Will Cold Crashing stop Amylase?

[kpr121]

So, long story short: I have an IPA that has an FG of 1.017. I was hoping it would be lower (somewhere around 1.012). OG was 1.072. All grain, mashed at 150, 8% table sugar addition. Pitched onto a US-04 yeast cake and oxygenated with pure O2 for 1 minute.

I put 2 tsp of Amylase Enzyme (from AHS) in the secondary (keg) yesterday, and I am starting to think this was a not so good idea. Can I monitor the SG daily and then toss the keg in the fridge to cold crash and stop the yeast from munching down further? Or am I destined to have an overly dry beer?

I have tried to read about Amylase but I've seen varying reports. Some say its not a matter of unfermentables, some say it will help a stuck ferment.

The way I see it, it may help convert some unfermentable sugars, but wont help a stuck ferment. Since my apparent attenuation is at 75%, can the US-04 even go any lower?

 

[mpcondo]

cold crashing will slow it down, but it won't be denatured unless it is heated.

 

[LAbrewer]

I used beano a few weeks ago and am hoping it stopped at 35 degrees. I plan to bottle a case and experiment with them on conditioning times.

 

[helibrewer]

It's an enzyme so it only facilitates a reaction, it doesn't get "used up". Denaturing it is the only way to get rid of it. It's also very hard to stop a fermentation other than by sterile filtration.

Cold crashing will greatly slow it.

 

[kpr121]

Thanks, I guess I should have worded it a bit differently: Will cold crashing stop the US-04 from fermenting further?

Or an even more overall question: Will US-04 even ferment any further? With all that simple sugar I thought for sure it would drop further than it did to this point.

 

[eastoak]

cold crashing will stop fermentation. can the yeast do more? hard telling, too many unknown variables. my opinion is that those enzymes are not a really good option. you carefully craft a beer then add an enzyme (at the end) that has the potential to totally undo all of your work unless you can denature it with heat and i don't want to heat up my beer.

 

[kpr121]

cold crashing will stop fermentation. can the yeast do more? hard telling, too many unknown variables. my opinion is that those enzymes are not a really good option. you carefully craft a beer then add an enzyme (at the end) that has the potential to totally undo all of your work unless you can denature it with heat and i don't want to heat up my beer.

Yeah thats why I'm thinking i might go throw the keg in the fridge now, try to nip it in the bud. If worst comes to worst I'll just have to drink it fast!

 

[kpr121]

This morning I checked the gravity and it was at 1.014. That is plenty low for me, not sure if it dropped due to the amylase or maybe just from transferring to secondary stirred the yeast up a little and they ate a bit more.

Anyhow, I went ahead and put the keg in the kegerator, and set it on gas at around 30 PSI. I'm hoping that the combo of cold plus pressure will shut that yeast down for good.

Sample tasted excellent BTW, so I will be really upset if it keeps dropping SG. I will update here whatever happens.

 

[shaunvfx]

Well, what ended up happening?

I recently screwed up formulating a recipe and didn't
Realize my fg was gonna be 1.020. Didn't realize this until I went to take a reading, which was spot on. Since this was an ipa I wanted it in the 1.012 range.

I added 1/4 teaspoon of amylase, the yeast is wlp002, I shook the carboy everyday for 5 days and the gravity got down to 1.012, I 2 stage dry hopped and had to cold crash a few days early since it dropped to 1.010.

After crashing for 4 days in the 40s, the gravity hasn't changed. I am a little curious how bottle conditioning will turn out, I have 48 potential bombs sitting in a dark place right now, and it was almost 90 today. I undershot the corn sugar just in case.

My plan is to taste 1 in a week after chilling it 24 hours and assess. Once I get one that seems carbed to the proper level I am going to chill them all for the remainder of their lives.

 

[kpr121]

Mine never dropped below 1.014, although to be honest that keg was kept cold and kicked in less than 3 weeks.

With bottles that you are trying to bottle condition, it may be an entirely different story. I would imagine that the yeast will want to keep munching if the temps are up. Especially if they are 90.

I would do as you say - test them until they hit the right carb level, then get them as cold as you can for the rest of their lives.

 

[Molybedenum]

You could try a cold crash, then rack and add some potassium sorbate. S-04 floccs very well, so you could stabilize that way.