High SG beers...double pitch or else?

[danio]

Hello all! First post!

Anyway, I just brewed a batch of Dead Guy Ale (rogue) with one packet of Wyeast Rogue Pacman yeast. It's purportedly got 100 billion yeasts etc. and my beginning SG was in the 1.060-1.065 range.

Essentially, I am wondering if I should have double pitched? It's been 36 hours or so and the beer is absolutely going off and churning with 3 inches of krausen so that is great...I just really don't want that sweet, unfermented sugars taste due to insufficient yeasties.

I don't have ready access to Rogue yeasts...if I did pitch mid-fermentation is there a good complement to that yeast I could get at my LHBS?

Thanks for ANY info! Perhaps I'm just being neurotic and I should relax....have a homebrew...

Dan

 

[Zen_Brew]

While it is true that you would have benefitted from a starter it's not the end of the world that you didn't make one. Pacman is a very efficient yeast, and it is unlikely that it will leave a lot of residual sweetness. If anything Pacman often goes a couple points lower than you expect.

Just try to keep the fermentation temps in the mid 60's, give the yeast the time it needs to complete the work and some time to clean up any byproducts or off flavors. I'd say at minimum a good 10-14 days in the primary.

 

[danio]

Ok, thanks for the reply! I kind of thought that might be the case. I will definitely leave it longer in the primary...do you guys ever swirl it around to reactivate any yeast after it settles down? I have always thought about doing that but never do.

Dan

 

[Zen_Brew]

Usually no need to swirl packman. Certain yeasts will get stuck from time to time and benefit from being roused with swirling and/or heating, but Pacman isn't one of them. As long as you get down to a reasonable final gravity I wouldn't worry about swirling. Swirling the fermentor creates another opportunity to introduce oxygen late in the process which is not beneficial to the beer

 

[suprchunk]

Swirling the fermentor creates another opportunity to introduce oxygen late in the process which is not beneficial to the beer

Only if there is already oxygen in there. Which there shouldn't be. If it is still bubbling the CO2 is still causing a positive enough pressure to prevent oxygen from entering.