bottle 1.027 FG Tripel?

[huskeypm]

Dear all,
I have an all-extract belgian tripel that I brewed about 50 days ago and made the mistake of racking after two weeks in the primary, despite having an FG of 1.028-1.03 (est 1.105 SG) . After following advice in my post about two weeks ago (at end of message, includes recipe), I ultimately decided to pull out 1L of wort, add energizer and maybe 1 lb pilsner LME and more of the WLP500 trappist yeast I had around. After a few days and no activity, I went gangbusters and added red star dry champagne yeast to the starter. I had high krausen the next day and pitched the starter into the secondary.

I never noticed any airlock activity and about 1 week ago I took a gravity reading of 1.028. I heated the beer up (unknown temp), gave it a stir, and got a burp of dissolved CO2, but no further gas release (beyond my own). Today its just under two weeks after repitching, and my beer is now about 1.027.

Question is, should I leave the beer in the secondary indefinitely and hope for the best? Or should I take a risk and bottle the high FG beer? If I go the latter route, should I even bother adding priming sugar? And do 22oz bottles offer any better protection against bottle bombs?

Thanks in advance for your help!

pete

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/repitch-bottle-high-og-under-attenuated-beer-secondary-294115/

 

[huskeypm]

Just an update - I tried one additional warming to 73 degrees and intense swirling, but still no change in FG. I think the beer is still a bit sweet, but perhaps with carbonation it won't be as noticeable. I've read in a few places that barley wines might be bottled at 1.025 and greater, so perhaps bottle bombs aren't such a risk?

 

[solbes]

That does sound high for a tripel. Which yeast and how big was the original starter (or did you pitch 1 pack)?

My second tripel stayed in primary for 4 weeks, then went to secondary for 6 weeks. About 2 weeks after going into secondary, the fermentation started up again. Dropped an additional .005 in gravity over 3 weeks.

If you have a keg you could rack to that safely even if it wasn't finished. If you are bottling for sure (and most tripels are), then you might want to give this some more time in secondary. Flavor wise, you'd likely be waiting anyway for aging to occur in the botttles. Might as well spend time in the carboy just to make sure it's finished. Two pennies.

 

[solbes]

Oh, I just went and read your initial post. Definite underpitching a 1 quart starter of WLP 500 to a 1.102 Tripel (more like a Quad). A beer like this is a great opportunity for making Patersbier (NB has a kit), and then washing and repitching a large portion of the yeast cake. I don't think this one is going to move much further, the yeast is sitting in a lot of alcohol. Champagne yeast will likely not budge it much further either.

But I still think more time in the carboy would be needed to smooth this beer out on some yeast. That's a big beer you made there. Should be might tasty given some time. Also would be a great opportunity to save a 12'er for a 2 or 3 year cellar aging.

 

[beerman0001]

The beer is done. Bottle let it carb up and enjoy. 10% abv is not bad at all.

 

[huskeypm]

Beerman and solbes: Thanks so much for the feedback! Solbes' point proved right: champagne yeast didn't do anything (except excite my starter). Just a bit confused - so hows my beer a good candidate for the Patersbier? I just take the yeast cake of my current beer (which is likely minimal) or make the Paters and use its cake for the next Quad? Either way, the Patersbier sounds like a nice intermission to the high octane beast I have here.

Would you recommend adding yeast/priming sugar to carbonate upon bottilng?

 

[beerman0001]

You just need priming sugar you already have plenty of yeast. With the Patersbier he was talking about brewing that first and using the yeast slurry from that batch for you next tripel.

 

[huskeypm]

Awesome, thanks. I'm excited to give this trippel another try!

 

[solbes]

Yeah, sorry for the confusion. This one is done fermenting. Condition in secondary or bottle, up to you.

For the next time, the Patersbier is a great way of creating yeast for a 1.075+ Tripel/Quad/Dark Strong as they usually all use the same yeast. I did that this fall with a Patersbier (one smack pack) and washed/pitched about 2/3 of the yeast cake into a 1.080 Tripel. The tripel is already tasting decent and was just bottled in early Dec. My first tripel took 3-4 months to smooth out in the bottle.

One word of caution. That damn yeast can really make a mess. I had a bucket explosion on the last Tripel I made. And had another one last night with the Dubbel that's fermenting. I add Fermcap S in the fermenter, but that foam can be absolutely beastly. Guess I need a larger bucket or a 6.5 carboy with large dia blow-off tube.

 

[huskeypm]

thanks for the heads-up. I haven't had any foam issues yet, of course gauging by my conversation, I underpitched.