MarkMarine
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2018
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- 30
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I've been trying for a couple weeks to rescue a beer (a mosiac IPA with a ton of late whirpool hops) that just wouldn't get to final gravity, there were a few problems mashing that I will correct for next time, but my main question is should I bother saving this beer? The reason I ask is I've done a number of things that probably wouldn't give it optimal flavor, and I've got another 30$ worth of dry hopping to do, and I'm not sure I should use the hops.
My beer started at 1.062 going into the fermentor, with 9 gallons, and I probably underpitched WLP090, using 1 very very fresh vial on a stir plate to create a 3L starter, but in retrospect that probably wasn't enough. Anyway, I had some energetic bubbles for the first 3-4 days, and at 7 days I checked gravity with a hydrometer and it was at 1.024, so I let it sit for 3 days checking each day and it was stuck at 1.024.
So I bumped the temp on my brewpi up from 66 deg, slowly over 3 days, to 72 and started rousing the yeast every few hours by swishing the fermentor. I direct heat and cool my fermentor with a chiller coil and cone heater on my spike conical, and the temp probe is a direct reading inside the container at the 6 gal mark. It's been very stable and accurate in the past.
Anyway, after a week of rousing the yeast and 4 days at 72 deg, I re-checked and gravity was still at 1.024. Bummer. Ok, I planned for this, I'd made a stepped starter with 3 vials of WLP090 and pitched it on the second step at high krausen (4L) on the 14th day of fermentation. There was almost nothing from the fermentor, bubbles or smell, but I just kept rousing the yeast every couple hours and kept the temp at 72 for another week.
Rechecked gravity and it's still at 1.024 so I made a big starter of WLP099 (3 vials, started at 1L just to wake them up, then stepped up to 3.5L) and now pitched that in at high krausen. Now the airlock is bubbling again (thank god) but I'm trying to figure out if I should continue here.
The beer doesn't have that fresh hoppy smell this last time I opened the fermentor, and even if it makes it to FG, I pitched in almost a gallon and a half of oxidized, un-hopped starter beer off a stir plate. Should I just take my lumps and drain it, or should I see what the WLP099 does, possibly add some dextrose to get closer to FG, dry hop and chill and see what it does? I don't want 10 gallons of crap beer hanging around.
My beer started at 1.062 going into the fermentor, with 9 gallons, and I probably underpitched WLP090, using 1 very very fresh vial on a stir plate to create a 3L starter, but in retrospect that probably wasn't enough. Anyway, I had some energetic bubbles for the first 3-4 days, and at 7 days I checked gravity with a hydrometer and it was at 1.024, so I let it sit for 3 days checking each day and it was stuck at 1.024.
So I bumped the temp on my brewpi up from 66 deg, slowly over 3 days, to 72 and started rousing the yeast every few hours by swishing the fermentor. I direct heat and cool my fermentor with a chiller coil and cone heater on my spike conical, and the temp probe is a direct reading inside the container at the 6 gal mark. It's been very stable and accurate in the past.
Anyway, after a week of rousing the yeast and 4 days at 72 deg, I re-checked and gravity was still at 1.024. Bummer. Ok, I planned for this, I'd made a stepped starter with 3 vials of WLP090 and pitched it on the second step at high krausen (4L) on the 14th day of fermentation. There was almost nothing from the fermentor, bubbles or smell, but I just kept rousing the yeast every couple hours and kept the temp at 72 for another week.
Rechecked gravity and it's still at 1.024 so I made a big starter of WLP099 (3 vials, started at 1L just to wake them up, then stepped up to 3.5L) and now pitched that in at high krausen. Now the airlock is bubbling again (thank god) but I'm trying to figure out if I should continue here.
The beer doesn't have that fresh hoppy smell this last time I opened the fermentor, and even if it makes it to FG, I pitched in almost a gallon and a half of oxidized, un-hopped starter beer off a stir plate. Should I just take my lumps and drain it, or should I see what the WLP099 does, possibly add some dextrose to get closer to FG, dry hop and chill and see what it does? I don't want 10 gallons of crap beer hanging around.