Sake #9/Wine Yeast

[Pa1eMa1e]

I brewed this 'what if' beer that is based on asian influences and i used Wyeast's Sake #9 which is classified as a wine yeast i guess... my problem is that normally with any other ale yeast it's pretty much done fermenting after a week. it might lose a couple gravity points after another week but that's it. so after a week in the fermenter my asian beer is only down to 1.018... the starting gravity was 1.053. so is it typical for a wine yeast to take longer? or does anyone have any input? the recipe was:

Batch size: 1.25 gal

1.65# 6 row
0.60# Nishiki Rice (Sushi Rice)
0.60# Forbidden China Rice (or Forbidden Black Rice)
0.15# 120 L

0.10oz Fuggle @ 60 Min (17 IBUs)

2oz Oriental Blend Tea (from a local natural foods store) for 4 min at flame out

 

[skibb]

How did you prepare the rice? When brewing with rice you have to boil it first to solubilize the starches, then add it to the mash so that the enzymes from the 6-row can convert it into sugars that the sake yeast can ferment.

 

[Pa1eMa1e]

yeah, i basically just cooked the rice like normal on the stove top. then because it was all mushy i added rice hulls to the mash too. so after i transferred it into a carboy it started going again. krausen and everything... oh, and for the week it was in the primary it was fermenting at about 66 deg. and now that it's in the carboy it's just chillin, probably around 75... but still all my other medium gravity beers i ferment about 66-70 and they're always below 1.010 in a week so that's why my original question was do wine yeasts take longer?

 

[Guess42]

All yeasts ferment at different rates. 3724 takes over a month sometimes. Wine yeast may take longer as it's not used to fermenting malt bases?

 

[Pa1eMa1e]

thanks guys, i think it'll be cool. i'm just impatient...

 

[Radegast]

I'm in the same boat and was actually coming here to post about the same issue. For the first couple weeks it went like gangbusters, bubbling a 1.132 aggressively and quickly from a blatant underpitch (Half a tube, maybe 50 bil cells?). Now, it's down to 1.050 and hardly moving. Almost no growth, but the taste is improving. This is my first non-beer yeast beer, so I don't know the SOP.

edit: Maybe flocculation's our culprit? Have you tried rousing the yeast? I had so much yeast at the bottom that a good hard stir changed the beer from dark brown to almost cream colored. Now I'm reading it's standard barleywine practice to shake the yeast back into solution 3 times a day (!). Is your yeast flocc'ing yet?

 

[dubiouschewy]

Thinking about trying a sake yeast beer, did yours ever finish out? How did it taste?

 

[Radegast]

Oh hey just saw this. Mine's still in the basement. I made a Premier Cuvee yeast starter when I got impatient. The beer's dried out nicely, but carving a 12% beer isn't going to be easy! I tasted it, and there is a nice flavor, although some of it's from the raisins I added to help the yeast. I think my problem is the OG was insanely high due to miscalculations on my part. I'm looking forward to pitching something on that cake.