Chimay Red Clone question

[HighOGLove]

First post!!

I'm in the middle of this Chimay Red Clone recipe.

I'm wondering what to expect from pitching the Montrachet yeast. Considerable additional fermentation? Nothing? Is it simply to help clarify?

My beer is currently in secondary and I pitched the Montrachet yeast after activating in 104F water 4 days ago. Basically nothing is happening visually. No airlock bubbles, no krausen. I haven't taken an additional gravity reading. My IG (interim gravity? ) is already 4pts below the target (and OG was 4 pts *above*).

I guess the first step when in doubt on things like this is always to take another gravity reading, which I'll do tomorrow when I'm starting another brew. Even after doing that, I still won't know whether I f'd up activating the yeast, burned through the good fermentables in primary, or if this yeast has a different purpose.

In the mean time, if anyone can help shed some light on expectations from the Montrachet yeast, it would be much appreciated.


Target OG: 1.068 (mine: 1.072)
Target FG: 1.014 (my post-primary: 1.010)

 

[Wormburner]

I assume that the wine yeast would be for bottling. The Chimay yeast should plow through the fermentables without much trouble. If you let it sit to condition for a while, adding a fresh pitch of yeast at bottling will ensure you get good carbonation in the bottles. It should be pretty neutral flavor-wise, and tolerate levels of alcohol well above what you'll have in your beer. I've pitched wine yeast when bottling big Belgians and it's worked well for me.

However, being that you've pitched it in secondary, I wouldn't expect to see much airlock activity since there isn't going to be much left for it to consume. Your primary yeast will have chewed through pretty much all of the fermentable sugars in the wort.

 

[Wormburner]

PS - I know you were doing as instructed on the recipe sheet. This is just what I'd suggest trying next time.

 

[HighOGLove]

Thanks wormburner ! My primary concern was that if I went to bottling I'd end up with geysers from extra active yeast . I guess in retrospect, that's probably more of a function of the amount of priming sugar.

Very much appreciate the help.