RecipeDB - TEST

[petesbrew]

Soul Glo Dark Strong Ale

Specialty - Belgian Strong Ale
Kit & Kilo

Brewer's Notes

Kits are actually Brewferm Christmas, Abbey and Tarwebier (wheat).
All kits are 2years out of date cans bought for $6 each. At full price ($35ish each) I'd consider this a waste of money.
Melanoidin is actually Special B.
Jaggery Sugar is 500g each of asian palm & coconut sugar.
Yeast is a blend of kit, trappist & Hoegaarden Grand Cru culture.
Batch was split in two - half bottled at FG=1034 and the other half transferred onto a Farmhouse yeast which dropped to FG=1018

Malt & Fermentables

%	KG	Fermentable
	0.2 kg	JWM Chocolate Malt
	0.2 kg	Weyermann Carafa Special I
	0.2 kg	Hoepfner Melanoidin
	1.5 kg	Generic LME - Stout
	1.5 kg	Generic LME - Dark
	1.5 kg	Coopers LME - Wheat
	1 kg	Jaggery (Sugar)

Hops

Time	Grams	Variety	Form	AA
	20 g	Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 5.4AA%, 45mins)
	20 g	Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 5.4AA%, 0mins)

Yeast

500 ml

White Labs WLP500 - Trappist Ale

19L Batch Size

Brew Details

• Original Gravity 1.098 (calc)
• Final Gravity 1.024 (calc)
• Bitterness 9.6 IBU
• Efficiency 75%
• Alcohol 9.71%
• Colour 88 EBC
• Batch Size 19L

Fermentation

• Primary 14 days
• Secondary 14 days
• Conditioning 4 days

 

[petesbrew]

At just over 2 weeks. this seems to have stopped at 1042.
Any thoughts/suggestions? Move it to a 2ndary with some fresh yeast?
Tastes harsh (packing a punch), but pretty good. It'll definitely need some aging.
Any thoughts welcome. Cheers

 

[Sammus]

recipe DB isnt really for test recipes I don't think... but anyway. The number 1 causes by far for yeast stalling is inadequate airation and underpitching. A quick calc of .75bn/mL/degree P says you need 0.75 * 19000 * 24 = 342bn yeast cells, or 3.5 fresh WLP/WY packs. In other words, you would need an enourmous starter for a close to recommended cell count.

Second thing is airation, ie shake the shit out of it - should always do this, especially with big beers, they need it more.

3rd reason relates to the sugar addition. High gravity stresses yeast or some such nonsense, but for whatever reason, it is common place to incrementally feed the yeast in big beers like this. With sugar additions that's easy as pie, just boil up the sugar in a bit of liquid and chuck it in when its nearly finished with the malt stuff. Doing this tends to give you a better attenuation than chucking it all in at the start.


If you didnt do any of these at all, I'd hazard a guess at that your problem lies in not doing any of them (especially the first two). If you did do either of the first two, it could be a temperature related thing. If it's none of them and I'm stumped.

 

[petesbrew]

recipe DB isnt really for test recipes I don't think... but anyway. The number 1 causes by far for yeast stalling is inadequate airation and underpitching. A quick calc of .75bn/mL/degree P says you need 0.75 * 19000 * 24 = 342bn yeast cells, or 3.5 fresh WLP/WY packs. In other words, you would need an enourmous starter for a close to recommended cell count.

Second thing is airation, ie shake the shit out of it - should always do this, especially with big beers, they need it more.

3rd reason relates to the sugar addition. High gravity stresses yeast or some such nonsense, but for whatever reason, it is common place to incrementally feed the yeast in big beers like this. With sugar additions that's easy as pie, just boil up the sugar in a bit of liquid and chuck it in when its nearly finished with the malt stuff. Doing this tends to give you a better attenuation than chucking it all in at the start.


If you didnt do any of these at all, I'd hazard a guess at that your problem lies in not doing any of them (especially the first two). If you did do either of the first two, it could be a temperature related thing. If it's none of them and I'm stumped.

Thanks Sammus.
Yeah the recipe is named now (Soul Glo), but I can't change it from TEST. I'll get onto the Mods and see if they can fix it up.
The yeast science is over my head at this stage, but I get what you're saying. My WLP500 yeast starter failed to start, so I threw that in with the brewferm kit yeast.

Shaking the shit out of it sounds like the go. I've only been giving it a little rouse till now.

