My last brew was kind of a clean up of left over ingredients. I don't know what to expect but what ever it comes out tasting like it should be the strongest beer I have ever made. Here is my brew list:
1 pound of crystal 10 steeped for 30 minutes
1 - can of Muntons pre-hopped liquid malt
1 - bag of unknow liquid malt, 3.3 pounds
2 pounds of light DME
1 - Packet of Safale S-04 yeast
fermenting temp is 65 degrees and has been going since Saturday. It has begun to slow dow just a bit but definately still fermenting nicely. I plan to rack to a secondary and let it condition for 2 or 3 weeks before kegging.

I have been told that a high gravity brew should condition for awhile before kegging. Is this true and if so is the 2 or 3 weeks long enough??

Art

Should be around 7.2%. I would guess not hoppy at all & fairly light(depending on mystery malt.
Should be a good beer though!! & will get ya drunk 4 sure!!

I have never done a high gravity brew but in my opinion I would let the yeast tell you when it's ready. If they are done in 2 weeks, great. If not then let it go until the gravity settles down. Sounds like a hell of an idea though. I always like trying new and unusual things and this is really unusual lol. Good luck


Prost

John

I need some advice on how to handle my beer at this stage. Going into the eighth day of fermentation there is still gas coming out of the blow off tube. (very slowly) Would it be better to move it to a secondary at this time and let the fermentaion complete there or leave it in the primary. I am wondering if siphoning might stir it up a little and help complete the fermentation, but I don't know if this would be a good thing or not.

Any yeast that has settled out is dying or dead. Stirring will not do anything. I personaly do not use a scondary fermenter for anything, but thats just me. I have found it doesnt help clarity or anything. I would just leave it alone for the full 2 weeks & be done with it. Take a reading then.

jeepguy wrote:Any yeast that has settled out is dying or dead. Stirring will not do anything.

That is incorrect. Yeast settlement is caused by flocculation, and has nothing to do with viability. A highly flocculent strain of yeast, such as S-04, can flocculate and settle very quickly and still be highly viable.

As for the beer, I'd try to rouse the yeast a couple times a day, for the next few days, and see what happens. As long as you have activity in the airlock, thing are going well. I'd wait for a couple weeks before I'd put the beer into secondary. In secondary, I'd let it age for at least a month, but longer if possible.

Cheers
Dave

Dave, I don't quite understand what you mean by rousting the yeast.

This puppy is going into its 12th day and is still fermenting, slow (10 to 15 seconds between bubbles) but still going. By the way, I'm using a blow off hose in a bucket of sanitizer rather than an airlock so I would think it takes more gas to create a bubble. If this train of thought is accurate then the fermentation is still quite healthy.

Do you think the long fermentation is from the high gravity, cool temp, or both

Hey Art,

I too have a high gravity ale in fermentation right now. OG was 1.084. It went about 5 days with a lot of activity, and slowed down quite a bit through days 6-12. I dumped in 16 ounces of sweet 18% abv mead that has been aged for 3 years, and am now at day 15 with still a bit of activity.

Rousing the yeast just means shaking up your carboy until the yeast that has settled on the bottom gets back into suspension. As I said before, those yeast on the bottom are still alive and kicking, but they can't do any work when they're buried beneath a half inch of their brothers and sister. When you get that yeast back into suspension (and mind you, they'll settle back out in a short amount of time), you're letting those yeast come into contact with the sugars in your wort again. If you do this a couple times a day, you should see your beer get to terminal gravity quicker. Remember, yeast have no propulsion system. They free float in your wort until they come into contact with sugar, and consume it. Once it settles to the bottom, only the top layer is still coming into contact with the sugars of your wort. In a smaller beer, this is usually not a problem because by this time, you have (or have nearly) reached terminal gravity. However, in a larger beer, with a very flocculent yeast, this isn't always the case.

The key to rousing is to shake GENTLY! You just want to get the yeast back into suspension. You dont want to start pulling oxygen into your beer (if you swirl your carboy fast enough, it'll create a suction on your airlock...bad bad!). And more important, you dont want to break your carboy.

One more thing to note...much of the settlement on the bottom of your carboy is not yeast at all, but trub. Rousing the yeast will also rouse the trub.

Of course, you really don't need to rouse the yeast in your particular situation. As long as you're seeing activity in your fermenter, the yeast are still working, and everything is going good. Rousing the yeast will only net you a faster fermentation. I haven't actually roused the yeast in my beer at all. What I did instead, is to pitch a highly flocculent yeast initially, and once it began to settle out, I repitched a less flocculent yeast with a much different flavor profile. The only thing that I've done to aid fermentation at this point, is to set the carboy in a warmer place in my house (which will also help develop the flavor of the second yeast).

So, it's up to you how you want to go about it from here. You can rouse the yeast, or not worry about it. Either way, I think you'll be just fine. I really wouldn't worry about it unless your yeast stalls, and your final gravity is still high.

Cheers
Dave

OH, one more thing...
You only pitched one package of dry yeast into your beer. Ususally, this is enough for a 5 gallon batch, but in a larger beer, you need more.
Here is a pitching rate calculator, if you ever decide to do another big beer:
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
For an OG of 1.074 (I'm estimating that's about what yours was?), you'd need 1 and 1/3 packages of dry yeast pitched into your wort.
Since I underpitched also, and we're seeing similar results, this might explain the longish fermentation...?

The unknown brew went into a keg today. I saved enough after kegging to get a taste and was pleasantly surprized at how good it turned out. I was afraid when we first took the carboy out of the freezer thay I used to ferment in because it was had alot of mold on the sling, carboy, and the bucket that I used for blow off tube. I guess it was damper in the lower temp atmosphere than in an open room. I washed the carboy down with star-san before attempting to keg the beer. It seems all the bad stuff stayed outside and didn't contaminate the beer. Hopefully I'll be able to sample some with carbonation in a couple of days.