BrewCurious
New Member
Firstly: hello from West Wales. I've been a frequent forum viewer for 2 years now and with a bit of navigation have learned an enormous amount from this forum so Thank you all. With guidance from here I've moved from kits, via extract to full grain (BIAB) over 20 brews. Many have been drinkable! So onto the second bird with which I would appreciate your advice.
I currently have an American Barley Wine (Greg Hughes recipe) in the FV. I have made it before-although that time I split the 20.5L wort after the boil and did 10L at 'full strength' with Saffbrew 33 and the other 10.5L (made up to 20L) as an APA with appropriate yeast. The OG of the ABW was 1094 (his target was 1105 @23L so my efficiency wasn't good (low volume and low gravity). The Saffbrew 33 brought it down to a stable 1028 over 16 days before bottling. ABV was 8.6%-well below target 10.9% but heck it was quite strong enough and was a fantastic beer. My best yet, great body, nicely bitter to balance the alcohol, not sweet and lovely hoppy taste from cascade/chinook. Mash temp was 65/66 degreeC
So with 2 friends roped in to share the proceeds I have repeated this time fermenting the whole lot as Barley wine.
Unfortunately I managed to mash this brew at too high a temperature. The temperature had dropped to 62degreeC after doughing the grain (10.5kg of grain took sometime and my 50L pot was pretty full with the grain and 37L water :-( ). I relit the burner and overshot significantly to 72degreeC. Spent the whole of the mash with the lid off and no insulation trying to lose heat. Did put the lid on eventually and left for a long mash whilst I did something else. 3 hours later temp was still 60 degreesC-that amount of grain really holds the heat. At the end of the boil I had 24L which was cooled in a cube. Racked to FV leaving protein break/turn off hops (which I had put into cube) behind. This left me with 23L @ 1090.
Used saffbrew 33 again but started it off with 1L starter (100g DME) for 36 hours as I was concerned that some people suggested pitching 2 sachets for such high gravity and the yeast might not cope. good aeration of the wort before pitching the yeast.
So to the point of my tale. Vigorous fermentation with airlock activity after about 18 hours. Fermentation room ambient temp around 18-20 degrees Nice krausen, not extreme. SG had dropped to 1038 at 7 days. Given a stir and moved to a slightly warmer place. 4 days later its 1037 if I kid myself (probably 1038). Trial jar is reasonably bitter, not that alcoholic tasting, big bodied and possibly a little cloying. Current ABV is about 6%.
Diagnosis? Lots of unfermentable sugars that the yeast cant ferment? Yeast reached its attenuation limit (only other experience with Saffbrew S33 was in the 10L batch)? I favour the former.
Solution: wait another week, accept how it is at that stage (probably the same?) and hope it tastes less sweet/cloying after secondary fermentation and maybe served chilled!
Or could I add a sugar solution which would increase the volume and thus reduce 'final SG' whilst boosting the ABV and making the beer 'thinner'. Would the yeast be able to deal with a decent volume of sugar at this stage?
If this is yeast failure then would adding a sachet of saffale US05 help as it is pretty alcohol tolerant and has good attenuation?
Apologies for the long post but I thought I'd give you all that facts rather than drip feeding over several posts :) Thanks for any opinions.
Richard
ps sorry first post-just previewed and its MASSIVE. Respect to anyone who can be bothered to see it through to the end.
I currently have an American Barley Wine (Greg Hughes recipe) in the FV. I have made it before-although that time I split the 20.5L wort after the boil and did 10L at 'full strength' with Saffbrew 33 and the other 10.5L (made up to 20L) as an APA with appropriate yeast. The OG of the ABW was 1094 (his target was 1105 @23L so my efficiency wasn't good (low volume and low gravity). The Saffbrew 33 brought it down to a stable 1028 over 16 days before bottling. ABV was 8.6%-well below target 10.9% but heck it was quite strong enough and was a fantastic beer. My best yet, great body, nicely bitter to balance the alcohol, not sweet and lovely hoppy taste from cascade/chinook. Mash temp was 65/66 degreeC
So with 2 friends roped in to share the proceeds I have repeated this time fermenting the whole lot as Barley wine.
Unfortunately I managed to mash this brew at too high a temperature. The temperature had dropped to 62degreeC after doughing the grain (10.5kg of grain took sometime and my 50L pot was pretty full with the grain and 37L water :-( ). I relit the burner and overshot significantly to 72degreeC. Spent the whole of the mash with the lid off and no insulation trying to lose heat. Did put the lid on eventually and left for a long mash whilst I did something else. 3 hours later temp was still 60 degreesC-that amount of grain really holds the heat. At the end of the boil I had 24L which was cooled in a cube. Racked to FV leaving protein break/turn off hops (which I had put into cube) behind. This left me with 23L @ 1090.
Used saffbrew 33 again but started it off with 1L starter (100g DME) for 36 hours as I was concerned that some people suggested pitching 2 sachets for such high gravity and the yeast might not cope. good aeration of the wort before pitching the yeast.
So to the point of my tale. Vigorous fermentation with airlock activity after about 18 hours. Fermentation room ambient temp around 18-20 degrees Nice krausen, not extreme. SG had dropped to 1038 at 7 days. Given a stir and moved to a slightly warmer place. 4 days later its 1037 if I kid myself (probably 1038). Trial jar is reasonably bitter, not that alcoholic tasting, big bodied and possibly a little cloying. Current ABV is about 6%.
Diagnosis? Lots of unfermentable sugars that the yeast cant ferment? Yeast reached its attenuation limit (only other experience with Saffbrew S33 was in the 10L batch)? I favour the former.
Solution: wait another week, accept how it is at that stage (probably the same?) and hope it tastes less sweet/cloying after secondary fermentation and maybe served chilled!
Or could I add a sugar solution which would increase the volume and thus reduce 'final SG' whilst boosting the ABV and making the beer 'thinner'. Would the yeast be able to deal with a decent volume of sugar at this stage?
If this is yeast failure then would adding a sachet of saffale US05 help as it is pretty alcohol tolerant and has good attenuation?
Apologies for the long post but I thought I'd give you all that facts rather than drip feeding over several posts :) Thanks for any opinions.
Richard
ps sorry first post-just previewed and its MASSIVE. Respect to anyone who can be bothered to see it through to the end.
