Belgian Strong Sugar Water!

[Asher]

Howdy All..

I made a Belgian Strong Ale 9 days ago and Its stopped fermenting @ 1060..
This is the first time I've had this problem so am not sure how to proceed...

the OG was 1090
- 90% Grains
- 10% Home made candy sugar
- WY1388 Belgian Strong Ale Yeast...
- Fermented @ 19deg

It was a new pack of WYeast and I made a starter for a 40 litre batch.

Now the Questions..
- Anyone had any problems using this yeast on a beer with such high OG?
- What sort of time period should I expect for fermenting such a big beer?
- Any Ideas how to go forward from here?
+ Ive roused the yeast tonight to see if that will help
- I'm considering making up another yeast starter to pitch
+ The fact that I cant airate the wort is this worth the efort ?
+ Should I just pich a couple of packets af Safale instead ?
- Is home made candy sugar (basically toffee) a fully fermentable adjunct like sugar or is affected by the conversion somehow?

Answers/Comments to any or all the above would be appreciated.

Asher for now

 

[johnno]

Asher,
doesnt that give you the *****. I had the same problem , posted here.http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=495&hl=stuck+ferments
Hope you get that holy water going again.
I'm just gonna rack to secondary and leave it. I rang the Grain and grape and they suggested a certain wine yeast but i will just leave it.
good luck

 

[Gout]

airation in high OG beers is very important and hence next time try it. its not a nice place for Mr yeats to be in, let alown with out any O2 you mean bugger

as to how to kick it in the guts to make it work harder i dont know, the monk should comment as i think he is a high grav. brewer

 

[Snow]

Asher, that yeast should do ok at that gravity, provided you pitched enough in the first place. I am assuming by your statement "The fact that I cant airate the wort is this worth the efort ?" that you did aerate in the first place, but are worried about oxidation now. Well mate, if you are stuck on 1.060, you have enough yeast, your temp is 18C or above, then you have no choice but to aerate it. If I were you, I would run the wort from one fermenter to another 2 or 3 times. Sometimes a little yeast nutrient is good, too.

The candy sugar you made should be around 98% fermentable, so that isn't your problem.

Hope this helps - we're all feelin' for ya, buddy!

Cheers - Snow

 

[johnno]

Asher,
Let us know how you get on with this.

cheers

 

[Guest Lurker]

1388 took my Duvel from 1.074 to 1.016, and it did that in maybe a bit over a week, so yours sounds slow. A similar brew with S04 went from 1.080 to 1.018, so 1388 got similar attenuation to Safale. 1388 also added a very nice flavour profile, so I would keep trying to wake it up rather than pitch something else.

 

[Asher]

Last night I upped the temp to 22 deg and given it a good stir trying not to oxidise it too much. It's fermenting again this morning. slowly
There wasnt a huge yeast slurry in the bottom of the fermentor. Maybe the shock of pitching too small a starter onto a 1.090 beer + a cold spell in the first week letting the fermentor get down as low as 16 deg all contributed to not much yeast growth.

I doubt it will make it to a decent final gravity though.
Does anyone in Perth have an appropriate slurry from a fermenting batch handy in the next week... ;-)

As a backup can anyone suggest a good wine/Champaign yeast to finish this beer off ?

Asher for now...

 

[Andrew]

"As a backup can anyone suggest a good wine/Champaign yeast to finish this beer off ?"

Ask GMK, maybe you could try some....... ZINFANDEL!!!!

Sorry Ken, you'll never live it down.....
Cheers

 

[mikem108]

I made the same beer on saturday with same yeast and its frementing like crazy,
not the usual bubble bubble stop action but a whole day of continuous bubbling which gets reported as a gusher infection on some web sites. Thing is the escaping gasses smell quite nice , there don't seem to be any off smells.

Question is has anyone had a "gusher infection" and how can you tell if its that or just a vigorous ferment?

 

[DavidSquire]

I have been reading heaps in the hope to brew some high gravity belgian ales. One of the things I have come across is that Palmer indicates at least a cup worth of slurry for Hi Gravity beers in a 20L batch to help them attenuate properly. Secondly some of the belgian yeast strains are temperature sensitive and need to be kept warmer >19C than cooler otherwise risking a slow / stuck fermentation.