of the DME/LME at the beginning of the boil, the rest at flameout.

 

[Shock29]

Thanks for the tips, and the confirmation that Champagne yeast will not be my savior here.

It's a light DME, so I dont suspect many crystal malts were used. I'm not sure who else is using this DME, waiting for a call back from the company to hopefully get some answers.

For this batch, I did boil for an hour, although I've done late additions with it in other batches with no better luck. More importantly, my yeast starters were only boiled for 12 minutes, and they came out at 1.019 too.

Thanks again for the comments, guys. Need this beer for a party next weekend, looks like it's gonna be a sweet 3% ale. I'll likely save my remaining 20LBS of this DME for sweeter style beers.

Definitely switching over to AG in the near future.

Cheers,
Trevor

 

[Legume]

You could disolve your DME in your (room temp) brewing water on brew day, start the burner, and add some AMG300.

AMG 300 is a very agressive gluco (beta) amylase.
As your heating wort passes through the temperature window of the amylase (I think it is active around 140 ish), you will be conducting a mash as you are heating your wort towards boiling. Eventually the wort will get hot enough to denature the amylase (mash out) as it heats. Then boil as usual.

This should not cost much, or add any extra steps to your brew day, and improve the fermentability of your wort substantially.

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for the tips, and the confirmation that Champagne yeast will not be my savior here.

It's a light DME, so I dont suspect many crystal malts were used. I'm not sure who else is using this DME, waiting for a call back from the company to hopefully get some answers.

For this batch, I did boil for an hour, although I've done late additions with it in other batches with no better luck. More importantly, my yeast starters were only boiled for 12 minutes, and they came out at 1.019 too.

Thanks again for the comments, guys. Need this beer for a party next weekend, looks like it's gonna be a sweet 3% ale. I'll likely save my remaining 20LBS of this DME for sweeter style beers.

Definitely switching over to AG in the near future.

Cheers,
Trevor

This is the future. Are you ready to switch yet?