Help!!! Must bottle under fermented beer and need advice

[BSBrewer]

Ok folks...need some advice on how to deal with this...

I have a porter I brewed for a small homebrew competition. Hit my OG right on the money (1.064) and the thing bottomed out at (1.030) after a few days I whipped up a batch of yeast and got a good starter over night and repitched...the brew is still holding strong at 1.030.

I guess my fear is bottling this brew and somehow the yeast reactivating and having bottle bombs as a result of so much sugar being left.

My initial thoughts were to drop it in the kegerator to drop the yeast out of suspension (prob 1-2 days in there) then bottle, going light on the amount of priming sugar...rather it be under carbed than over - especially as I have to ship these bottles and dont need the feds coming after me if any explode in the mail.

I have from now until Friday when I MUST bottle. HELP!

 

[devilishprune]

You want my opinion? Don't send the beer to the competition. It hasn't reached the FG that you wanted, and at 1.03 it is going to be VERY sweet, probably a lot sweeter than you had anticipated. Do you really want feedback on a beer that you know is not going to be as good as you can make it? There will be more competitions; for now, just let the beer ride out in the fermenter and check it in a few weeks.

 

[ArcaneXor]

I don't think there's much you can do on the timescale you have (two days). Look at my blog on kick-starting a stuck fermentation and let it take its course and forget about this competition. It's not worth risking injuring someone with exploding bottles, and at 1.030, you'd not get any favorable reviews nor meaningful feedback.

 

[BSBrewer]

there's only 6 people in the competition so it'd be really bad to bow out now...I may have a bit of wiggle room in terms of bottling it Sunday instead of Friday but thats about it.

 

[ArcaneXor]

If you have until Sunday, you may be able to get it done. Good luck!

 

[stlbeer]

What was your mash temp? It sounds like you mashed high and denatured the enzymes responsible for creating the sugars digestible for yeasts. In other words, you may have mashed too high and the beer may not finish any lower even with additional yeast.

 

[BSBrewer]

Mash temp was around 156-159 F...would this have caused the problem you stated in which case it should (in theory) be done. In which case chill to drop out the yeast and then go low side with the carbing sugar?

 

[ksbrain]

You could carb it in the keg, and bottle off the keg for the competition. Bottle conditioning is slower than keg carbonating.

Or, don't you have another batch you could enter into the competition?

 

[stlbeer]

Mash temp was around 156-159 F...would this have caused the problem you stated in which case it should (in theory) be done. In which case chill to drop out the yeast and then go low side with the carbing sugar?

According to Palmer's "How to Brew", Chapter 13, Table 17 on page 143 - the active temps for beta-amylase is 140-150*F with a preferred temp of 140*F. For Alpha-amylase it's 140-167*F with a preferred range of 140-158*F. Beta-amylase is denatured at 150*F as are a couple of other ones.

Palmer also states that higher temp mashes will produce a more dextrinous wort which I believe is less fermentable. Lower temps (still 140*F+) will produce a more fermentable wort and will finish dryer.

Since you were on the upper limit and you got some fermentables in your wort, how accurate is your thermometer? If it's reading cooler than actual, you might have denatured the enzymes.

If you add fermentables to what you have already, you could boost the alcohol, but I think it would still be sweet.

 

[BSBrewer]

You could carb it in the keg, and bottle off the keg for the competition. Bottle conditioning is slower than keg carbonating.

Or, don't you have another batch you could enter into the competition?

So if I force carb in a keg and then beer gun to bottles I will alleviate any fear of bottle bombs? Just will have a sweeter result than I would have liked based on the higher FG?

 

[ArcaneXor]

So if I force carb in a keg and then beer gun to bottles I will alleviate any fear of bottle bombs?

Only if you filter out or kill off the yeast.

 

[BSBrewer]

Only if you filter out or kill off the yeast.

How does one do that? 14 batches under my belt and this is the first time I've ever run into an issue like this...

 

[Homercidal]

You'll have to add some Campden tablets or in some other way kill the yeast or they may continue eating the residual sugars. The beer may be sweet, but at least you won't have timebombs on your hands.

And, if you want to play with the remaining beer, consider building, or buying a device which lets you carb single servings. That way you can send your couple of bottles and still try to finish the rest of the beer on yeast. There is a thread around here with instructions on how to build a device. Also you can buy one of them for like $20.

Place beer in soda bottle, pressurize, shake. Carbed beer. (Still add the campden tabs before though...)

 

[BSBrewer]

so lets say of the 5.5 gal I rack like 1.5 gal to a corny...add campden tabs to kill the yeast...force carb...bottle the 12 or so I need for the comp off the keg then I can try and play with the remaining 4gal one way or another to get it down to the FG I want?

Sounds like an interesting idea...should the LHBS have the tabs? Also - anyone have a clue to how only having 1.5g in a 5g corney will mess with the carbing levels?

 

[BSBrewer]

If I can't get the campden tabs is there any other way to filter/kill the yeast?

 

[JVD_X]

I agree, don't bother entering in the competition. At the very least the judges will literally chew on the beer, at worst they will demoralize you! The beer is probably out of the style anyhow.

What kind of beer is it?

 

[BSBrewer]

I guess to explain a bit better the competition each of the 6 brewers in the round send 2 bottles to each other and 2 to the guy running it. Then the entire group judges (simple 1st choice 2nd choice) and provides feedback - so I'm not talking about BJCP standards here.

Its a smoked vanilla hazelnut porter and its SUPER smokey which I think will offset some of the sweetness of it.

 

[motobrewer]

i wouldn't send it out of fear of seriously injuring the judges.

explain to them what happened, they'll understand.

 

[BSBrewer]

i wouldn't send it out of fear of seriously injuring the judges.

explain to them what happened, they'll understand.

I'm going to remedy it somehow so I can at least get some feedback - enough info seems to have been provided along the thread that I should be able to salvage it.