Why the hell can't I seem to hit my target FG with this IIPA recipe???

[Yooper]

Yooper, one unrelated question, but since you're probably going to see this reply and since I know you make wines: I am about to blend a sweet wine with a dry wine that I dried out with EC-1118. The wine has cleared and all looks well, and I am wondering if you think I should add Kmeta and Ksorbate to stabilize the dry wine before blending it with the sweet. I am going to keg it because I want it sparkling, but I don't want the fermentation starting up again in the keg (I don't know if this would even happen, but I know that EC-1118 is a beast of a yeast). Even so, I would love to avoid using the Kmeta and Ksorbate if I can get away with it. What do you think? Would it hurt to just go ahead and blend the wines in the keg and then put under pressure without adding the stabilizers?

Hmmm- that's a good question! I would think that EC1118 would indeed ferment the sweet wine, depending on how clear it is and and what the OG/FG is.

One thing you can do is keep the keg cold- if you keep the keg cold right after you blend them, the yeast probably won't be able to start up again. That's assuming that the wine is very clear, no new lees are dropping, and the wine is more than about 12%+/- so. If the wine is +12%ish, and it's very clear, and it's been cold stabilized, adding the new sweet wine and keeping the entire keg cold probably would ensure few enough viable yeast to start up again. That's making a few assumptions and guesses, of course, but it should work.

 

[homebrewbeliever]

Another thing to consider trying next time is adding your simple sugars later in the fermentation. Brew and pitch as you have been but once you see fermentation slowing add your sugars into the carboy (dissolve in a small amount of water). This will allow the yeast to eat up the less fermentable long-chain sugars first and then have the simple sugars for desert. Theres always room for desert.

I never thought of that! And I like your mantra, cause hell yeah there is always room for dessert!

 

[homebrewbeliever]

Hmmm- that's a good question! I would think that EC1118 would indeed ferment the sweet wine, depending on how clear it is and and what the OG/FG is.

One thing you can do is keep the keg cold- if you keep the keg cold right after you blend them, the yeast probably won't be able to start up again. That's assuming that the wine is very clear, no new lees are dropping, and the wine is more than about 12%+/- so. If the wine is +12%ish, and it's very clear, and it's been cold stabilized, adding the new sweet wine and keeping the entire keg cold probably would ensure few enough viable yeast to start up again. That's making a few assumptions and guesses, of course, but it should work.

Thanks, Yooper. I went ahead and blended them without any stabilizers and am keeping the keg at 40*F under pressure. It's sitting at 15.9% abv and it is incredibly clear. However, I did blend them before I got them cold, so it will be an interesting experiment to see what happens. The data sheet on the EC-1118 says that the yeast is viable between 50-86*F, so I am thinking that it would have gotten too cold before the yeast had a chance to start up again.

 

[kombat]

I'll go ahead and mash at 148*F. I am not resistant, I've just never mashed anything that low before.

I mash all my IPA's and IIPA's at 148. 148 isn't really that "low." You could mash at 144 and get a VERY fermentable wort. 148 is near the "compromise" zone between the alpha and beta amalyse enzymes.

 

[funnycreature]

You should try this method:
http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2013/02/02/kaipa2/

You basically take some enzymatically active wort from your mash and pasteurize it, then add it to the fermenter. I've never done it but it might be worth trying!

 

[chuckstout]

Also stick with a very healthy yeast starter and buy some sort of yeast nutrient for them. Plus as far fermentation temps I would do a slow rise over the course of 9-12 days. At day three or four I would raise the temp a degree then another point every 2 or 3 days tell I hit 70 or whatever your comfortable with, then I would hold it tell the yeast are done. These things really improved my batches.

As far as mashing I agree 147-149 90 min.

Edit: cheers!

 

[LovesIPA]

You might want to take a look at this thread as well, as it's very relevant to your issue. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/controlling-attenuation-through-mash-times-60576/

 

[homebrewbeliever]

You might want to take a look at this thread as well, as it's very relevant to your issue. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/controlling-attenuation-through-mash-times-60576/

That is an AWESOME thread!!! Thanks!

 

[homebrewbeliever]

Now how about water to grain ratios? I've been doing about 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain, but I am wondering if it would help to increase the ratio to 1.75 quarts per pound... What do you think?

 

[PeteNMA]

Really? I didn't know that high OG beers had to be mashed lower to finish lower... I figured that it would put off the same amount of fermentable and unfermentable sugars as other beers that were mashed at that temp.

Don't forget that your base malt is a source of non-fermentables too. You can usually ignore them for regular gravity batches, but once you get into the high gravity stuff you have a lot more base malt and you tend to lose a bit of mash efficiency too, so the non-fermentable contribution from the base malt goes up.