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Opinions Please. Can I/Should I........?

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DNKDUKE

DNKDUKE

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OK.... All y'all to me, are the experts, so......let's say I'm still an impatient brewer and I pulled a beer out of primary and racked into secondary too early. When I secondaried, I racked on top of a quart of maple syrup and some yeast nutrient and made sure that I sucked out a little of the trub into secondary. When I did this, the gravity was 1.045 from an OG of 1.085. (I know, I know...:smack:)

Question: Since I don't know how much more yeast I added in the racking and am afraid that this won't reach a decent gravity, OR worse yet, not carbonate properly, can I/should I introduce more yeast (which I saved from primary) into the carboy at this time or just let it go?

It's sitting in a temp controlled fridge at 63deg F
Yeast is WLP007
 
Let it sit for a while. Since you racked it so early, the yeast will be more active and there will be more in suspension. Theyll probably pick back up unless they cannot tolerate that high a gravity

Next time: just dump the maple syrup into the primary. Much easier and less risk of infection / oxidation
 
I'd wait before doing anything. If the gravity was still 1.045 then it has a long way to go and there should be plenty of yeast in suspension.
 
The yeast should compensate and reproduce itself as needed. There's not really a whole lot of reasons why that wouldn't happen. It just may take a little while longer.

If you're worried take it out of the fridge and place it in a 70 degree or so room.
 
Add more yeast. I'd do it right away. There's no reason not too. Get a starter going if possible, or just buy two or three vials. I'm concerned that by racking the beer to secondary you've introduced a bunch of O2 and bacteria (it's always present) and, with all that sugar still available, you risk problems.

I want to rant about secondaries and screwing with the beer before it's done, but I think you know all that already. Good luck.
 
Psylocide said:
How long was it in primary? A couple days?
Click to expand...

14 days
I made a (2) gallon beer starter rather than a regular starter.
The WLP007 too off on this beer like a volcano for the first week. then all but stopped. I tried to rouse is with gentle stirring to no avail, so I secondaried. I have not touched it since (about 10 days)
 
passedpawn said:
Add more yeast. I'd do it right away. There's no reason not too. Get a starter going if possible, or just buy two or three vials. I'm concerned that by racking the beer to secondary you've introduced a bunch of O2 and bacteria (it's always present) and, with all that sugar still available, you risk problems.

I want to rant about secondaries and screwing with the beer before it's done, but I think you know all that already. Good luck.
Click to expand...
I do..........:drunk:

I have approx. (1) L of yeast saved. Can I just re-introduce the yeast or are you sticking with the 2-3 vial starter?

There are no visible signs of infection.
 
I haven't made a beer over 1.070, but I would think that it would have fermented out further than that in 14 days. I could be wrong though, I have no experience with that yeast or OG.
 
(tongue-in-cheek) ...but I love my refractometer - it has a pretty blue line and I don't have to squink (popeye) to read it....
 
Well according to this calculator, it's done. 1.005

Untitled.jpg
 
I will take a gravity when I get home tonight and because I'm going to do that with a refracto meter, I will plug the number into the calculator.
Results forthcoming.
 
Psylocide said:
Problem solved then, eh?
Click to expand...

:ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban:

Maybe, I'll see what the number looks like tonight.

:rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin:

passedpawn: I was heading toward your advice when I got this refractometer thing. If the gravity is not to my liking, I will be using your suggestion.
 
DNKDUKE said:
:ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban: :ban:

Maybe, I'll see what the number looks like tonight.

:rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin: :rockin:

passedpawn: I was heading toward your advice when I got this refractometer thing. If the gravity is not to my liking, I will be using your suggestion.
Click to expand...

I have a refractometer. I gave up getting it to read properly after fermentation. I'd cal it for one beer, the next beer it would be way off again. Hydrometer is the only way.
 
Ok.
The current gravity is 1.005.
So the next question is do I condition in the secondary and then bottle OR do I bottle now and let it sit for 4-6 weeks?
 
What kind of beer was this supposed to be?

That puts you at ~10.3% ABV @ 1.005 FG.
 
Maple sap and syrup porter.
That's about spot on for the recipe since it called for TWO quarts of syrup with an ABV closer to 11.5% and I only used 1 QT.
 
Know that I used the refractometer and plugged the number into the calculator.
Even after adding the qt of syrup, my refract. Number was 1.049. Only .005 higher than before I added the maple.
 
Yamo bottle but I'm gonna take my time. So if I don't get to it for another week or two that's OK.
I'm working on my patience............:D
 
UPDATE:
This has been sitting in bottles for 3 weeks and is just starting to carbonate - I opened a bottle last night. It is still sickeningly sweet so I honestly do not think any further carbonation or conditioning is going to help the flavor. (first needed opinion)

I am thinking about opening 3/4 of the bottles and dumping them in a sanitized carboy with the slurry that I saved from this beers primary. Has anyone ever tried/done this? Is this a viable option for a beer that I think I pulled out of fermentation too early?
 
DNKDUKE said:
UPDATE:
This has been sitting in bottles for 3 weeks and is just starting to carbonate - I opened a bottle last night. It is still sickeningly sweet so I honestly do not think any further carbonation or conditioning is going to help the flavor. (first needed opinion)

I am thinking about opening 3/4 of the bottles and dumping them in a sanitized carboy with the slurry that I saved from this beers primary. Has anyone ever tried/done this? Is this a viable option for a beer that I think I pulled out of fermentation too early?
Click to expand...

How about opening one beer and getting a hydrometer reading on it? If there's much carbonation then you might want to first decarb the beer by warming it up a bit (80F should be good), and stirring until most of the carbonation has gone away, then cooling back down to 60F for the reading.

It's hard to believe that a 1.005 beer is sickeningly sweet and since you came up with that FG using a refract calculator then I think it's time for a second opinion (i.e. hydrometer).

Also, in regards to the recipe, what were your hop additions or expected IBUs?
 
DNKDUKE said:
Will this be accurate?
I will try this tonight.
Click to expand...

Yes, as long as you remove most of the carbonation and get the beer to around 60F when taking the reading.

I have poured beer into a glass (or metal bowl), and then put that glass in a larger bowl of hot water to warm it up. Stirring every 5 minutes for about half an hour is usually sufficient to knock out most of the carbonation. Then put the glass in a bowl of ice water to cool it back down to 60F.
 
stpug said:
Yes, as long as you remove most of the carbonation and get the beer to around 60F when taking the reading.

I have poured beer into a glass (or metal bowl), and then put that glass in a larger bowl of hot water to warm it up. Stirring every 5 minutes for about half an hour is usually sufficient to knock out most of the carbonation. Then put the glass in a bowl of ice water to cool it back down to 60F.
Click to expand...

I will do this.
Stay tuned.............

EDIT:
Where are you going solution wise, with this?
 

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