Beer Emergency--deploying for 7 months in less than 5 days

[fizgig]

Oh yes. I purposefully overdid the warrior in the brewing, and dry hopped with willamette.

Good to know, I wondered how much hops really fade over time in an IPA.

 

[Rhumbline]

...

Chap, thanks for the offer, but I think I'm good for now. Besides, the last time a fellow Okinawan offered to babysit my brews, it was a Gunnery Sergeant from Camp Foster. I'd trust my life to a Gunny in combat, but I know better than to let them watch over my beers!

As a former SSgt, this cracked me up.

Wishing you the best,
happy brewing.

Pete

 

[SKYY]

Quick update, I bottled today. Surprisingly, the mold(?) did not seem to affect the flavor or aroma of the beer much. I think I sensed an ever-so-slight apple/peary fruity aroma, but it was tough to tell because this beer's brewed with lots of spices like orange zest among others. So there might have been some esterification during its long trip in the secondary, but I don't think it affected the beer much.

The clarity was unreal, though. I've never seen clearer unfiltered beer, even down to the last drop out of the carboy.

Now for the almost final test: to find out of there's still living yeast looking for a quick bite of priming sugar. The final test is going to happen about 2 weeks from now, Insha'Allah.

I always bottle beer into one or two clear PET bottles, just to do the squeeze test for carbonation and to easily see the yeast sediment at the bottom.

 

[homebrewdad]

Quick update, I bottled today. Surprisingly, the mold(?) did not seem to affect the flavor or aroma of the beer much. I think I sensed an ever-so-slight apple/peary fruity aroma, but it was tough to tell because this beer's brewed with lots of spices like orange zest among others. So there might have been some esterification during its long trip in the secondary, but I don't think it affected the beer much.

The clarity was unreal, though. I've never seen clearer unfiltered beer, even down to the last drop out of the carboy.

Now for the almost final test: to find out of there's still living yeast looking for a quick bite of priming sugar. The final test is going to happen about 2 weeks from now, Insha'Allah.

I always bottle beer into one or two clear PET bottles, just to do the squeeze test for carbonation and to easily see the yeast sediment at the bottom.

I won't be surprised if it takes a little longer than that to know for sure. After all, the regularly repeated advice is three weeks @ 70 degrees is the baseline for normal gravity beers to properly carb up. Lower temps and higher gravities can take longer. An extended secondary might make it take a little longer, too.

You might indeed have carbed beer after two weeks, but don't despair if it takes twice that long (or longer).

Also - thanks for your service. My nephew is based in Okinawa, though he's been in the Phillipines for the past few months.

 

[SKYY]

Well I'll be damned, that yeast came back to life like you read about! Those little guys were obviously hungry! I could feel the plastic bottles pressurizing within the first 24 hours of bottling, and here's what it looks like after 2 days:

The two clear plastic bottles I have are already highly pressurized, and exhibit the depicted proof of flocculation. Honestly, I'm thinking that I'll be able to open one in about a week, plus a few days of cold conditioning. It might be undercarbonated or a bit green, but what homebrewer doesn't jump the gun when it comes to tasting the final product?

Just to reiterate, this beer sat in a BB carboy for 8 months, and fermentation had stopped long ago. It looked like I had a mold infection on the top of the beer in the carboy, but I bottled nonetheless. This yeast doesn't just live, it dominates!

This strain is your standard Safale US-05, FYI.

 

[SKYY]

I'm really amazed. I cold-conditioned and opened that PET bottle just today, and opened it to gauge the bottling fermentation. It's not fully-carbonated, but the ale ended up smelling and tasting delicious!

To conclude this great thread, here's the major lessons learned from my experience with super-long-term secondary storage:

1) It works just fine! Do your standard sanitization ritual and you have nothing to worry about, especially for high-gravity brews.
2) If, after 8 months, you return to find what looks like ugly whitish mold patches growing on the surface, IGNORE IT. It's probably not mold, but just your standard yeast colony after 5 months of dormancy. If you shine a light and see stringy white things beneath the patches, it's yeast, not mold (yeast forms strings).
3) The yeast will STILL be alive to support bottle fermentation. The hibernation will leave them so starving for sugars that the bottle conditioning process will result in drinkable carbonation in less time than you would think. It took 1 day for the plastic bottles to show signs of activity, and just 5 days total to reach some degree of drinkability.
4) Your beer will have awesome clarity, even if you used no coagulants in the brewing process.

FYI, this is the third time I've brewed this ale. It's one of my long-time favorites, and one which I'll be brewing again soon enough. BB Holday Ale, for those of you that are interested: http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1049_Holiday_Ale.pdf

Cheers!

 

[SKYY]

...and finally, never trust a Gunnery Sergeant in the USMC to tend to your beers...he'll "tend" to them like you read about:

"Oh hey, LT...I'm real sorry, but I had to euthanize your beer. It got contaminated, with some strange strain of fungi that we never knew about, you know...so I had no choice but to get rid of it...you know!? This is such a saddening event that I might burst into tears any minute now...but I'll do my best to hold those tears back! Don't forget that you're a great brewer, OK? I'm sure you'll succeed in the future..." (lolz)

 

[homebrewdad]

Thaks for following up and letting us know!

I had full confidence that the beer would carb. Think about it. Homebrewers harvest yeast from commerical bottles to cultivate and ferment with. The yeast doesn't just vanish, and it certainly isn't THAT easy to kill.

Still, it's nice to see a tale like this, especially when you get those that are certain that their yeast is dead due to three whole weeks in a carboy.

 

[wisconsinitebrewer]

Great to know! And, again, thanks for your service