Repitch an already kegged beer?

[bolts]

Returned to brewing after a couple year hiatus and made a Saison a couple of months ago. A rather big Saison...

The exact recipe is at home, but it's along the lines of 10lbs extract (light), 2 lbs honey and a touch of grains (Vienna and something else I forget). Light on the hops + a touch of grains of paradise).

I used WLP566, but forgot to make a starter, oops -- the things you forget. I ramped over a couple days from pitching temp up to 88. I kept it in a water bath with aquarium heaters to keep it at temp for 4 wks in the primary. It dropped to 020 pretty quickly, then bottomed out at 014 at three weeks. I has since been in a keg for a month and carb'd up.

It's a decent beer, but seems much sweeter than a 014 FG, lots of esters, a touch of sour, but it gets sweet as it warms up -- not really Saison in character. Frankly, I'd rather it was dryer.


So, to finally get to my question. I wouldn't mind something like a BrettC to sour and funk it up while driving down the residual sugars, but I already kegged it. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks,
-Josh

 

[Saccharomyces]

Same here... I think that is the limit of attenuation for that yeast. In mine I racked to a clean carboy, rehydrated a pack of champagne yeast and hucked it in along with a teaspoon of amylase powder (3-4 crushed Beano tablets would do the same thing). I let it sit for a couple of months in the carboy and when I measured the gravity again it had dropped from 1.014 to 1.006. Tastes much better now.

If the beer is already carbed you will want to degas it before adding the secondary yeast, but you can certainly do it in the keg... just bleed off the pressure every day or so, and rack off to a clean keg when it's done.

 

[mitch171]

What is the bean-o for?

 

[Joos]

BrettC will bring it down.If you like that flavor I say go for it.

 

[Saccharomyces]

What is the bean-o for?

Breaks down some of the dextrins into simple sugars the champagne yeast can eat.

 

[bolts]

Dropped by the local homebrew store today to and he suggested I bring a sample in tomorrow to do some diagnosis. Also took a new FG reading today also after degassing the sample and it's around 1.012.

Will update when I decide what to do... Thanks for the info, both the amylase and the degas before repitching make sense.

 

[eriktlupus]

i had to do this this past summer to a lager i did in jan. i degasses and racked it back into a carboy repitched some 800 and took it down about 10 points to a slightly sweet 1.006 a touch higher than wanted but makes an undrinkable lager great.