I am brewing an Imperial IPA. My OG was 1.080, after several days in the primary, fermentation appeared to be finished. However, the gravity at this point was 1.030. Since the wort was still very sweet, I added a packet of US-05 after racking to the secondary hoping to get the remaining sugar eaten. I am hoping for an FG near 1.015 or so. Did I screw it up?
How many days is "several days in the primary? I sounds like to me your fermentation wasn’t finished yet. Personally, for that big a beer, I would’ve left it in the primary for around two weeks, minimum. Putting the US-05 in the secondary might save your beer for you, but next time I would wait until your gravity is closer to where you want it finished at. It’s been said before, but beer ferments on its own timetable. Give it the time it needs. Good luck with your beer. I hope it works out for you. :cheers:
I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: it is almost always better to give the beer more time and not rush it. It is almost impossible to screw the beer up by leaving it alone for a few days, but rushing it can cause problems.
1.015 is difficult to achieve with a 1.080 OG beer, and getting there would depend on ingredients and process. If this is an extract brew without any added sugar, 1.030 might be pretty close to FG and it won’t get any lower. If this was AG with no added sugar, depending on your mash and fermentation temps, and how much yeast you pitched, it could end anywhere between 1.015 and 1.025.
I’ve started to just leave mine alone for 2-3 weeks before I even bother taking a gravity reading. Could it be “done” before that? Sure, but some beers can benefit from leaving them a bit longer, allowing the yeast to clean up and clear up.
+1, I’m with Templar and RC!
That’s a pretty tall order to pitch fresh yeast into a mostly-fermented beer. You’re dumping them into a hazardous environment, so it’s not very likely they’ll wake up and finish the job. You didn’t ruin it by any means, but adding dry yeast to secondary is often a no-go.
Assuming the yeast doesn’t take off, what may work is to make a starter with some fresh yeast, step it up once to acclimate the yeast to a high-alcohol environment, and add the active starter to your beer in secondary.
Another thing you could try is to brew another beer, ferment it out, bottle/rack to secondary, and rack your IIPA onto the yeast cake. :cheers:
It is an extract recipe using 8.75 lbs. light dme, 1 lbs. Caramel 40L (steeped) and 1 lbs. white sugar. 60 minute boil 6 oz. Tetnanger and Mittelfruh total hops. Fermentation visible activity approx. 3.5 days. Added dry US05 yesterday afternoon after racking to the secondary. Ferm temp at 65 deg F. Seeing some additional activity but not like the initial ferm. Wanted to get it off the trub so I will let this go for another week or so and take another gravity reading.
I understand US-05 has an alc. tolerance of 9-12% and the % at the time of racking was approx. 6.5%. The wort in the primary after ferm had appeared to have ceased was still too sweet. That is why I tried jump start an additional fermentation. Anyway…we’ll see.
Your issue is the wort, not the yeast, I think. You produced a wort that has a lot of unfermentable sugars. In that case, more yeast won’t matter becasue there’s nothing for it to ferment. In the future, give it at least 1-2 weeks in primary before you do anything else.
True, but going from dry to an alcoholic environment is going to kill off a decent portion of the population. Some will survive, but it might not be enough to finish up cleanly. If you’re seeing some signs of fermentation, though, that’s a plus. Give it some time and see how it goes - you can always do more later if necessary. I’d be looking for it to get closer to 1.020 before bottling… :cheers:
I’m inclined to agree with Denny, I’d expect that wort would stall in the mid to high 1.020s even with ideal fermentation conditions.
But dropping that fast in 3.5 days at 65F is surprisingly fast. How much yeast did you pitch? And was 65 room temp or beer temp?
I saved the yeast(first try) from a previous batch of ale. It was about a pint of “stuff” about 4 weeks old. Made a starter out of it and pitched at around 70F after oxygen. Took off about 4 hrs. later. The wort IS continuing to ferment in the secondary with the fresh yeast and the fridge really smells good with that fresh beer smell. I think the FG is going to drop some. If I can get it to the low 20’s, I’ll be thrilled.
Your issue is the wort, not the yeast, I think. You produced a wort that has a lot of unfermentable sugars. In that case, more yeast won’t matter becasue there’s nothing for it to ferment. In the future, give it at least 1-2 weeks in primary before you do anything else.[/quote]You would have been better off adding the sugar at high krauzen rather than to the boil. That way, the yeast gets to work on dinner prior to starting with dinner and dessert at the same time.
