Delicious, that's what it is!! Lol.
Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?
- Thread starter BeerAdvocate
- Start date
True story.
Had one earlier this week that blew my mind and had me brainstorming. Wrote down those drunken ramblings, emailed my LHBS and bought everything on Thursday. Got the yeast starter rolling as soon as I got home and got the beer brewed today.
First attempt at a Belgian of any sort, hope it turns out.
Belgian yeast is very forgiving imo, I always get best results fermenting a little hot to get more phenolics out of them since that is my preference. Did you use any candi sugar/syrup?
It will be going in the fermenter at 24 and 48 hours, pound each.
Where did you get the idea to add candi sugar during fermentation like that? I don't really brew a lot of Belgians so I don't know if thats routine but it seems a bit different as we normally add ours to the boil. On the other hand it does give the yeast time to go at the more complex sugars and not get lazy on the simple stuff.
Jonathan makes a good point about the yeast being forgiving. Its pretty hard to abuse Belgian yeast though the particulars can be tricky to dial in. The guys at Barrel of Monks start fermentation in the 60s then let it ramp up to the mid 70s on its own after the first 2-3 days. If your not into the phenolic stuff like me this is a great way to go having tried it recently on a Witibier. You get the big ester profile but its clean with little to no phenolics. Good luck on the quad, hopefully you rigged up a blowoff!!!
Yup, blowoff was hooked up. I never go without on the first few days anymore. Cleaned too much beerpuke off the ceiling.
Candi sugar to the primary after the yeast have settled in and started working on the complex sugars I'm hoping will help avoid some of the hot alcohols while helping to bump the abv to the 10's where it really should be on a quad. There's no science behind any part of this brew, it's just a drunken experiment I wrote down on an envelope and decided to brew.
Hefeweisen and an Undercrown
I typically don't go over 8% often anymore so others with more big beer experience may have better info. But I'm wondering if maybe a small shot of O2 with your sugar additions may help you reach the ABV and keep things clean. I know for a fact this method is used for really big brews like DFH120 but I'm not sure at what point ABV-wise they start doing this. I think I've heard of guys adding O2 the second day in on RIS's but don't quote me on that.
I've done second day oxygen injection along with topping off with wort on some of the really big stuff I've made like the last RIS I did. I split the wort between two 5g carboys, one was pitched over a yeast cake and oxygenated, pitched a 2L starter over the top. At two days I injected oxygen into the second fermenter, and then pitched that over the original inoculated wort. Started at 1.130 and ended a little under 1.020 in primary so it seemed to work. Ended with the biggest yeast cake in primary I've ever seen, a solid 3" on the bottom of the carboy when I racked to secondary. In secondary another 2" of yeast fell out over the next few weeks and I racked again to a third vessel where it is waiting right now.
Believe it or not that's basically what a lot of breweries do when brewing the same beer on back to back days. Pretty damn cool the way you tweaked it to good use on a RIS that's some crazy attenuation!!
What yeast did you use for the quad? I see you like to use cakes too which is awesome did you use one for this batch as well? I think a lot of homebrewers pitch rates aren't high enough and their turnover times show for it. The big boys crank out beer at lightning pace because they pitch a lot of yeast. Even something like Old Rasputin goes from brewday to bottle in a couple weeks IIRC.
What yeast did you use for the quad? I see you like to use cakes too which is awesome did you use one for this batch as well? I think a lot of homebrewers pitch rates aren't high enough and their turnover times show for it. The big boys crank out beer at lightning pace because they pitch a lot of yeast. Even something like Old Rasputin goes from brewday to bottle in a couple weeks IIRC.
I usually put good effort into pitching sufficient yeast, though I've never done any pitch rate calculators or anything. 9/10 beers get a 2L starter. Big beers that dont have a cake to pitch on get a 4L starter. I do oxygen injection on anything over 1.060, and even on smaller ones sometimes.
My Belgian got wyeast 3787 high gravity trappist ale yeast in a 2L starter. Again, cant really back up what I did with this beer with any brewing science, just kinda did things just because. No cake and wanted a smaller pitch thinking it may create more yeast flavor, so I kept the candi sugar out until after it got rolling.
This Hefeweisen got a 2L starter and oxygen injection, og 1.055. Used White Labs Hefeweisen yeast.
That Trappist yeast is the same stuff we use for our tripel you can get some really nice esters from that strain. We had a batch that came out smelling like fruity pebbles we've been trying to replicate. Same for the Weihenstephan strain, great yeast.
Weather was quite tolerable today so I brewed a brown ale.
Yup.
In spurts.
Once my carboys and kegs are filled I'll stop for a while. (6 kegs, 10 carboys)
This pic taken before the 7th carboy got filled with the brown I brewed last. Started kegging the ones that are finished, filled 3 kegs to carbonate tonight. Russian Imperial Stout, Barleywine, and a Cascade ipa. The first two will get bottled once carbonated. The cascade is just going on tap. Vanilla bean porter is staying in the carboy on the beans a while longer.
The brown ale is fermenting sluggishly despite a 2L starter for a smaller beer
My Belgian is still requiring a blowoff (probably because of the mid-fermentation additions of sugar along with letting the temp climb)
My Hefeweisen looks great, TONS of yeast happily chugging away. The aroma coming from the blowoff is something fantastic.
All brewed within a month. Left to right, Hefeweisen, Belgian Quad, Cascade IPA, Barleywine/strong ale, Vanilla Porter, Russian Imperial.
Bunch of big beers that will be lightly carb'd in the keg, and then stuck in bottles. Really no aging intent, though I'm sure it would benefit some. Pitch big yeast and you can finish much sooner.
The brown ale is fermenting sluggishly despite a 2L starter for a smaller beer
My Belgian is still requiring a blowoff (probably because of the mid-fermentation additions of sugar along with letting the temp climb)
My Hefeweisen looks great, TONS of yeast happily chugging away. The aroma coming from the blowoff is something fantastic.
All brewed within a month. Left to right, Hefeweisen, Belgian Quad, Cascade IPA, Barleywine/strong ale, Vanilla Porter, Russian Imperial.
Bunch of big beers that will be lightly carb'd in the keg, and then stuck in bottles. Really no aging intent, though I'm sure it would benefit some. Pitch big yeast and you can finish much sooner.
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I think I'd be drunk 24-7 if I brewed that much.
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Just started my boil on an English brown ale, recipe with thanks to @BrewinHooligan
I think this will be a good batch
I think this will be a good batch