In your experience....?

[smalliewader]

What would you do?

I brewed my biggest beer to date recently, a butternut brown. Og was 1.088 good fermentation, racked to secondary (glass) after a week to add spices and free up my primary for my Belgian wit. I purposely transferred a lot of the yeast and sediment from the bottom of the primary. As of yesterday, gravity at 1.030, 3 weeks total.

The recipes og called for 1.069 with a fg of 1.021. I used s-05 yeast.

Would you do anything at this point or just let it keep sitting? My plan is let it go another few weeks, but thought I'd see what more experienced guys would do. I've never made a beer with a potential 8.5% plus abv.
This is extract by the way.

 

[Lechien]

I'd let it set a couple more weeks so the yeast you transferred over can firm up and you'll not have to worry about resuspending the yeast when bottling/kegging.

You will also see if the FG goes down anymore in that time.

Edit, Can you leave spices in secondarly too long? I've never added spices.

 

[Dogphish]

in my experience, when using a single vial of liquid yeast on a beer with a high OG like that, if you don't aerate the hell out of the beer, the yeast will be strained, and will take an extra long time to finish fermentation.

let it keep fermenting. let your hydrometer tell you when to stop.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

That's a big beer for one packet of yeast to finish in a week. It sounds like racking it to secondary before it was completely fermented may have caused a stuck fermentation. I've never had a ferment die out on me before it's time, but I am prepared if one does to make a sizable starter with a tolerant, neutral strain of yeast to repitch the beer. Since you already added spices, I can't say that repitching is your best bet, maybe someone with more experience can.
In all honesty, primary fermentation should take 3-4 weeks with an avg gravity beer, longer with a high gravity beer such as yours. You should only rack to secondary after stable FG readings over a few days. Racking one beer out of primary early for the purpose of freeing up a fermentor for another beer seems like chopping of your nose to spite your face. Let the first beer finish before brewing another, or buy another bucket if you can't wait.

 

[smalliewader]

The us-05 is a dry yeast. With the strong fermentation I got the first few days, I wouldn't think it was strained by any means.

 

[smalliewader]

Admittedly, I'm new to making a big beer. When I racked and added the spices, i got airlock activity and another rise of krausen, albeit small. Stuck fermentation never crossed my mind until you guys brought it up. If by next weekend the gravity hasn't shown any signs of dropping, what yeast would you suggest repitching?

 

[jeffmeh]

I would have let it ferment out to final gravity in the primary before adding spices right in the primary. Transferring to secondary at that point is fine, which I would have done, say, to rack on fruit, but I would have not bothered with only spices.

That being said, give it more time in the secondary to see if it will continue fermenting. If it is stalled over three days as confirmed through a gravity measurement, I would repitch. It can still turn out great.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Admittedly, I'm new to making a big beer. When I racked and added the spices, i got airlock activity and another rise of krausen, albeit small. Stuck fermentation never crossed my mind until you guys brought it up. If by next weekend the gravity hasn't shown any signs of dropping, what yeast would you suggest repitching?

Nottingham comes to mind. You could probably use your fermentation strain too, s-05 can be a beast. A big starter of 1056 (same as s-05) would do the trick too.

 

[logan3825]

Post your recipe. You will get better answers if you post it.

There is a chance it is done fermenting. Your starting gravity may not have actually been 1.088. It is hard to miss your OG with extract but it is very easy to get an off reading because extract doesn't mix with top off water very easily.

You get high finishing gravities with extract sometimes. I personally would leave it sit for another 3-4 weeks. It won't hurt a beer that big to sit for a couple months.

 

[smalliewader]

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: 1056 Yeast Starter: 2L Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: 2L
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.25 Original Gravity: 1.069 Final Gravity: 1.021 IBU: 35 Boiling Time (Minutes): 90 Color: 15.5 Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 28 @68 Additional Fermentation: None Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): None
Tasting Notes: see below Hey All, Wanted to try to brew a pumpkin ale but there was no pumpkin around. So I improvised. I also wanted to end up with a higher FG so that it was on the maltier/sweeter (less dry side) so when I 'mashed' I did so without anything that would help to convert the sugars in the other ingredients.
I roasted 8lbs of butternut squash at 350 for 70 minutes then added it all along with the specialty grains listed below and steep at 154F for 60 minutes. Specialty Grains 0.50 lb Special B 0.25 lb Aromatic 0.25 lb Crystal 40L 0.25 lb crystal 60L

Then I added 3.5lb of ligt DME and 3.5 lb of wheat DME and the following hop schedule
1oz EKG (60)
.5oz Summit (60)
.5oz fuggle (15)
.25 fuggle (1)
.25 ekg (1)
I added 1/2lb malto dextrine at 1 minute and 1lb of lactose as well at 1 min I made my own pumpkin spice mix and added a total of 4 tsp after primary fermentation stopped (about 2 weeks) as well as 1.5TBSP of vanilla and .5 TBSP of almond extract.

 

[smalliewader]

The only changes to the recipe was us-05 yeast and substitute some hops varieties. Also only a 5 gallon batch which is why my higher og never bothered me. Between less liquid and the variables in the squash, the difference seems logical.

 

[smalliewader]

Well, it's held at 1.030 all week, so I pitched some more us-05 and 2 tsp of super ferment. I have my fingers crossed.

 

[cfonnes]

You are at 68 F? Warm it up to 75 F.

 

[Maxkling]

Did you do a full boil?

If not, your top off water and wort didn't mix well resulting in the OG being off.

 

[smalliewader]

Not a full boil, so yes, it could be off but usually isn't off by more than a few points if it is. Gravity is still 1.030 currently, so it needs to come down more regardless of the og.

I also have it in a 74° room right now. Just waiting to see some action, blow off hose attached jic.

 

[just2brew]

How much yeast did you pitch?

 

[smalliewader]

One pack originally, and one pack this evening.

 

[smalliewader]

Ok, so another week after pitching more yeast and nutrient, it's still at 1.030. Advice?