Years ago, I did the extreme; a 1.135 beer which had 15 lbs pure cane sugar in the boil (in a 25 gallon batch) and the yeast pooped out at SG of 1.085. I worked my ass off to get it down to 1.050 and finally called it quits. The beer remains cloyingly sweet to this day. From that point on, any time I add simple sugars to a beer, I always do it at high krauzen.
Your issue is the wort, not the yeast, I think. You produced a wort that has a lot of unfermentable sugars. In that case, more yeast won’t matter becasue there’s nothing for it to ferment. In the future, give it at least 1-2 weeks in primary before you do anything else.[/quote]You would have been better off adding the sugar at high krauzen rather than to the boil. That way, the yeast gets to work on dinner prior to starting with dinner and dessert at the same time.
Years ago, I did the extreme; a 1.135 beer which had 15 lbs pure cane sugar in the boil (in a 25 gallon batch) and the yeast pooped out at SG of 1.085. I worked my ass off to get it down to 1.050 and finally called it quits. The beer remains cloyingly sweet to this day. From that point on, any time I add simple sugars to a beer, I always do it at high krauzen.[/quote]
Would you then have to “sanitize” the sugar by boiling a sugar water solution then cooling or just dumping in the sugar and stirring?
[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]I’m inclined to agree with Denny, I’d expect that wort would stall in the mid to high 1.020s even with ideal fermentation conditions.
But dropping that fast in 3.5 days at 65F is surprisingly fast. How much yeast did you pitch? And was 65 room temp or beer temp?[/quote]
Is 65 the beer temp or the ambient?
Unless you make enormous beers like Greg does, I haven’t found any advantage to not adding the sugar to the kettle.
Denny, 65F is inside my fridge/fermenting chamber (using a controller)which is where it stays all the time. Actual wort temp at pitching was 70F. 45 seconds of oxygen then pitched US 05 slurry.
Well, that’s the answers to my questions. You pitched a lot of yeast, you saturated the wort with oxygen, and the fermentation temperature was on the warm side. All things that will speed the fermentation and (if you just leave the beer alone until the yeast are done) will result in getting the lowest possible FG for a given wort. Of course, just because the yeast would work fast like that doesn’t mean it will give the best results when it comes to flavor. When the yeast are too active, especially due to higher temperatures, they can throw a lot of off flavors. Big beers usually need more time to mellow out and come into their own, and I suspect this one will also.
[quote=“bpoppp”][quote=“MullerBrau”][quote=“Denny”]
Your issue is the wort, not the yeast, I think. You produced a wort that has a lot of unfermentable sugars. In that case, more yeast won’t matter becasue there’s nothing for it to ferment. In the future, give it at least 1-2 weeks in primary before you do anything else.[/quote]You would have been better off adding the sugar at high krauzen rather than to the boil. That way, the yeast gets to work on dinner prior to starting with dinner and dessert at the same time.
Years ago, I did the extreme; a 1.135 beer which had 15 lbs pure cane sugar in the boil (in a 25 gallon batch) and the yeast pooped out at SG of 1.085. I worked my ass off to get it down to 1.050 and finally called it quits. The beer remains cloyingly sweet to this day. From that point on, any time I add simple sugars to a beer, I always do it at high krauzen.[/quote]
Would you then have to “sanitize” the sugar by boiling a sugar water solution then cooling or just dumping in the sugar and stirring?[/quote]Either way would work just fine.
Success!! After much trepidation the experiment seems to have excellent results. Since I know zilch about brewing next to the bulk of the brewers that reside here; I am thrilled to say that the fresh dry US-05 I added to the secondary worked wonderfully. My main goal was to reduce the sweetness of the massive malt and sugars to where it was at least drinkable. I got an additional bonus of hitting the ABV I was hoping for. OG was 1.080 racked to secondary after a week-ish at 1.030 (6.56ABV) at 65 degrees and syrup like in taste. One week-ish later, the FG is 1.012(8.93ABV) at 65 degrees. Got the bitterness I wanted (and eliminated the “syrupness”. It’s nice when an experiment works. Started a cold crash to clarify. I know I probably shouldn’t but what the heck. The fresh yeast wasn’t supposed to work either. Thank you gentlemen for all your expertise and welcomed help.
