Stuck Belgian Quad?

[Jcpilot]

Hello all. I brewed a Rochefort 10 clone on June 6th and the gravity appears to be stuck. My OG was 10 points low at 1.086, I had too much in the kettle pre boil. Still trying to nail down my numbers on the new system. The recipe is from Candi Syrup's website and I just doubled the recipe. Current gravity is 1.019 and it hasn't moved for three days. The recipe calls for a final gravity around 1.014. Brewers friend says I'm at 9% abv with 79% attenuation. The recipe targets 11% abv. I'm two weeks into fermentation with four smack packs of Wyeast 1762 in 11 gallons. I didn't have time to make a starter, life's been nuts. I used pure O2 through a stone for one minute prior to pitch, and one additional minute dose of O2 at 12 hours. Initial temp was 63, increasing by one degree per day to 73 F.

Should I leave it in primary for another week or two? Should I add some champagne yeast to finish off any simple sugars. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
John

 

[Buckeye_Phil]

I would start by gently trying to rouse the yeast. Depending on your method / location of temp control, you may want to ramp a bit more (or just leave in a warm room without temp control). I would hold off on adding yeast / sugar at this point.

FWIW... I find Trappist and saison strains work more effectively if you let them free rise (instead of carefully step up temp). They always stall at 80% if I slowly ramp 10degF. However, if I get it started at mid-to-low 60s, let it go for 2 days and then turn off temp control and leave it to its own devices, I'll hit 85-90%. This also more closely represents the methods documented in "Brew Like a Monk."

 

[Jcpilot]

Thanks for the reply Phil. This is my second brew in a conical. Maybe I can slosh the fermenter back and forth to stir up some yeast. Have you ever tried injecting CO2 in the bottom of a conical to stir up the yeast? I'll turn up the temp controller to 75 as well. I was trying to avoid fusel alcohols and off flavors by raising the temp too high.

 

[flars]

A mash temperature over 148° would create a less fermentable wort. FG would then be higher than recorded in the recipe.

 

[Buckeye_Phil]

After a few days in, risk of fusel alcohols and off flavors is pretty low. In brew like a monk, many breweries talk about hitting 80-85 degF during fermentation. If you start there, it would be terrible, but ramping after growth phase should be safe.

You bring an interesting point on second conical brew. On many of the can you brew it podcasts, they had issues matching fermentation character, which they partly attributed to different fermenter geometry. Thinking is tall conical fermenters "subdue" yeast activity - caused by increased static pressure. They found they always had to ferment a few degrees colder than commercial breweries to match fermentation character. Maybe a few degrees warmer to start in your new conical would be something to try.

 

[Jcpilot]

Flars. I forgot to mention that I mashed at 148 with a PID controlled herms coil.

I gave the conical a good shake tonight and increased the temp to 75. I'll raise the temp for few days and see what happens. Any suggestions if there's no change in gravity after a week? The recipe calls for dropping the temp to 60 F for 10 days after primary, and then 45 for three weeks to brighten. I've cold crashed before to floc yeast out, but I'm not sure what the 60 F rest is for. Thanks guys.

 

[mappler]

How did this turn out? I'm sitting on a stuck Belgian Quad now as well. Just raised temperature to 75 degrees.

 

[Jcpilot]

I don't think it fully attenuated. I has a sweetness to it that lingers but its still a good beer. I'm going to let it age for a year and see if it gets better.