High Fg With Belgium Dark Ale

[egolds77]

3 weeks on and my strong dark Belgium ale is still slowly bubbling but somehow going no where. It's at 1.040 from 1.096. I mashed at far too high a temperature, around 69C, which seemed a good idea at the time until after I'd finished and thought, why did I do that? 1.75kg of sugar in 7 kg of grain was used to thin the body but I've really mis-judged the mash temp. Was thinking if a sachet of dry enzyme would finish it off nicely. Have read that it leaves a bad taste sometimes. What are peoples thoughts.

 

[Stuster]

Well, what yeast did you use? Did you do a starter? What size? What temperature is it at? Has that changed at all? What was the recipe anyway? (Would be good to see what percentage of crystal/roast malted you used.) A dry yeast might work, but they really won't be any more attenuative than many liquid yeasts. If you choose a good one, there's certainly no reason to think it'll leave off flavours. But there are other things you can try first, with swirling and raising the temp probably the best place to start.

 

[j1gsaw]

3 weeks on and my strong dark Belgium ale is still slowly bubbling but somehow going no where. It's at 1.040 from 1.096. I mashed at far too high a temperature, around 69C, which seemed a good idea at the time until after I'd finished and thought, why did I do that? 1.75kg of sugar in 7 kg of grain was used to thin the body but I've really mis-judged the mash temp. Was thinking if a sachet of dry enzyme would finish it off nicely. Have read that it leaves a bad taste sometimes. What are peoples thoughts.

I assume you have done the normal, "give the carboy a gentle swirl?" see if that wakes anything up. What temp have you been fermenting at?
What yeast was used?
If it has stuck on 1040, and wont budge, u could drop a couple of 5g packets of champagne yeast in...
I did a strong dark belgian a while ago, it had a 1.100 grav after some sugar feedings... i used trappist yeast to kick it off and champagne yeast at around 13 days into ferment, got it down to 1017.
could be an option if u wanted, however, the 69d mash temp could be a cause. I wouldnt use the dry enzyme imo.

 

[manticle]

Is it stuck or just going slow?

What yeast?

What was the mash schedule?

I have found mashing high but mashing long gives good attenuation.

 

[egolds77]

I made a White labs abbey ale yeast Starter. Fermented at 20C but sitting at 18C at the moment. May take your suggestions and raise the temp, to around 24C and give it a stir and see if it helps. I'll post the receipe to
tomorrow.

Did the champaign yeast flavour it and if so how was it? Deus like?

 

[j1gsaw]

I made a White labs abbey ale yeast Starter. Fermented at 20C but sitting at 18C at the moment. May take your suggestions and raise the temp, to around 24C and give it a stir and see if it helps. I'll post the receipe to
tomorrow.

Did the champaign yeast flavour it and if so how was it? Deus like?

The champagne yeast was very neutral, and im actually cold conditioning the beer at the moment, but from the hydro sample it tastes excellent, and not overly too dry. The trappist high grav yeast i used at the start, held main flavour profile which is what i was hoping for.

 

[felten]

did you add all the simple sugar at the start?

 

[sid]

I've done a few beers at the mash temp you used and the FG came down to the 1.012-16 marks quite easily, so i wouldn't think it was your mash temp, I done one at 73c, first ever AG ( that was a mistake) but that also came down to 1.024..........this was noticeably sweet and had more body.
I would say it was your yeast, given the high OG, i have also heard of the champagne yeast being used in High gravity beers to help finish off the fermenting.........never done this myself.

I have used dry enzyme in a kit beer, didn't notice any bad tatse with it.........don't know how it would go in a begium ale............from what I remember that would be a rich beer.

 

[egolds77]

I realise now that the fermentation temp was too low. I left it out of the fridge after giving it a gentle stir. I put it back into the fridge when I got home from work, it was reading 22C, better. I've bumped the fridge up to 26C so we'll see, hopefully that will kick the yeast off and they chew through the last of the sugars.

I did buy a packet of Champaign yeast as a last if it's still not looking good buy the weekend.

Cheers
Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees ah.