High Gravity Stout w/ Champagne Yeast no change in SG

[baywater]

I am making a high gravity bourbon aged stout.

Initial Primary Fermenter Gravity - 1.130
Initial Secondary Fermenter Gravity - 1.050
added champagne yeast
Secondary Fermenter Gravity 10 days later still 1.050

I did not do a starter on the champagne yeast because the White Labs yeast I bought said it was not necessary.

Should I add more champagne yeast this time with a starter or should I go back and add more packs of the same yeast I did with the primary?

 

[Calder]

Adding the champagne yeast may not have been the wisest thing to do.

We need more information if you want help. What was the recipe, what was the original yeast.

Looks like you got to about 10.5%. Did the yeast crap out, or did it finish, and what is left is unfermentable?

Champagne yeast generally only ferments simple sugars, which would almost certainly have been consumed by your original yeast. All you have left are complex sugars, that are not normally fermented by wine yeasts.

Most wine yeasts are 'killer' yeasts; that is, they dominate over most beer yeasts and prevent reproduction.

Based on zero knowledge of your beer, I would say your best chance to get the gravity down more would be to make a big starter of WLP099, and pitch starter when actively fermenting.

 

[baywater]

All Grain:
mash at 154° F for 90 minutes. (do not maintain the mash temp, instead allow it to free fall over the 90 minutes)
90 Minute Boil


Grains & Oak
•22 lb Domestic 2-row
•4 lb Light Munich Malt
•1.5 lb British Chocolate Malt
•1.75 lb Carafa III Malt
•1.25 lb American Roasted Barley
•1 lb British Crystal 60 L
Hops & Yeast
•1 oz Warrior 60 minutes
•2oz Willamette 10 minutes
•1 oz Willamette 2 minutes
•Wyeast 1056

 

[jahdub]

Champagne yeast aren't gonna do anything. The simple sugars are most likely already gone. How long has it been since you pitched? It takes longer than 1-2 weeks to ferment from 1.130 to terminal gravity. I also would not expect it to go below 1.030 FG.

 

[philosofool]

When pitching into an alcoholic solution, you should usually use a starter. I'm guessing your 1056 yeast petered out and there's still some residual maltose in there that a Champagne yeast would eat, but it's not waking up beacuse of the high alcohol. That gravity is too high for the sugars to be only ones that champagne yeast won't ferment, I'm thinking.

None of that matters now. What you need to do is get some yeast that's actively fermenting some beer (i.e., a starter) and pitch that into your beer. Any alcohol tollerant strain should be okay, and you might consider dry yeast, since it's cheaper.

 

[Imperator85]

That's a rather high SG...particularly considering there are no sugar adjuncts. Most of the simple sugars are gone at this point, and you're left with more complex, less fermentable sugars. Your original ale strain likely ran out of steam. Champagne yeast will not really help you in this situation. Your best bet of trying to wring out as much alcohol as possible would be to pitch an active batch of a high alcohol tolerant ale strain as Calder suggested.

 

[baywater]

Will using a different yeast strain affect the flavor of the beer?

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

To get the same yeast taste as 1056 you can use Safale-05 dry yeast. I would buy two packages, rehydrate, and pitch them. You'll be getting about 4 times the amount of yeast as that first vial that you used.
The liquid yeast companies like to say that they give enough for 5 gallons but it's only for very light beers. Usually you need to make a starter. Luckily it's really easy to do. There are lots of threads on this site.http://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/n045.gif

 

[baywater]

I'm seeing that the safale 05 will only go up to 12 % which is not far from where I'm at now

 

[Calder]

I don't claim to be any expert. Like everyone else, we all come across issues like this that we make our best 'guess' as to how to fix.

My suggestion would be to just leave this one under airlock for a while, and brew a basic IPA with WLP099 (high gravity yeast). After a week or so (when active fermentation is done), move the IPA to secondary (you are after the yeast cake rather than a perfect IPA), and rack this big beer onto the fresh cake.

I think it would work - never done it myself.

 

[IKR]

I have used WLP 099 to fix a stuck fermentation as several others have suggested and it did work. In my case the beer was 1.146 OG plus had 2 lbs of Belgian candi added during fermentation so it was on the large size. It stuck at 1.072. A 2L starter, with 2 vials of WLP 099 was put on my stir plate for roughly 18 hours and pitched during high krausen. It finished at 1.020 FG. The WLP 099 appears to be a high attenuator so your beer may end up a bit direr than you planned. In my case the flavor profile wasn't noticeably affected.

Best of luck.

 

[baywater]

So my question now remains do I leave it with a 1.050 final gravity or add the above mentioned yeast and try to lower it?

 

[Calder]

So my question now remains do I leave it with a 1.050 final gravity or add the above mentioned yeast and try to lower it?

Your beer, you decide. For me, I think it would be way too sweet, to be almost undrinkable at 1.050

 

[jahdub]

How long was it in primary?

You should leave your beer in primary until it is finished, next time.

 

[baywater]

How long was it in primary?

You should leave your beer in primary until it is finished, next time.

Based on info from Wyeast, the yeast I used only works up to 11%, which is roughly what it is, so that yeast is finished.

 

[baywater]

Your beer, you decide. For me, I think it would be way too sweet, to be almost undrinkable at 1.050

I've never tasted beer with that final gravity, that is why I'm looking for input.

 

[PeteNMA]

Well what does it taste like now? You are measuring FG with a hydrometer right?

 

[baywater]

Yes, I didn't taste it.

 

[jahdub]

Yeast is still capable of fermenting beyond its maximum rated tolerance. The manufacturer just isn't going to rate it as such. That's why I've asked you twice how long it has been since you pitched. Higher gravity brews take longer to finish than lower gravity brews. Fermentation will also be much slower once you rack off the yeast cake.

 

[baywater]

1 month