Has anyone ever diluted a conked out big beer?

[Mr. No-Tip]

TLR version: 1.106 RIS seems to have stopped at 1.037. Thinking of diluting into the keg.

Long background: I put a RIS down last week. 20l of 1.106. It burst up in less than 12 hours and had a huge krausen. I oxyenated a second time at about 6 hours in and ended up blowing over 1l through the tube in the first 24 hours. 20 degree fermentation.

I did a grav reading at 5 days and it was down to 1.042. Yay. I did a second reading at 8 days and it was only at 1.037 and all krausen seems to have dropped out.

I have roused it and am giving it till the weekend before reading again, but I am thinking its conked out.

The yeast is a bit of a complicated story... I had stepped up 2 vials of White Labs Dry English from 1l to 3, but the the night before my 3l starter didn't smell or taste right...more lactic than a normal 'yuck' starter smell. I decided it wasn't worth risking this big batch.

I did a 2l starter of recently expired White Labs Irish Ale. There wasn't enough time for it to really kick off, but it was definitely active when I pitched it. Dr K also brought me over about 250ml of top crop harvested White Labs pacific ale slurry which I also pitched...because why not? So plenty of yeast...hence the low lag..seemingly little growth. The drop is at well below the attenuation range for the two yeasts, but they were pitched in unusual circumstances.

So obviously I've got a few more days for it to prove me wrong, but I was interested in getting some opinions. I think 1.037 is too high for a RIS.

So what to do now? I don't really want to add fresh yeast and bottle condition it. I am concerned either the alcohol will be too high and it won't carb (that's happened to me before), or god forbid the yeast wakes up and chews through more than the carb addition and I get bottle bombs.

I am thinking I will keg, bulk age, and CPBF down the track. I thought I might try diluting when I keg with commercial soda water (saves oxygenation and sanitation risks to a large extent I think?)

Has anyone tried diluting a big beer like this before? It tastes great currently. Very big, but a little sweet. I figure there's some leeway in dilution...

My calculations suggest that to get it to the top of the RIS gravity range, 1.030 I'd need to dilute with 4.67l. That seems a bit much. Maybe 2.5l to get it to 1.033?

 

[adryargument]

What about pitching it onto a different yeast cake for a few days to lower it?

My yeast knowledge leads me to believe that pitching a new yeast can struggle with the process on a big beer like that, however if you put it onto another yeast cake that has recently finished they are already roaring to go so jump straight into it. Feel free to correct me anyone.

 

[MartinOC]

Patience, grasshopper!

RIS is one of those "biggies" that's going to take 2-3 years at least before it comes good & loses the "green" character.

I've had great success with bulk-aging a biggie & then CPBF once it's done (using nothing but it's own natural carbonation), but that ties-up valuable keg/fridge space.

Let it go for as long as it wants & then make the decision. It could be worthwhile to then just bottle it as-is (ie. no priming) & let the residual yeast (Irish is a great attenuator) do it's job in the bottle over time.

I've only tasted 1 or 2 really well-made RIS in comp's over the years & they've been almost bone-dry, which is a testament to the patience of the brewer.

 

[damoninja]

I've got the same thing using S04 on an imperial oatmeal stout stuck at 1.040-1.042ish, started at 1.106

I'm going going to make a starter with some US-05 tonight so I can chuck it in and finish it off, based on the reliable 81% attenuation I've always had with 05 I'm hoping to bring it down to the mid-high 20s.

As far as not adding more yeast when bottling it will probably depend on how long you age it in the FVs, I've heard of people aging for like 6 months before they even bottle it which warrants a small unfermented yeast starter to be used as the bulk priming agent.
Mine's less than weeks in and I'll be giving the US05 plenty of time to do its thing... I'll cross the bottling yeast bridge when I come to it...

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Interesting. I'll be interested to see how a started US05 goes in the high gravity situation.

Martin - sage words. I'll think about the keg aging.