recovering a Belgium triple

[hoppyscotty]

Hi all,

Back in August I brewed a batch of Belgian Triple. Brewery seemed to go OK so batch primed and bottled as usual. All this time gone and the beers, though tasting like a Belgian triple, are still flat and very sweet from the added priming sugar, so clear the bottle conditioning/in bottle fermentation has not completed.

I have posted on here before about recovering this and someone suggested Champaign yeast, so got round to getting a sachet of it. I was thinking about purging a ket with CO2, putting in half a teaspoon of Ascorbic Acid into the keg along with the Champaign yeast and rigging up a funnel onto the dip tube post...the idea being pouring the bottles into the keg, minimising splashing with the funnel as I pour, the dip tube will deliver the beer to the bottom of the keg, right into the CO2 and mix with the yeast and Ascorbic Acid that will scrub any O2 absorbed during the pouring process thus hopefully minimising or eliminating the risk of oxidation. Putting the keg at an elevated temperature around the fermentation temp, so around 18 - 22 degrees, and letting it ferment out the added priming sugar and naturally carbonate - maybe force carbonating if carbonation doesn't get to where I want it. The main aim is to ferment out the added priming sugar, as once in a keg I can force carbonate.

Does this sound like a plan? Other option was to dose each bottle individually, but that felt like a bit of a faff.

Thanks.

 

[The Baron]

It sounds like a good plan to me Hoppy. Doing it in the keg will be the safest way incase it kicks off fermenting like the clappers. I would look at using a piece of hose on a funnel that you can rest on the keg opening and take your time pouring each bottle carefully and the tube will go to the bottom of the keg save messing around with the dip tube maybe?

 

[Sadfield]

I'd buy a small plastic syringe, and dose each bottle with hydrated champagne yeast. It should only ferment the priming sugar, and if the primary yeast hasn't done anything now, it never will. Or, do one initial test bottle now by adding a small pinch of the dry yeast. That will remove any concerns about oxidation from transferring beer to a keg and you will still have a bottle conditioned beer.

 

[Oneflewover]

I'd buy a small plastic syringe, and dose each bottle with hydrated champagne yeast. It should only ferment the priming sugar, and if the primary yeast hasn't done anything now, it never will. Or, do one initial test bottle now by adding a small pinch of the dry yeast. That will remove any concerns about oxidation from transferring beer to a keg and you will still have a bottle conditioned beer.

I've done exactly this with a quadrupel which refused to carb up. Worked a treat and actually very little faff

 

[An Ankoù]

Yep. It's a good choice. Champagne yeast struggles a bit with maltose and doesn't ferment maltotriose at all, so it'll only ferment your priming sugar leaving the yeast character of your beer intact. You could also use Fermentis Safale F-2 or Lallemand Lalbrew CBC-1, which have the same characterstics and I suspect the Lalbrew, at least, is a Champagne yeast.
Good Luck.
I've got a batch of Vienna Lager that wont carb up so I think I'll do the same.

 

[hoppyscotty]

OK, hit the FG number so the maltose should have fully fermented out in the primary fermentation so really just looking at getting rid of the priming sugar.

Got 20 litres worth of 330ml bottles hence why I was favouring the transferring to the keg option. How would I re-hydrate the Champaign yeast and work out the dosage per bottle?

 

[Sadfield]

I batch prime my belgian beers with 0.1g/L of Lalvin EC1118 champagne yeast, and that's probably an overpitch for the job.

20x330ml=6.6L, that would give 0.66g of yeast.

If you used a 5ml syringe to dose each bottle, you'd need to rehydrate the yeast in 100ml of water.

I'd probably round up to 1g in 150ml to make life easy and not need to use every last drop.