As you can tell from the title I’m brewing the Number 8 Extract w/ specialty grains. I fell in love with the Rochefort 8 after I had a bottle over Christmas break and now I’m making the Number 8. It’s been in my primary fermenter for 10 days and the current SG reading is 1.020. I was originally going to rack it to the secondary but I’ve been noticing that folks are leaving the beer in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks. Do I wait an additional week or forge ahead with the racking? FYI my primary is a plastic bucket. What would be the advantage to leaving it in the primary for an additional week. Thanks folks.
Number 8 will benefit from being left in the primary at least 3 weeks. The more complex flavors will come through with the extra time in the primary and the yeast will finish cleaning up off flavors produced during the initial fermentation. Your SG may also drop another 2 to 3 points.
As you can tell from the title I’m brewing the Number 8 Extract w/ specialty grains. I fell in love with the Rochefort 8 after I had a bottle over Christmas break and now I’m making the Number 8. It’s been in my primary fermenter for 10 days and the current SG reading is 1.020. I was originally going to rack it to the secondary but I’ve been noticing that folks are leaving the beer in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks. Do I wait an additional week or forge ahead with the racking? FYI my primary is a plastic bucket. What would be the advantage to leaving it in the primary for an additional week. Thanks folks.[/quote]
The advantage of skipping the secondary is that you don’t have to get out more equipment and take the time to move the beer. All the things that take place in a secondary, can take place in the primary. There are times when a secondary is preferred like dry hopping, or when harvesting yeast, bulk aging, etc.
Thanks for the input. I’m still hearing bubbles from the primary fermenter. I’m guessing that is just CO2. It does seem to be dissipating. My patience with this is being tested. This kit is a beast.
Ah. I guess I’ll jus add an additional ounce or two of table sugar at bottling time. I’m also reusing bottles from my Leffe Brune. Hopefully they should withstand the pressure of carbonation. I read somewhere that inversion of the bottles during carbonation is helpful during the bottling phase. Is this true?
Another question about the number 8. If I wanted to a more chocolate flavor what sugar would you all recommend? How have any of you modified the recipe? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Level of carbonation is a function of the sugar added. Not the yeast left over in suspension. If you add more sugar than recommended you risk bottle bombs.
The NB web site and tastybrew.com have carbonation calculators to help with how much sugar to use.
Coco nibs, coco powder and bakers chocolate are used by some for a chocolate addition.
All jokes aside. Thanks for the feedback Shadetree and Hawk. The beer looks great in the secondary. I’ve got some Nottingham coming in the mail and I’ll add that at bottling time. Can’t wait to make this again. I’ll probably make it all grain the next time.
If you racked the beer and it was 1.020, it is still too sweet. This yeast should finish at or below 1.015. Did you do a warm week (72-80) with this yeast? This will help develop fruit flavors and dry it out so it still tastes like beer and not syrup. More chocolate flavors will also develop with a drier final gravity. My own version of this beer was 1.084 and finished at 1.016 and I still think it is too sweet.
You should definitely reyeast at bottling. You don’t need to lay your bottles down unless you cork them. I had a bad batch of corks, and it took me a while to figure out that you need to lay them down. Saison Dupont is conditioned on it’s side so that is good enough for me. If you are just capping your bottles, you don’t need to lay them down. If you are going to bottle all 5 gallons, I would use 3/4 cup of sugar at bottling as long as the beer finished drier than 1.015.
You raise interesting points. It fermented a bit on the high side 72-74. It didn’t taste too sweet. My last sample finished with a hint of banana taste. The banana taste was more noticeable when I first sampled it. I currently have in the basement where the temp has been holding at 55°F. It’s pretty awesome to watch the beer while it conditions. 24 hours in the basement and the yeast is dropping out of solution already. So I’ll follow your suggestion to add yeast at bottling. I was thinking that 3 days before bottling I’ll add the yeast.
The hydrometer reading was 1.016 before I racked it to the secondary.
Here is a pic of what it currently looks like. Give me your impressions. Be as brutally honest as you can.
I don’t see a need to add yeast if you are bottling in less than 3-4 months from brew day. There will be plenty of yeast still in suspension to get the job done at 6 weeks.
If you do re-yeast it, do it in the bottling bucket. Otherwise they my just drop to the bottom of the fermenter and you will have wasted $3-5.
