Hello. When I brewed the 5-gallon Ferocious IPA (extract recipe), I put one full packet of Fermentis Safale S-04 dry yeast. The recipe came with two packets, but I didn’t use the second. I did a secondary fermentation (slow, but still some CO2 activity, but did not add any more yeast. After this conditioning, I bottled the beer into growlers after adding the priming solution sugar. After a few weeks in the bottle, the IPA is pretty good. Taste is OK (not hoppy enough for me), with alcohol level ~ 6% based on the specific gravity readings. But I’m considering an experiment wherein I take 1 gallon of this finished beer (some that has not been refrigerated) and add new dry yeast to see if any additional fermentation occurs. Is there any value to this? Any comments would be welcome. Thanks!
IT depends on what the finished gravity (FG) was… 6% is a very good area for ABV… If you think it’ll make it stronger… Chances are… its already at it max for this brew…
I’ll say its done… period…
Sneezles61
Firstly, congratulations on your beer! That’s the most important thing.
Second Growlers aren’t designed for secondary carbonation. So you are taking a chance already with carbonating in them. Maybe you’ll bet lucky and they won’t explode. Growlers are meant for already carbonated beverages. Unless you are taking about the metal kind.
To the point of your desired experiment… if the finished beer is at final gravity then there will be nothing left for the yeast to eat so it would be a waste of time and money to add more yeast. If you add one of the few super attenuating yeasts out there then you will end up with a recipe that the yeast wasn’t designed for.
If you are ok with losing some carbonation then I would suggest a different experiment to target the lack of hoppiness. Open up a few and add some hops. In effect this will be a dry hop in the bottle.
Personally i wouldn’t bother. Drink and enjoy and contemplate your next brew. Opening the bottles and adding hops risks oxidatioin
Not sure what you expect to accomplish by doing this but I can’t envision a positive result from your experiment.
I agree with all the above. If it’s at terminal gravity adding yeast will not accomplish things. Adding anything at this time is likely going to be a detriment to the beer vs. improvement. IME the more you mess with a beer post fermentation trying to ‘fix it’ the more likely it is to be more messed up. Then it will be really difficult to determine what went wrong.
