Too high FG

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NaymzJaymz

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My latest beer is a barleywine type brew with 1.098 OG. The yeast is WLP007, which seemed a good yeast for this fermentation. I pitched a large starter and things took off quickly. After about three weeks my temperature controller malfunctioned(Inkbird) and essentially cold crashed the beer. Upon taking a gravity reading I'm at 1.038 SG. Should I chalk this "failure" up to the temp controller gaff, or was the beer pretty much finished anyway at three weeks? Did I pick the wrong yeast? Is there any way I can wake it back up or save it with another yeast? I had a bourbon barrel just waiting for this baby, and am pretty disappointed. Is it worth drinking like this? Thanks in advance.
 
I would try pitching something neutral like us05 or possibly Nottingham would be my first choice. You already got the flavour from the 007 so all you need is something to drop it a bit further.
 
3 weeks is a long time to wait for a beer to ferment... that beer would have been finished in 7-9 days with a few more days for cleaning/conditioning. I'm with Miraculix. Nottingham can ferment it down to 1.02x something.

BTW: I think 1.038 is a good FG for any 9+% ABV beer.
 
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That's not a crazy FG. I think people obsess about gravity far too much. You could rouse the yeast and see if it drops anymore. If not, just let things settle and package it.
 
I would try pitching something neutral like us05 or possibly Nottingham would be my first choice. You already got the flavour from the 007 so all you need is something to drop it a bit further.
I have some Lallemand CBC-1, would that work?
 
Should I
3 weeks is a long time to wait for a beer to ferment... that beer would have been finished in 7-9 days with a few more days for cleaning/conditioning. I'm with Miraculix. Nottingham can ferment it down to 1.02x something.

BTW: I think 1.038 is a good FG for any 9+% ABV beer.
Should I have used Nottingham in the first place? It seemed like 007 was a good choice. Shouldn't I have done better? I made a 2 quart starter. The wort was well oxygenated. I was expecting a better FG since I hit the other Beersmith numbers. Thanks for the response.
 
What was your mash temperature? You have 61% attenuation which could imply a high amount of unfermentable dextrins in the wort.
 
CBC-1 doesn't utilize maltotriose so it won't really help. Once you get towards the end of fermentation all that's really left is maltotriose and higher order sugars.
Thanks for your help. Any ideas on why I didn't do better in the first place on the FG? Was 007 a bad choice for something this size?
 
That is only about 58% attenuation. The yeast is capable of 80%. I would raise the temperature to about 70F, swirl and wait a few days before adding another yeast. Nottingham, IMO, is just an alternative, not better or worse of a choice.
 
Many high flocculating yeasts can floc out early, which can lead to lower attenuation, but WLP007 should still be able to handle a beer like this. I'm wondering if your temp controller didn't fail earlier and you just didn't notice.
 
Sometimes yeast craps out for unknown reasons....

As said before, CBC one is designed not to utilize residual sugars, therefore won't help.

Swirl the yeast up and bring it to Room temp for a week, keep rousing the yeast every few days and see if that helps. If not, pitch notty and continue with the rousing.

But try it first. It might actually taste all right so maybe there's no action necessary.

It's the taste that counts, not the number.
 
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