BURIED in trub on high gravity strong ale!

[benthegrate]

I've been brewing almost weekly for 3 years, though by forum standards, I'm pretty sure I'm still considered a noob.

Recently I fell in love with Scaldis and have been working on a partial-mash clone from Beer Captured. This is the recipe:

3 lbs Belgian 2-Row Pilsner Malt
9 oz Belgian Cara-Munich malt
4 oz Belgian Aromatic
(Hold at 150F for 90 mins, sparge with 1 gallon 150F water)

12 1/2 lbs pale liquid malt extract
2 lbs clear candi sugar
2 oz Styrian Goldings hops (60 mins)
1 oz Kent Goldings hops (15 mins)
1 oz Styrian Goldings hops (3 mins)

OG was 1.122 and I pitched 5 gallons of wort onto a MASSIVE cake of White Labs Belgian Abbey which I'd been building up for 3 weeks using two successive low gravity beers. When I say massive, let's say about 2.5" deep in the bottom of a 6.5 gallon primary.

Fermentation took off immediately, and I used a blowoff tube as suggested by threads here talking about massive blowoff from high gravity beers. I lost probably a pint of the beer to blowoff.

10 days into fermentation (today) I transferred to the secondary. (Recipe instructed to transfer to secondary after 1 week and sit in secondary for 2 months before bottle aging.) Gravity at this point is 1.046 (11.7% ABV after hydrometer correction) and I'm still getting 3-5 bubbles per minute through the airlock, so we're still going. Hoping to end around 1.032.

Unfortunately, I only got 3.5 gallons of beer out of the primary. There's WELL over a gallon of trub left, and that seems crazy to me to lose that much beer to trub. Is this common for high gravity beers? I've left the trub beneath an inch of beer in the primary to see if it settles down further in the next week. Would it be acceptable to siphon off any that does and put it into the secondary with the rest of the beer?

Also, I've read conflicting opinions on re-pitching before bottling to ensure a good carb. The guy at the brew shop said I should pitch champagne yeast, though I'm afraid that will dramatically boost the fermentation and get me drier than I want (or possibly burst bottles) as well as affect the taste. Some threads suggest pitching a single vial of yeast, some suggest building up a second wort and pitching (which might help considering my dramatic loss of wort), some suggest pitching a starter, and most suggest using the original yeast type. Anyone have any opinions, educated or otherwise, to toss into the ring?

 

[akthor]

I think you should have left it in primary longer.

 

[CaliBrewin]

10 days to secondary sounds waaayy too early for a brew of that magnitude. hate to say it but i think if you wouldve waited at least a month, the trub wouldve more than likely compacted a great deal.

i have a pale ale that has been in primary (OG 1.060) for 2 weeks now and i think i will still give it a couple more days to let the yeast finish "cleaning up" the beer. then, once the yeast is done, i will secondary and add my dry hops.

remember, the yeast is making the beer, not you.

 

[benthegrate]

I was following the directions in the recipe which is why I transferred it so quickly. (I actually pushed the transfer 3 days longer than the recipe stated.) I'm not yet an experienced-enough brewer to mess with recipes, particularly for something like a high-gravity beer, which I've never brewed before.

So...yes...consensus is that I should have left it longer. So what do I do now, since I don't have a time machine? Rack it back onto the cake? Leave the trub to settle down more? (The trub cake is sending out 1 bubble every 10 seconds now.)

 

[johnnyt471]

The problem I've noticed with kit recipes is that they often are just boilerplate language, and the only part specific to the kit is where they talk about adding the hops to the boil. They will always say 1 to 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, and 2-4 weeks in bottles, so it doesn't really account for high gravity beers (or even for the fact that secondaries aren't necessary most of the time). You're best just always leaving the beer in the primary for 4 months, regardless of what the recipe tells you.

 

[akthor]

3 yrs of brewing and you haven't heard of the 1 month primary for "normal" brews? Even longer for "big" brews concept? Gotta read around on here more

 

[akthor]

He means 4 weeks I am sure

The problem I've noticed with kit recipes is that they often are just boilerplate language, and the only part specific to the kit is where they talk about adding the hops to the boil. They will always say 1 to 2 weeks in primary, 2 weeks in secondary, and 2-4 weeks in bottles, so it doesn't really account for high gravity beers (or even for the fact that secondaries aren't necessary most of the time). You're best just always leaving the beer in the primary for 4 months, regardless of what the recipe tells you.

 

[bovineblitz]

Should have probably left it in primary for at least 1 month, probably 6 weeks

 

[CaliBrewin]

at this point all you can do is RDWHAHB.

 

[akthor]

Can he dump it all back together?

 

[scottieo2]

At this point, I would probably siphon off the last inch of beer from the primary and add it to the secondary. Maybe even siphon in some additional yeast to ensure that the beer finishes fermentation.

I don't think the trub is going to compact much sitting under only 1 inch of beer.

 

[johnnyt471]

He means 4 weeks I am sure

heh. yes i do, although 4 months would probably be fine too

 

[mlg5039]

Yeah screw it and don't mess with it. So what you will only have 3.5 gallons of brew. Lesson learned.


On another point I bet you racked enough suspended yeast into the secondary (after only 10 days) to bring you near your FG. Just let it sit in the secondary for a while before you do anyhting crazy haha. I bet those 3.5 gallons will be delicious.


RDWHAHB,

Mike

 

[benthegrate]

It's already incredibly delicious!

It wasn't a kit beer...I've never brewed with a kit. This is a recipe from the highly respected book BEER CAPTURED...I figured I should trust it. Ah well!