Need help troubleshooting my brew

[pzofsak]

I brewed a Belgian ale a while back and let it age for six months as usual. Once it was done aging I chilled a tester to try out. Before chilling it was clear and didn't appear cloudy even through the dark bottle. Once out of the fridge it was very cloudy, like mud almost. It poured with little to no carbonation. The taste was sweet and seemed more like worth than actual beer. I don't remember the actual gravity measurements, I have them written down in a drawer, but I remember it showing a pretty high alcohol content close to 12-13%. I figured I may have killed off my yeast since I left it in the secondary fermenter an extra week. So I opened up all the bottles, pitched some high gravity tolorant yeast, added it and recapped. Several weeks later this has not made any difference. Is it possible the wort fermented as it should and then got contaminated in the bottle and couldn't ferment? I always wash my bottles in the dishwasher and run the sanitize cycle. I am at a complete loss as to what happened and wonder if the beer is salvageable.

 

[RM-MN]

I brewed a Belgian ale a while back and let it age for six months as usual. Once it was done aging I chilled a tester to try out. Before chilling it was clear and didn't appear cloudy even through the dark bottle. Once out of the fridge it was very cloudy, like mud almost. It poured with little to no carbonation. The taste was sweet and seemed more like worth than actual beer. I don't remember the actual gravity measurements, I have them written down in a drawer, but I remember it showing a pretty high alcohol content close to 12-13%. I figured I may have killed off my yeast since I left it in the secondary fermenter an extra week. So I opened up all the bottles, pitched some high gravity tolorant yeast, added it and recapped. Several weeks later this has not made any difference. Is it possible the wort fermented as it should and then got contaminated in the bottle and couldn't ferment? I always wash my bottles in the dishwasher and run the sanitize cycle. I am at a complete loss as to what happened and wonder if the beer is salvageable.

The highlighted line may be a clue. Does your beer have no carbonation or no heading? Your yeast may be pretty stressed with the high alcohol and be taking a loooong time to carbonate, especially if bottles are stored in a cooler area. You may have to store the bottles in a warmer area to speed up carbonation.

If you have carbonation but no head or a short lived head when you pour it, check the dishwasher. If it has an anti-spotting dispenser with some anti-spotting agent in it, that anti-spotting agent is in your bottles and will kill the head on the beer.

The cloudiness may be chill haze, proteins precipitating out in the beer when it gets cold. Those proteins will gradually settle out and leave your beer clear again in a day or more. Some people will call for a better hot break or cold break to settle these out while others will use a "protein rest" to break these down before the saccrification rest.

 

[myndflyte]

I think pitching the high gravity yeast was a good idea. Like @RM-MN said, try moving them to a warmer spot if they are someone cooler. Contamination wouldn't prevent yeast from fermenting. More like the opposite. A contamination usually results in more fermentation. I think just give it some more time in a warmer spot.

 

[pzofsak]

Thanks for the replies. The beer has about 9 months aging on the original brew. It has only been a month since I reopened and pitched the higher alcohol yeast. Not sure if the dishwasher has a spotting agent or not, we rarely use it so there could be some residual left from prior use. The beer is currently stored at room temperature, which is about 75 F.
There is the slightest hint of carbonation upon opening, it can be heard, but no head whatsoever.

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for the replies. The beer has about 9 months aging on the original brew. It has only been a month since I reopened and pitched the higher alcohol yeast. Not sure if the dishwasher has a spotting agent or not, we rarely use it so there could be some residual left from prior use. The beer is currently stored at room temperature, which is about 75 F.
There is the slightest hint of carbonation upon opening, it can be heard, but no head whatsoever.

The little bit of carbonation says that the yeast are trying to do their job but the 9 months aging let a lot of them settle out so you don't have as much working. The yeast you added probably are struggling too due to the alcohol present when you added it. The lack of head is probably from washing the bottles in the dishwasher. Since the bottle openings are small and the bottle tall, the rinse cycle may not have gotten all the soap out. Any residue of this soap kills the heading just as the anti-spotting agent can. You probably will be back to hand washing your bottles. Your glassware you serve in can be a problem too for the same reason. Hand wash some and rinse 3 times and see if that is the cause.

 

[ncbrewer]

According to this BYO article
http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/19-brewing-tips/52-24-brewing-tips-and-rules-of-thumb: "The heated rinse cycle of a home dishwasher is great for sanitizing bottles, but keep two things in mind. First, the bottles still need to be clean prior to being placed in the dishwasher; any deposits inside the bottles will not be removed by the water spray. Second, be sure to run at least one cycle of water only (no soap) in the dishwasher prior to placing your bottles in." Probably not the cause of your head problem, but washing the bottles in the dishwasher might not be best practice.