High alcohol content question

[Searcy]

Hi there!
I am fairly new to brewing and have brewed 5 batches prior to this last one.
The last one I did was a Dark Maple Syrup brew. Most comments I saw on the beer was that it needed more Syrup for better Maple flavor. I doubled up the Syrup and the AC went from a projected 6% to a 9.8% initial reading.
It has been in the primary for 12 days now and still has some activity from the yeast.
My question is that when racking to the secondary, do I need to add more yeast to compinsate for the higher AC or is there something different that needs to be done with that high of an alcohol content?
Thanks for your info and help!!!

 

[GenIke]

What's the current gravity? What yeast?

 

[DocScott]

Do NOT add more yeast when you rack to secondary. To account for the higher than expected OG (more sugars to ferment in your wort), you should have pitched more yeast the first time into your primary. You likely underpitched for this brew which may lead to "stressed" yeast and potential off flavors. I highly suggest consulting www.mrmalty.com before your next brew and look at his pitch rate calculator so you know how to compensate.

 

[JimRausch]

You shouldn't have to add any extra yeast. Most everything out there can handle up to at least 10%. However, plan on leaving it in primary for longer than usual to ferment to completion and clean things up. 3 weeks anyways, maybe longer. Then expect to get quite a hot alcohol bite that will take several months to mellow out. I did a DoubleAlt back in September which came out to 7.3%. The first ones tasted great but there was a definite kick. I still have a few left and cracked one open today. Nice and mellow.

 

[Searcy]

Safale S-04 is the yeast.
I was waiting to rack to the secondary do the next reading so I only have the OG.
I will start secondary readings at 2 weeks
I was just curious if I needed to do anything diffrently with such a high OG reading at 1.098.

 

[Searcy]

I did add a second package of the yeast as well with my thought being that more yeast to eat more sugar!
Looks like I was correct!!
Thanks for the help.

 

[Searcy]

I also was planning on leaving in the secondary for at least 4 weeks. Should that be ok or will I need a longer time in primary(2 weeks) and secondary(4 weeks)?

 

[Bullphysics]

I'm assuming your brewing an ale. Most ale strains tolerate 12 % alcohol without any hang ups- at least in my expereience. While pitching more yeast in the secondary won't be detrimental, I strongly agree with the previous posts about leaving the beer for at least 3 weeks on the yeast in the primary. Be patient

 

[BlackGoat]

You should leave the beer on the yeast in the primary until it is done fermenting. This won't be based on a set time period, and at that starting gravity it may very well take longer than 2 weeks. Unless you are adding fruit, oak, or some other additive you really don't even need the secondary at all. For a relatively high gravity ale, my suggestion would be to leave it in primary for a few weeks, then take a gravity reading... then check the gravity again 2 days later. If the gravity is stable, its ready to transfer to secondary (if you really want to do a secondary). If the gravity is still dropping, it is not done yet and you need to leave it longer.