Thanks for the sugar advice. Due to the fact it was solid, I lazily threw it in at the start of the boil. In future I'll grate it up for easy dissolving at a later addition.
Cheers
Pete

 

[bum]

I don't think you'll wanna be aerating now that fermentation has already begun. Pretty sure Sammus would be talking about prior to pitch.

 

[petesbrew]

I don't think you'll wanna be aerating now that fermentation has already begun. Pretty sure Sammus would be talking about prior to pitch.

Hmm... Gentle swirling to get the yeast cake back up?

 

[bum]

Yeah, I'd say so. As Sammus points out temp could be an issue so maybe ramp it up a degree or two if you're running a little cool.

I don't know much about how different yeasts interact but you've got three or four different yeasts pitched here, don't you (including the failed WLP500 starter)? Maybe someone more learned might be able to suggest whether or not they may be competing against each other causing the stall?

 

[petesbrew]

Yeah, I'd say so. As Sammus points out temp could be an issue so maybe ramp it up a degree or two if you're running a little cool.

I don't know much about how different yeasts interact but you've got three or four different yeasts pitched here, don't you (including the failed WLP500 starter)? Maybe someone more learned might be able to suggest whether or not they may be competing against each other causing the stall?

Gave it a swirl last night, and I'll leave it a week and see what's happening.
I could transfer it to a secondary and throw US-05 or even a farmhouse ale yeast at it.

 

[petesbrew]

Well, it's dropped down to 1034. Tastes Frickin divine.
I'm starting up some more yeast today, a Trappist WLP 500. (Lets see if it starts this time), and a Farmhouse, and may rack this beer onto it to kickstart it.

 

[petesbrew]

Divided this one up into two batches on the weekend.
1/2 is bottled at an OG of 1034 and lightly carbed. Named "Sexual Chocolate"
The other half I racked onto the Farmhouse Ale yeast... Named "Soul Glo"

Better get started on the "Coming To America" themed labels.

 

[bum]

McDowell's Brewery?

 

[petesbrew]

McDowell's Brewery?

This is my beer, Sexual Chocolate! Ah yeah, Sexual Chocolate!

Too many quotes.... now if only I can get the topic changed from "TEST" I'll be sorted.

 

[petesbrew]

Divided this one up into two batches on the weekend.
1/2 is bottled at an OG of 1034 and lightly carbed. Named "Sexual Chocolate"
The other half I racked onto the Farmhouse Ale yeast... Named "Soul Glo"

Better get started on the "Coming To America" themed labels.

I moved the fermenter inside a few weeks ago, and the SG has now dropped to 1024... shit yeah.
I'll let it sit for another month or so and check then. The last time I used this farmhouse yeast it took 7 weeks at warmer temps, so there's no rushing this batch.

 

[petesbrew]

I moved the fermenter inside a few weeks ago, and the SG has now dropped to 1024... shit yeah.
I'll let it sit for another month or so and check then. The last time I used this farmhouse yeast it took 7 weeks at warmer temps, so there's no rushing this batch.

SG now sitting at 1018. Hmmm, maybe another fortnight can't hurt it.

 

[Acasta]

a FG of 1.034? More like, sexual hand grenades! haha
Be careful but, i've had a bad experience with bottling too early.

 

[petesbrew]

a FG of 1.034? More like, sexual hand grenades! haha
Be careful but, i've had a bad experience with bottling too early.

Going off a rough memory, I either 1/2 carbed this, or not at all (damn my hazy memory & lack of taking notes lately). But they're in thick bottles. And they're going under Mum & Dad's house once I get off my arse.
I cracked one of these a week ago and it poured flat - a tiny bit of head but not to worry, and it was fantastic.

 

[petesbrew]

Finally bottled. Only been in the secondary since mid June. The airlock had started to grow mold.
Now to find time to stick em all under the parent's house for "cellaring".

 

[petesbrew]

So, the great taste test. Brought the Sexual Chocolate into work and everyone absolutely loves it.

If anyone's got any out of date kits left, imperial "ethanol" is the way to go

 

[petesbrew]

Entered this in the 2011 NSW Special Case Swap & the ESB Winter Warmer Comp.

Wasn't sure whether to enter it as an Russian Imperial Stout or a Belgian Dark Strong Ale, so ended up going with the latter. The judges picked it right, that it was a stout brewed with belgian yeast, and while it only scored 28.5/50, they didn't knock it apart from being not to style.

Gettting some good comments from the other Swap participants, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Only got a few bottles to go, so I'll be savouring them, especially as it's developed into a beautiful drop.
I'll try and find a pic of it.