A Few Questions About My 2nd Partial

[gerald]

ok the recipe.

grain - mashed for 75minutes at 67*C not entirely sure what grains were used in the end but there was a bit of munich in there along with maybe pils malt? had 3kg

1 tin of thomas coopers light malt extract.

used around 300grams of dex
some honey
and some raw sugar too

mashed, boiled for an hour, added hops blah blah blah.

using saf t-58 yeast.

did a yeast starter using a bit of the wort drained from the mash.

the yeast really kicked off in the starter and i pitched the yeast at around 23/24*c

it fermented really fiercely for 1.5/2 days.

and then dropped down to a pretty slow ferment, a bubble or two every minute.

after the really violent ferment of the first 2 days the temperature dropped and it has been at around 16/17/18 degrees since then.

now heres the crazy thing, its still fermenting after 13 days!

OG was 1063
its now at 1011 and still going.

its a golden strong ale, so its getting close to the correct FG.

just wondering if this is normal? ive never used the t-58 yeast before. it said its temp range is between 15-24 so its the lower end of the range but still, 13 days is a long ferment for an ale?

should i transfer it to secondary (i only have a cube so if i do this, i will have to use gladwrap with a hole in it for the lid so the gas can escape)

should i leave it?
is something wrong?
it tastes fine, from the little samples ive taken, very belgium! delicious.
just looking for some advice as this is only my second partial and my 1st one fermented out in 2 days!

thanks guys
sorry for the long post
catch
gerald

 

[dr K]

did a yeast starter using a bit of the wort drained from the mash.

Good thing its a Belgium

That bit of wort would have raging with "extras".

K

 

[gerald]

"extras" ??

cos i didnt boil it?

*confused* :-S

 

[sinkas]

Its a Belgian golden ...

 

[gerald]

SOOOOOOOO confused :-S

 

[kevo]

I think 'extras' refers to other critters etc which may have been in your mash, then in your starter and now in your beer as you don't seem to have boiled your starter wort.

May not be a drama. Guess you'll find out in a while.

Kev

 

[gerald]

ok, i thought it was that.

still i sparged with water that was around 75*C so hopefully that would have killed any other bugs in there even if it wasnt boiled. 75 degrees is pretty hot...

oh well, it tastes and smells like it should, only thing worrying me is the very long fermentation period but the gravity readings are as they should be so hopefully nothing wrong with it!

 

[rich_lamb]

I think your beer will be fine - maybe much better than fine. The recipe sounds a bit of a mish-mash but certainly tasty, and the fact you've had it dry out so well means it will be very typical of the style, provided you get plenty of mouthfeel and good carbonation.

Let it sit. Don't muck around with it. Up to 3-4 weeks in the fermentor (can be the primary) will not hurt a beer with a high starting gravity.

Yeah, your yeast treatment could use improvement: I wouldn't be adding some sugary solution to a dry yeast. Just rehydrate it for 30 minutes in some sterile water at about 25 deg.
The words "starter" and "dry yeast" should not appear in the same sentence.

My guess is your violent fermentation is a result of the high temperature. You pitched at the hight end and the temp would have gone up a couple of degrees from there. This may be a good thing in some respects, may make the beer a bit "alcoholic" too. Could be just great.

cheers

 

[gerald]

plenty of carbonation [tick]

i will leave it a few days after it stops bubbling and throw it into secondary for a while.

i will look into my yeast starter/rehydration methods, thanks for the tips.

the beer smells boozy, similar to bush's scaldi i reckon.

thanks for the comments guys, its always good to get a few other opinions

Gerald