Help with my first RIS

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Hi guys, so I think I'm going to bottle half normally and the other half with an addition of cold brewed coffee, just wondering what to do regarding bulk priming a RIS? Any tips/recommendations? I was going to aim for 6g/l of regular sugar as per the recipe but I think this might be too high with the residual sugars etc.,? I won't be doing this for a while, was thinking I'd give it 3 weeks in primary and then rack it off to secondary for another 2-4 weeks for conditioning before bottling and aging for what will feel like an eternity...
 
What's the brew stats? More info required, if you're taking the yeast to tolerance you may need to re seed the bottles...
 
What's the brew stats? More info required, if you're taking the yeast to tolerance you may need to re seed the bottles...

I appreciate the assistance but you might have noticed in my OP that this is only my second all grain brew, so you'd have to be more more specific as to what info you are asking for - keeping in mind that I don't have all the fancy gear, software, lingo and formulas tucked away in my toolbox just yet. ;D
 
Self-education will only serve you very well in this game. Take a step back & start with the basics of AG brewing & work your way up.

Your "toolbox" will improve as you learn more for yourself, rather than asking others to add to it for you. EXPECT to screw-up (I've been homebrewing for well over 35 years & I still screw-up things:hairout:), but expect to learn from those mistakes.

RIS is a VERY complex beer to brew/complete (It's deceptively simple, but an absolute ******* to get right). It's not just about slamming-out a *******-massive stout.

Have fun with your journey (we're ALL on it......).
 
@Martin oc re bottles vs kegs:
Agreed. Kegs are designed to say drink me now, whether commercially or at home.

I love them but my belgian quad being packaged next weekend that's been aging for a year and needs another year to peak will be getting bottled. As painful as it might be on the day - 330mL bottles all.
 
Self-education will only serve you very well in this game. Take a step back & start with the basics of AG brewing & work your way up.
Yeah, I got way too ahead of myself I think, too excitable and eager to get going, need to be more patient! Advice noted, I just hope I can get something half decent out of what I've got in the fermenter right now...

Cheers!
 
Two weeks in and the gravity I measured yesterday was at 1.038. I decided to ramp the temp up a bit and I gave it a very gentle stir to raz everything back up into suspension. It seemed to fire up a little for a while and then this morning the activity on the airlock seems to have flat-lined (I know the airlock is not the way to determine fermentation).

Should I just let it sit in primary for longer, make a fresh starter?! In other news, in terms of flavour/aroma it seems to be on track...
 
Remember my LOTS OF YEAST advice:)

Now might be a good time to add a second fresh pitch to get you to FG cleanly

Mike
 
Remember my LOTS OF YEAST advice:)
Haha, yes, I was going to say please don't give me any "I told you so" reminders! Lesson learnt :(

Now might be a good time to add a second fresh pitch to get you to FG cleanly
Alright, so given the current situation, should I simply go in with more rehydrated US-05 or should I create say a 2L wort with DME, add yeast to that and pitch at high krausen? Or something else completely?!
 
If your have 2x US-05 pitch both, if you had a starter ready it'd be good, I'd kick a starter and pitch the next day if you only have the one pack.
 
Okay, I'm gonna start asking some real beginner questions here BUT my understanding is you can't/shouldn't/don't create starters from dry yeast?! Is that right? Or do you mean I should just rehydrate some dry yeast, not create an actual starter.

What's likely to have happened to the little buggers that were in there, stressed/dead/asleep? If the gravity is now at 1.038 then would 1 pack suffice or should I do as you suggest (which I should have done in the first place) and pitch two packets just to be on the safe side? Also, should I rack to a clean fermenter before doing so?

Oh god, I've got a Rye IPA I brewed yesterday which hit big numbers 1.078 (although I need to take a new sample for that as there was lots of debris in the one I took from the kettle) - I need to figure out yeast requirements and get it right the first time!

Thanks for your help!
 
The jury is out on that, what you shouldn't do is throw dry yeast in high grav wort. You can but you will stress the shit out of them and likely lose them. Common thoughts are since the yeast are vacuumed frozen and are understandably, pretty damn thirsty when activated, which is why you might want to re-hydrate them first, and work up to higher wort gravities, incrementally.
 
Yeah, so originally I rehydrated (following directions) one packet of S-04 and one packet US-05 (as that's what I had on hand) before pitching to 19 degrees wort. That was silly, I should have not used what I had on hand and should have sourced what I actually needed, in the right amount, to do it right the first time! Anyway, it did seem to get off to a good start, active but no big blow outs, then that airlock activity stopped on day 4.
 
Depends if you re-pitch i suppose, the yeast will be adapting in the FV to more complex sugars. So, i would be inclined to wait a bit, C02 production will drop off, you could always take a reading in few days, that's my feeling at the moment. If it's stuck that'll be a pain but you can get it back on track.
 
So it's still sitting at 1.038! I've plugged the same recipe into a few different programs and they all say I should be finishing around 1.019 - help me Obi Wan Kenobi!

So it's reasonably alcoholic at the moment which likely won't be any good for just throwing in some rehydrated US-05. I decided to put that to the test so I took a sample of the wort and re-pitched a tiny amount of rehydrated US-05 to it, nothing has happened and I can see the yeast have just settled to the bottom after a couple days (I haven't taken a gravity reading yet but I never saw any activity, it just settled out)...
 
The sample has had two days but the wort in primary has been at 1.038 for at least the last four days - it's been holding a steady 22 degrees for the last four days, prior to that it was at 20 degrees.

Any recommendations for how to get the most appropriate starter going (and what to use for yeast nutrient)? Please note that I don't have a stir plate...
 
Sorry, i was a little distracted, back on task now.
Stir plate would help out a lot here, but let's try and get this guy back on track.
Are you using a refractometer, or hydro?

Re yeast nutrient, yeast nutrient pre-packaged, should be available from your LHBS, comes in 4g packets you may need 2 packets. I am leaning that's why your fermentation has halted, at a guess.
I guess you will also need another safale 05 or yeast for starter, unless you are going to take some of the yeast cake already in the FV.

This is from BYO:
Take 113 g of (DME), and add water to a total of 1 quart (1 L), and stir until the DME is dissolved. Add a pinch of yeast nutrient and boil the solution for 20 minutes, then top up with boiled water as necessary and cool to about 70 °F (21 °C). Aerate thoroughly (oxygenation is better) and pitch with a fresh yeast sample. Maintain at room temperature until it is fermenting vigorously, then add this starter to the beer. For best results the beer should have been left in the fermenter during this time so that much of the dissolved CO2 will have escaped.

After that i would try and feed the starter some of the wort/beer and cross fingers.

Hopefully you've got a borosilicate flask or something to make the starter in.
Update us when you can. Good Luck!
 

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