Beer Forum

Hey Y'all

Question, I brewed a Belgian Strong Dark that didn't ferment to where I wanted it to get down to. 1.091SG - 1.031FG. I wanted it down to 17-19. It's aging around 50ish in a 10 gallon corny.

Anyway, five thoughts to do with it..

1) leave it and let it age, I'm sure it'll drop a few points over a years time.

2) brew another strong dark and blend it

3) split the batch into two corny's let one age to drink and the other add to another corny and add some Brett brux or lac (bad at spelling scientific names)

4) split each with a strain of Brett and see the differences of each strain and then maybe blend.

5) if Brett in a corny for secondary, would I have to worry about anything in regards to blow off? I wouldn't think so as I'll be watching it and I can manually release pressure

Any Thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks
Twah

If you just want to drive the final gravity down, you could make up a starter of lager yeast (maybe just some dry lager yeast rehydrated and started in a few Liters of wort). Once it is up at high krausen in the starter, open the kegs and dump it in then store it some where warm enough to keep it going (60-65F). Just make sure you blow off the pressure very regularly, or just leave the vent open and put some foil over it to keep anything from falling in (it will be off gassing, so probably not a real worry). This technique is roughly the Krausening technique used by some german brewers to finish cleaning up the lagers and carbonate.

The lager yeast will eat more kinds of sugar than the ale yeast will, so you might get the attenuation you are looking for in a couple weeks. I have used this trick before and it worked pretty well.

As far as the various souring options, I have nothing to add to that (not really my thing).

3,4 and 5. Your best options.

If you can rack 1/2 the beer to another keg, then pitching separate strains of brett would be great.
I have tried adding active yeast many times to a stuck gravity like that with minimal results. Most of the time it ends up in wasted efforts and money spent for only a couple more points. I have learned to just live with those and either drink them as is, blend, or funk them up (typically with the best results due to the higher FG. ) Those can turn into the best "agers."

Thanks for the reply. I got busy with work and forgot about the beer and I finally pitched some champagne yesst and I got it down another 14 points and it tastes good and not thick/cloying. And then I totally forgot about posting to the BN forum. Oops

Just wanted to say thanks for answering and I will probably do some Brett stuff later and will try it on another batch and split them.

Good to hear. Did you end up pitching a high krausen starter of champagne yeast with this one to get it to work down that far?

Sorry. Kept forgetting. I got the yeast going and pitched it.

It was great when I kegged it. Then it turned gross but now it's tasting better with like another 9-10 months of aging.

Trying to decide if I want to throw some Brett or roselare blend in there and let it sit and chug along.

Thoughts?

If it's tasting good I would personally leave it. You could jump some to another corny though and add some brett B or roselare blend to that. Two beers for the work of one. Maybe even add some fruit to that wild one to after it ferments out for a while.

Yeah I have roughly 12 gallons so I may take some and throw some Brett in there and see what the hell comes from it.

I should have taken the whole stalled out a 1.030 and threw some brett in there at that point instead of champagne yeast. But I only had one vessel big enough to hold all of it and no room for 2 carboys and a 14 gal conical.

I'll update whenever I let it sit longer and monkey around with it some more.