Marilyns Secret Stuff Up?

[Maeldric]

Hi guys,

Bought one of the specials of the month from the coopers store a while back "Marilyns Secret" and put it on yesterday. Did everything by the recipe though I added in 150g of steeped crystal. Recipe calls for topped up to 23L but as I keg I only filled it to 20L. Let it cool down to low 20s before I pitched the yeast and then put it in the fermenting fridge.

Well went to check on it this morning and there is no activity at all. (Not sure on that because I only use glad wrap for a lid but there is no Krausen) Thought by now 20hours later there would be some to be seen. So I took a gravity reading which I didnt do yesterday - 1.070 YIKES - I have topped it up now to 24L and that is showing a reading of 1.056.

Question I have though is have I buggered my yeast by making it too high gravity? I gave it a good stir once added the additional water so hopefully it will kick off. Havent got any more of the yeast that came with the pack but have got the yeast from a coopers sparkling ale tin which was part of the recipe. This should be ok to pitch if I still see no activity by tomorrow right?

Oh btw it tastes bloody sensational out of the test tube so hopefully I havent ruined it and it will turn out to be a great beer.

Cheers guys,

Pat.

 

[pat86]

Give it time, 1070 is high, but who knows if its already kicked down a couple of points if you didn't take a reading pre-pitching?! It might have started at 1075.

Maybe let the pros here know exactly what yeast you pitched and whether you rehydrated, what temp your fridge is set to, etc. And they can give a more accurate answer.

I personally would wait at least 48 hours, take another reading to see if it has dropped and then maybe give it a swirl, bring it up to 19-20 degrees. And if that doesn't work, re-pitch your spare coopers yeast.

 

[Maeldric]

Thanks mate. Cant remember the yeast but it was an american ale one I think? Same coloured pack as the belle saison yeast. I did rehydrate it and saw the yeast bubbling in the container before pitching. Have the fridge set at 18c now. Will take another reading tomorrow.

 

[pat86]

Sounds like Bry97 by danstar? Yellow white brown pack.

For me, these have been notoriously slow to kick off in terms of visible activity- sometimes I think its been 3 days before krausen, bry seems a lot stealthier than say Nottingham.

That said, most activity should be done after 7 days, though I dont usually take readings until day 12 or so most of the time. Just have faith in the beer gods!

If it is Bry 97 I'd definitely give it some time and test again, should be all good.

 

[yum beer]

Only used BRY-97 once myself and it did take a while to get going, made a cracker of a beer though.

 

[Maeldric]

Just had a look on the coopers site and yes it is the BRY-97 so will give it a few days before stressing.

 

[Camo6]

You'd really want to use two packs for that batch according to pitching recommendations.

 

[Weizguy]

Good onya Coopers. Great underpitching recommendation. They used to have a much better duty of care.

 

[Maeldric]

UPDATE - I haven't stuffed my beer up! Went downstairs this morning to do a gravity test, opened the fridge and was welcomed by the sight of a nice fluffy cloud sitting on top of the wort should turn out to be a bloody nice beer. Would be interesting to know if it had actually kicked off yesterday or if it only did because of the dilution and shake up. Anyways am a happy little brewer today

 

[fletcher]

the yeast, when it gets introduced to your wort, goes through various stages. in the time you thought it might not be doing much, it was actually adapting to the new environment by way of using the oxygen and taking stock of the sugars and other goodies to build up their cell membranes and reproduce etc. once this is done they begin on what we typically know and can see as fementing.

hopefully the high gravity wasn't too stressful for it, but a 1.070 beer (at least for the adaptation phase) definitely requires minimum 2 packs of dry yeast. you might be lucky and i hope you are. just give it some taste tests every now and then to see how it's tracking. try to keep the temp at a constant temp if you can and fingers crossed you might get out of this one with a great beer.

 

[Maeldric]

Update - just about 3 weeks since i put this beer down now. The gravity has been sitting at 1016 for the last couple of days so racked it off into a keg this morning. Think it works out to be around 5.8%. Tastes while taking sg readings have been quite good, so once it has cooled down I will force carb it tomorrow and get stuck in

 

[Odysseym]

Dont worry Mate....Mine took 4 days before it started to ferment....then it went CRAZY!!!
And the Beer??I force fermented some and it is to die for!Sensational Brew!
Rest is natural carbonated now for 19 days...but cannot wait....am gunna crack a Bottle today!