High Gravity Help

[mike]

well .. .as you might have seen --- i accidentally ended up with a very high gravity ... I have been looking online and cannot seem to find very good advice in getting the most out of it. Most of the advice I see says "use a high gravity yeast"

doesn't really help me with my problems though ... since i refuse to drive to houston just to get yeast ....


here are my idea's --- i don't know if they will work or not ... please help me not screw this up --- this beer is the one i am most worried about because i believe there are many more ways to screw up high gravity beer.


1. Should I aerate it any after the fermentation has already started?

2. Can I rack it to a plastic carboy --- clean out my glass carboy and put it back in the glass carboy?

3. I have some spare Nottingham yeast in the fridge --- should i remove some wort now (water it down a bit) and try to make a starter out of it? that way i can wait until it ferments out and pitch another starter?

[typeaux]

MIKE I WILL BE AT THE MEETING THIS WEEK AND I CAN BRING SOME WINE YEASTS THAT WILL FERMENT TO 18%

[mike]

I am trying to stick with what i have --- i don't have any knowledge of wine yeasts --- at this point i am honestly scared of messing it up ......

my main goal is to ferment as much of the sugars as possible to knock the sweetness out of it .....

i read some interesting stuff from John McKissick on using beano

www.byo.com/feature/1556.html

(yeah .. that was a shameless insertion)



i am trying to get the most out of what i got now --- i don't want to change the flavors --- just minimize the sweetness

1. i am looking into "rousing" my yeast when i get home tonight (shake up the carboy for 5 minutes without letting oxygen into my bear)

2. Getting some Beano and crushing it up --- (to make the non-fermentables fermentable)

3. Siphoning off 1/2 gallon beer/wort out of the carboy and dilluting it with 1/2 gallon water to get another starter going ....


4. re-add the starter when the fermentation stalls out and "rouse" again

[Johnny Max]

You can add the beano after your fermentation looks like it may stall. I would not add O2 unless you are still addong a bunch of fermentables. The main problem you have will be your yeast population dieing off before they finish fermentation. Three of the main things that kill the yeast are Alcohol, CO2 and unhealthy cell walls (caused by yeast multiplication with low glycogen levels and neutrients required for thick cell walls) If you shake your carboy and release CO2 as often as you can, that will remove some of the stress on the yeast colony (by keeping CO2 levels down), allowing more yeast to survive longer. If you want your yeast to continue to multiply after all O2 is gone you can add a micro ammount of olive oil.

Here is what I do now. Take a packet of old dried yeast (I just use dry baker's yeast from the grocery store for less than a $1) Boil 1/2 cup water and add 1/2 packet of dried yeast to the boiling water. Then take a thin wire and stick it into the olive oil and stir it into the boiling water and yeast. You want to get as small an amount of olive oil as possible. No where near a drop even. Then add that to your carboy (be sure to shack and release all CO2 from the carboy first).

Here is what this will do. The yeast will use the simple acid in the olive oil to multiply (without inducing O2 into your wort) and they will use the dead yeast hulls you added to build their new cell walls as they multiply. I hope that makes sence...

If you think you have a lot of non-fermentables there you can go ahead and add the Beano. Beano helps make DME & LME more fermentable.

Keep us posted Dude.

[mike]

i think i know just the thing


you are a mad genius johnny


i got a 22 oz bottle of my last brew in february --- the bottom 3 inches is nothing but yeast --- it has another 4 inches of beer on top of it

this one went straight into the fridge with no room temp conditioning ---- other beers from that batch were still good up to yesterday


I'll try 2 things ---- first i will pour it into a small fermenter and pour some wort/beer from current batch into it to get the population up -- might add some water to dilute it a little


then i will check it in 24 hours to see if it takes off without any raunchy smells --- if it is good after 24 hours i will toss it into the carboy

else --- i will do olive oil / dry yeast trick (pure genius idea)

will definately add beano --- i think i might have a lot of unfermentable sugars from the dark malted grain i used (6 pounds british chocolate )



I think i got the right information out of this thread -----
please let me know if i am wrong

[mike]

can i use household table sugar to do a second starter?

should i use some of the wort that is currently fermenting?

[mike]

Ira .... can you bring some Montrachet Wine Yeast?

i found a very nice looking recipe for Apfelwein ---- German Hard Cider