ViperMan
Well-Known Member
I'll try to keep this short...
I brewed a Dopplebock using White Labs 810 San Francisco Lager, as I have no lagering equipment.
My mash efficiency was terrible (You may see this thread for further explanation) and so I added some DME and some sugar(s) to recover my OG...
...but then I screwed up THAT calculation as well. As a result, my OG went from a target of 1.1 to 1.12 and my ABV (estimate) went from 9.3 to 12.8!
Here's the problem - the yeast has had a bit too much to drink. My FG right now is 1.035 when it should be down around 1.025. My ABV right now is 11.3%. The problem is two-fold - the beer is probably still too "sweet" - 1.035 is a Woodchuck Draft Cider. Secondly, if the yeast is already too drunk to perform (and who of us haven't been there?!) then it won't be able to bottle carb. I have been letting this beer sit for a few weeks and the gravity hasn't changed now in ~10 days. I think it is what it is at this point.
I see three potential solutions to my problem:
1) Dump it. Don't really want to do this, as even I'm curious how it'll taste...
2) Live with it at 1.035, and use some sort of carbonation tabs to bottle carb the beer, but I don't know if carbonation tabs are just sugar that still relies on the yeast... (Can someone tell me?)
Kegging is currently not an option for many reasons, unfortunately, as this would work quite well...
3) I can use a different yeast with a similar attenuation range and higher alcohol tolerance to "finish" the beer. Yes this will screw up my "style" and add some unintended flavors, but we ALL know that it's those crazy beers that win competitions anyways! My research shows that White Labs 037 "Yorkshire Square Ale Yeast" fits this criteria while still being "close" to the flavor profile I already intended (verses for example using a stout-type yeast). To make this work I would use a starter to get the yeast active before dunking them into an 11% alcohol wort...
So - all that being said, what do you guys recommend?
I brewed a Dopplebock using White Labs 810 San Francisco Lager, as I have no lagering equipment.
My mash efficiency was terrible (You may see this thread for further explanation) and so I added some DME and some sugar(s) to recover my OG...
...but then I screwed up THAT calculation as well. As a result, my OG went from a target of 1.1 to 1.12 and my ABV (estimate) went from 9.3 to 12.8!
Here's the problem - the yeast has had a bit too much to drink. My FG right now is 1.035 when it should be down around 1.025. My ABV right now is 11.3%. The problem is two-fold - the beer is probably still too "sweet" - 1.035 is a Woodchuck Draft Cider. Secondly, if the yeast is already too drunk to perform (and who of us haven't been there?!) then it won't be able to bottle carb. I have been letting this beer sit for a few weeks and the gravity hasn't changed now in ~10 days. I think it is what it is at this point.
I see three potential solutions to my problem:
1) Dump it. Don't really want to do this, as even I'm curious how it'll taste...
2) Live with it at 1.035, and use some sort of carbonation tabs to bottle carb the beer, but I don't know if carbonation tabs are just sugar that still relies on the yeast... (Can someone tell me?)
Kegging is currently not an option for many reasons, unfortunately, as this would work quite well...
3) I can use a different yeast with a similar attenuation range and higher alcohol tolerance to "finish" the beer. Yes this will screw up my "style" and add some unintended flavors, but we ALL know that it's those crazy beers that win competitions anyways! My research shows that White Labs 037 "Yorkshire Square Ale Yeast" fits this criteria while still being "close" to the flavor profile I already intended (verses for example using a stout-type yeast). To make this work I would use a starter to get the yeast active before dunking them into an 11% alcohol wort...
So - all that being said, what do you guys recommend?