Screw up = time for fun?

[TheH2]

I have 8 gallons if wit that I transferred to kegs before checking FG and it's at 1.022. They're now sitting in the warmest part of my house and there is a tiny amount of co2 released every morning when I pull the tab so I guess it is fermenting, but probably not going to go much farther (I've never had this problem before). So, I'm thinking of pitching a champagne yeast (or WLP099 given a recent thread) in the 5 gallon keg.

For the 3 gallons (in a 5 gallon keg for what it's worth) I'm thinking of pitching brett. Would that ruin my keg for anything other than brett? I probably only like about 25% of the beers with Brett so I don't want to basically damage a good keg. Also, is beer with brett not very good if you don't give it time to age? I was thinking about putting it in my keezer when it reached 1.012 because I don't want to overdue the brett.

Thanks.

If you care, I normally do a two step mash with wits (only beer I step) with highest temp at 152. For this batch I didn't step and mashed at 156. Although it should still go past 1.022, it was probably just moving slow at that point. I have no clue why I mashed at 156. It's been awhile and I didn't review my mash temp from previous brews.

 

[m1k3]

- What was the OG?

- I would not pitch anything else, unless you are convinced that it is undrinkable at 1.022.

- Personally, I ramp the temp up at the end of every fermentation for a few days before taking the beer off the yeast. In some cases it may not be necessary but with this method I never take a FG reading until it's kegged. (sorry, that does not help you this time).

 

[day_trippr]

Champagne yeast is great with simple sugars, not so much with complex.
It's unlikely to dry out a difficult barley malt fermentation - the original pitch would have knocked out all the simple sugars with ease already.

WLP099 might bring it down some, but it may not be worth the effort...

Cheers!

 

[maazak]

When I've mashed at too high a temp I was able to get from 1.02 to 1.01 by adding amalyse enzyme. After adding that I waited another week to check and the FG had dropped and the beer tasted much less sweet to my palette

 

[TheH2]

- What was the OG?

It was 1.055. Thanks for all the responses. It's actually still fermenting slowly (I'm releasing CO2 from the keg every day). Once it stops for a couple days I'll probably car one keg and see how it is. If it's good, I'll keg the other.

When I've mashed at too high a temp I was able to get from 1.02 to 1.01 by adding amalyse enzyme. After adding that I waited another week to check and the FG had dropped and the beer tasted much less sweet to my palette.

I may try this with the second batch if the first isn't right. I generally prefer my beer a little dry, especially Belgian style (which begs the question why I mashed at 156?).

I still may try brett with one of the batches if I don't like the results. I'll do some research first. But for now, I'll just wait it out. My wits (last three) all finished at 1.01 so hopefully I can get a few more points and it not be too much of an issue.

Thanks all!

 

[eigua]

I also had a stuck fermentation around 1.030 I believe. All the methods of restarting the yeast failed. I even tried adding amylase, but it wouldn't start up again. Finally I pitched some Cote des Blancs wine yeast. I didn't really expect anything to happen because everyone says it can't ferment complex sugars, but to my surprise it started bubbling. It isn't a very strong fermentation, but it's been bubbling for a couple of weeks now.

 

[TheH2]

I have 8 gallons if wit that I transferred to kegs before checking FG and it's at 1.022. They're now sitting in the warmest part of my house and there is a tiny amount of co2 released every morning when I pull the tab so I guess it is fermenting, but probably not going to go much farther (I've never had this problem before). So, I'm thinking of pitching a champagne yeast (or WLP099 given a recent thread) in the 5 gallon keg.

For the 3 gallons (in a 5 gallon keg for what it's worth) I'm thinking of pitching brett. Would that ruin my keg for anything other than brett? I probably only like about 25% of the beers with Brett so I don't want to basically damage a good keg. Also, is beer with brett not very good if you don't give it time to age? I was thinking about putting it in my keezer when it reached 1.012 because I don't want to overdue the brett.

Thanks.

If you care, I normally do a two step mash with wits (only beer I step) with highest temp at 152. For this batch I didn't step and mashed at 156. Although it should still go past 1.022, it was probably just moving slow at that point. I have no clue why I mashed at 156. It's been awhile and I didn't review my mash temp from previous brews.

A late update. The 3 gallon batch fermented to 1.017 and the 4 gallon batch went all the way to 1.002 and could still see bubbles rising to the surface. The 3 gallon was drinkable, not great, and the five gallon was a good bit off. I think it got an infection in the keg so I'll be dumping that one when I need a keg.

Time for a good clean of the keg.