Add more yeast? - Two questions

[toma]

Question one: I am brewing a Belgian Style Tripel. It is the fourth day in primary. Modest bubbling at first and then nothing, so I rousted things up a bit. Then great fury and wrath, so I installed a blow-off tube. About 6 hours of excitement and then it slowed down, eventually I put the airlock back on. Lots and lots of yeast in the blow-off jar, but still consistent bubbling in the air lock. Do I need to worry about the amount of yeast left and perhaps toss more in?

Question two: This is going to age at least a couple of months in a 5 gal carboy. O.G was 1.094 and I am targeting 1.023 as F.G. I have heard that some brewers add yeast and a bit of DME 3 or 4 days before bottling their big Belgians to finish off and for bottle conditioning. I don’t want to rack again - can i just do this in the 5 gal carboy by removing some of the sacred brew? Any tips on how this pre-bottling yeast addition is typically done?

Thanks in advance!

[denny]

1. No

2. Boy, that’s an awful high OG and especially FG for a tripel. I would definitely not add DME and yeast a few days before bottling. Rack to a bottling bucket (yeah, I know you don’t want to, but it’s the right thing to do in this case), and add a few grams of about any dry yeast when you add your priming sugar.

[toma]

Thanks for the advice Denny.

I don’t have a problem with racking for bottling, but I had assumed this technique might actually require racking from a 5 gal carboy to a 6 gal first to allow room for the yeast and DME solution - this is what I wanted to avoid.

This use of yeast and DME at 3 or 4 days prior to bottling is a method used in a lot of Belgian recipes by Tess and Mark Szamatulski, who wrote “Clone Brews” and run Maltose Express. The DME is in lieu of priming sugar, and is only about a cup of DME in two cups of boiling water. I was just trying to understand how it is actually done, while avoiding problems of oxygenation by extra racking, or by using a larger carboy with room at the head.

Regarding the F.G. this is what I calculated using the “BrewMe” Fermentables Calculator, I would actually hope for less. Regarding the O.G. that was the target per the same calculator. It actually measured 1.090. This was my second partial mash experience, and was too much grain for me and my extract brewing equipment to sparge properly, and I ended up with not much wort from the mash, so I over compensated by adding a bit more DME, hoping to stay on the recipe target - but I shot over. Live and learn - and drink and enjoy the mistakes along the way.

TomA

[denny]

[quote=“TomA”]Thanks for the advice Denny.

I don’t have a problem with racking for bottling, but I had assumed this technique might actually require racking from a 5 gal carboy to a 6 gal first to allow room for the yeast and DME solution - this is what I wanted to avoid.

This use of yeast and DME at 3 or 4 days prior to bottling is a method used in a lot of Belgian recipes by Tess and Mark Szamatulski, who wrote “Clone Brews” and run Maltose Express. The DME is in lieu of priming sugar, and is only about a cup of DME in two cups of boiling water. I was just trying to understand how it is actually done, while avoiding problems of oxygenation by extra racking, or by using a larger carboy with room at the head.

Regarding the F.G. this is what I calculated using the “BrewMe” Fermentables Calculator, I would actually hope for less. Regarding the O.G. that was the target per the same calculator. It actually measured 1.090. This was my second partial mash experience, and was too much grain for me and my extract brewing equipment to sparge properly, and I ended up with not much wort from the mash, so I over compensated by adding a bit more DME, hoping to stay on the recipe target - but I shot over. Live and learn - and drink and enjoy the mistakes along the way.

TomA[/quote]

Hi Tom,

To be honest, I consider “Clone Brews” to be one of the worst recipe books I’ve ever seen. Frankly, I wouldn’t use any of the recipes or techniques recommended in that book.

Keep in mind that FG calculators like are are doing nothing more than making a wild guess based on the attenuation rating od the yeast. That’s for comparing one yeast to another using a standardized wort, not necessarily a way of predicting the attenuation you’ll get. Wort fermentability is really what determines that. A tripel has a high % of sugar in it so it’s highly fermentable. The calculators don’t account for that.

[toma]

Gotcha,

I will stick to the tried and true, and will rack and prime as usual with corn sugar and a bit of dried yeast. Anyway - its a couple of months off.

Tom