Re pitch yeast after 11 days?

[the_owl]

Hey there, brewed a big Baltic Porter a few weeks ago. Recipe indicated 1.088 and it came in at 1.087. had a yeast issue where my starter fell off the plate (don't ask).
I ran to my local and all he had was June expired white labs in my flavor. I bought two and made another starter the day before brew day. Not good.
Def no more activity. So I took a sample and transferred to secondary. 1.032 where the recipe should be 1.015 by now .
I have some champagne yeast here. Should I do it?
It's a sweet and Smokey flavor right now.
Set it in the sceondary on cacao and coffee soaked in vodka

 

[IslandLizard]

First off, is that 1.032 a hydrometer or refractometer reading?
If you used a refractometer, RDWHAHB, all is good. You need to use a calculator, because direct refractometer readings are incorrect once alcohol is present.

Do I understand correctly, you did pitch whatever yeast starter didn't get spilled? How much yeast did you end up pitching, only half? Even less?
If so, that may be part of the problem. Large beers like that need a large healthy yeast pitch, and need to be well oxygenated/aerated too.

Why did you move it to a secondary? Rousing, bringing the cake back into suspension should have been the first course of action, not taking it off the yeast.

Pitching champagne yeast won't do a thing, it can't ferment maltotriose, which is likely all that's leftover.

Old and expired yeast:
"Expired" yeast can still be good, even 4 months after the "exp. date," but it may take longer to revive and rebuild to a pitchable size. I usually give yeast a minimum of 3 days on a stir plate (both from fresh packs and stored slurries), waiting for the color change, becoming significantly lighter. It sometimes takes a week. I rarely get that color change after 24 hours, even with yeast that's only a month old.

White Labs Pure Pitch packs retain their vitality much better than any other packaging. I've resuscitated sleeves with 2 year old Lager yeast. Yup, took a few rounds to get a large enough cell count.

 

[Moose_MI]

Wtf have you done? I’ve read this 3 times and still shaking my head.
Remember “Brewers make wort; yeast makes beer”

So, what healthy yeast do you have or can you get to turn your wort into beer? Pitch that...quick...I don’t care if it’s Kolsch yeast...for the love of wort...pitch healthy yeast

 

[the_owl]

To answer. I took a hydrometer reading while still in primary. Stayed at 1.032 for three days.
Yeast starter spilled almost all out.
Made a new starter about 16 hrs before brew. Pitched that. It was dark brown.
I was going to live with the results but was asking if another yeast add would be worth anything

 

[Moose_MI]

Got it..

Answer=yes, it will add healthy fermentation. At this point your intended beer should be gracefully forgotten and I would just try to get some healthy yeast going in your wort before something nasty takes over. If you have any temperature control you can keep fermentation in the low range which will generally suppress ester production regardless of strain.

Any dry yeast hanging around? S05, S04, Nottingham, etc etc?

 

[IslandLizard]

To answer. I took a hydrometer reading while still in primary. Stayed at 1.032 for three days.
Yeast starter spilled almost all out.
Made a new starter about 16 hrs before brew. Pitched that. It was dark brown.
I was going to live with the results but was asking if another yeast add would be worth anything

Older yeast does take longer to propagate, 16 hours is not enough. Your dark brown starter is an indication of that.

Remember “Brewers make wort; yeast makes beer”

That! ^
Just curious, why did you brew when you didn't have enough yeast or a proper starter to pitch?

You could make a big healthy starter using an alcohol tolerant, fresh yeast. That will take a few days, may even need a 2-step starter. When that starter reaches high krausen, pitch it into your stalled beer. It's still 50/50, IOW, it may or may not work.

Meanwhile, your stalled beer is probably oxidizing sitting in that "secondary" with nothing to ferment.

Got any CO2 around, kegs?

 

[IslandLizard]

I would just try to get some healthy yeast going in your wort before something nasty takes over.

The OP's beer is at 1.032, it's already 2/3 fermented, 55 points down from 1.087. There is not much that's gonna take over that quickly, as long as he used good sanitation.

 

[Moose_MI]

^^^^probably true...time to keg!

 

[bracconiere]

there's always gluco, it'll take it down to 1.000...

 

[couchsending]

One of, if not the highest regraded Robust porters in the world starts at 1.086 and end at 1.030... just sayin.

 

[the_owl]

I have a glycol chiller and my transfer/sanitation is spot on! The transfer went from a brewtech bucket spout to another brewbucket spout full of cO2 and an airlock.
I have a white labs Edinburgh yeast in the fridge. Should I even bother or just enjoy?
The reason I went ahead and brewed is because, well thats brew day! I took the day off from work and franky I wont have another day to brew for weeks. This is a christmas beer and we can as gifts.

 

[rburrelli]

I vote for “its done”. From where it started and where it is now, probably going to be fine.

 

[the_owl]

Well I decided to not re-pitch and a day after I transferred and set it to 67, its started back up! Not sure why it stalled. But it went to 1.028, and today it was at 1.024.