Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Alcohol Tolerance

[Hopper5000]

Hey All,

I was wondering if anyone had experimented with using the roeselare blend on higher gravity beers. I was looking at their website and it says the tolerance for the bugs is about 11% ABV.

The reason I am wondering is because I have a brew that I made where I was trying to make the strongest beer I could. It turned out to be about 16% alcohol but is incredibly cloyingly sweet and basically undrinkable. This is partially because I added a bit of corn sugar at the end of fermentation that didn't actually ferment.

I was thinking about throwing the roeselare bugs in there and letting it go for 6 to 12 months but was wondering if most of them might just die if I went ahead and did that. Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[Calder]

Split it in 2. Dilute to 50% ( 8%), and ferment out half as a regular beer, and add bugs to the other.

 

[MileHighBrewer]

I like the split idea. Pitch bugs on one (not a lot of high ABV sours out there, probably for a reason, but what 2.5 gallons for an experiment?)

You could pitch some WLP099 and see if it'll tear away some sweetness and dry it out. Of course that'll raise the alcohol, too. But, with that strong of a beer, its going to be SWEET. You could think about ways to even things out a bit, such as oak, maybe coffee and/or cocoa nibs.

 

[Hopper5000]

That's not a bad idea on the diluting. I might just dilute and repitch some yeast to finish off the extra sugar in there. Thanks for the idea!

 

[Hopinista]

What's your ibu? The lacto can't survive on a high ibu beer.

Why not pitch some champagne yeast? It could drop the gravity and really dry the beer out

 

[Hopper5000]

I use wlp99 originally to get it up to 16%. I tried pitching an active starter of champagne yeast but it didn't do anything. I don't think it's moving anymore because of the high abv of the beer. I think most things I throw into it will just die from alcohol shock. I actually haven't had much luck with champagne yeast being able to ferment stuff out over wlp99.

The beer is an attempt at a dog fish head clone so it is pretty insanely hoppy.

 

[dcp27]

if 099 didn't do the job, champagne definitely won't. champagne yeast is commonly incorrectly thought to be able to dry a beer out. champagne yeast, as other wine yeasts, struggle with the more complex sugars in malt, which is what is left at the end of a ferment, so it generally does very little. its best suited for ensuring carbonation, though I believe you're past its capabilities there as well.

if you like wild/sour beers, i'd just toss in some dregs (probably build them up a bit first as thats quite a harsh environment) vs Roe, they'll be more resistant than the lab stuff. pedio & brett should still do some work on it

 

[Hopper5000]

dregs isn't a bad idea, I guess if I wanted to go that route I would have to go out and buy some higher ABV sours. I would be a little worried that the brett/bacteria might be a little bit stressed due to already being fermented though, unless that isn't as much of a factor with non-Saccharomyces yeasts/bugs. I don't have very much brewing sours (on purpose) so sorry if these might be obvious questions. I only have one sour I have ever brewed and I bugged it in a barrel in february so it's gor a ways to go.

 

[dcp27]

you don't need high abv sours, tho using some from Cuvee de Tomme or Consecration surely wouldn't hurt. here's a good list of viable options
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2010/06/harvesting-sour-beer-bottle-dregs.html