Repitching yeast

[robertscott1123]

Hello to anyone who reads this message.

I brewed a lemon coriander weis beer about 4 weeks back. The OG was much higher than the recipe stated (1.070 to 1.051). This alone was surprising since I was following an all-extract recipe. I wasn't expecting the gravity to be that high so I didn't have a yeast starter available. I pitched one vial of liquid weihenstephaner yeast. Anyway, after one week in the primary my gravity was hovering around 1.030. I transferred it anyway to my secondary since bubbling was all but gone. I also moved it to the hottest spot in my house (about 74 degrees) to sit for the past three weeks. My gravity is now at 1.020 and has been for the past couple of weeks. The beer has a good flavor but it is way to sweet to bottle at this point. Any recommendations for adding more yeast to try to get the gravity lower? Thanks for reading.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Yooper]

Hello to anyone who reads this message.

I brewed a lemon coriander weis beer about 4 weeks back. The OG was much higher than the recipe stated (1.070 to 1.051). This alone was surprising since I was following an all-extract recipe. I wasn't expecting the gravity to be that high so I didn't have a yeast starter available. I pitched one vial of liquid weihenstephaner yeast. Anyway, after one week in the primary my gravity was hovering around 1.030. I transferred it anyway to my secondary since bubbling was all but gone. I also moved it to the hottest spot in my house (about 74 degrees) to sit for the past three weeks. My gravity is now at 1.020 and has been for the past couple of weeks. The beer has a good flavor but it is way to sweet to bottle at this point. Any recommendations for adding more yeast to try to get the gravity lower? Thanks for reading.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

It's not uncommon for extract beers to stop at 1.020 and just finish there. I've had that happen to me when I was brewing with extract.

I'd say it's done, and carbonation will provide some "bite" to help balance the sweetness.

 

[peterj]

Adding more yeast won't do much. There's plenty of yeast in there. Are you measuring the gravity with a refractometer or hydrometer? Refractometers are not accurate after fermentation has started.

If you added the correct amount of extract and ended up with the right volume then it's unlikely that your actual OG was that much higher than predicted. You may not have mixed the wort up thoroughly enough before taking a sample.

 

[kh54s10]

I agree with the prior posts. If you used all the ingredients and ended up with the right volume, your true OG was very close to 1.051. Top up water is often difficult to mix in thoroughly.

At 1.051 a starter is considered unnecessary (with very fresh liquid yeast). I make starters for anything over 1.040. The beer should have fermented without one anyway. Usually the main concern is not whether it will finish, but off flavors due to under pitching.

1.020 is a common stopping point for extract brews.

I also agree that you can not really tell how sweet a beer will be before it is carbonated. If it is incredibly sweet you may have a problem, but a little sweet is likely to disappear when carbonated.

I don't see any real problems here.

 

[robertscott1123]

Thanks for the replies! I will bottle and see how it goes. I didn't realize that carbonation will off set some of the sweetness.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew