Stuck twixt devil and hard place

[lancsSteve]

Nothing seems to be going as planned:

1 - my alt bier is slfermenting away OK but SLOOOOOOW down from 1060 to 1032 after 5 days at 17ish C but not exactly going quick... Was thinking/hoping that it'd be nearly finsihed so I could drop it into secondary and repitch the yeast slurry if....

2 - my two starters made up from brewlabs slants (1 high grav and 1 yorkshire) aren't even going at all, 24 hours after making them up and not a bubble or nowt Had similar experience with brewlabsbs burton ale which did come good after LOOOOG lag but is a small (1/2 pint) starter going to be enough IF it gets going to do a barley wine - methins not...

The plan had been to go parti-gyle tomorrow to make a high-grav barley wine and a running bitter BUT - what to do? Srikes me that if the high gravity starter isn'started yet, let alonet the yorkshire yeast then that plan is scuppered as you want to pitch a decent sized amount of yeast into a high grav beer... So I'd thought of using the yeast cake from the alt beer (wy1007 german ale) but as that's only about halfway through fermentationI'm not so sure about dropping it into another FV and re-pitching the slurry into a new beer.

I do have 2 packets of nottingham, one of s04 and one of windsor but recon a proper high-grav probably needs more than just 2 packs (anyone know what nottingham alcohol tolerance is?)

[adm]

I'd just sit back and wait a while. No point in rushing things as the Kraft caramel bunny used to say.

If you have a chance to brew on Sunday, or next week, just take it easy and wait for the starters to be done properly. Even if they are finished up, they'l last a couple of weeks in the fridge at least.

[Aleman]

Nottingham is an ideal choice for a High gravity ale . . . I've used it in my RIS and it happily fermented out to 10% . . . . Of course I did pitch 4 packets into 20L.

And with all the other flavours going on in such a big beer the lack of yeast character isn't necessarily a problem

[dave-o]

No point in rushing things as the Kraft caramel bunny used to say.
.

Topical!

[lancsSteve]

roblem is I go on holiday tomorrow errr... actually make that

The yorkshire is getting going so think I'll use that for second runnings as my experience last time with brewlabs yeast was a slow starter and long lag abut then getting going ad finishing well - it's a half-int starter so small but should be OK for a normal ale.

Will see how many nottingham's we can scrape together - may only be 2... What are options for mixing yeasts? Good idea or bad i.e. pitching the high grav starter (now getting going) AND nottingham alongside....

HOWEVER as I'm away for a week now and it's 6 days after pitching the alt it's probably a good day to rack to secondary and then repitch the slurry... as it's avery low attenuating yeast it shouldn't be a big problem.... That yeast (wy1007 german ale) goes up to 13% abv and would ferment well if house was cooler in my absence - shall look into more stuff on racking to secondary and when to/when NOT to...

Kraft bunny you say? http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... 001192389/

Nutritionist Joanna Kramer said: "Kraft have a proud record of creating entirely new substances from a range of natural ingredients such as Welshman's foot sweat, monkey bum-grease and pheno-glyceryl tribenzoate.

"This then goes into a hot oven for 20 minutes and out pops something that they have the sheer brass nuts to attach the word 'cheese' to."

She added: "Take, for instance, the Kraft cheese single. Over the years it has been used to tile abattoirs and add a playful dash of colour to greyish-brown discs of highly-processed cat gristle.

"And if you place one on a slice of bread and put it under the grill, it develops this delightful skin, accompanied by lots of little beige blisters.

"I imagine it's what toasted cheese would look like if it had bubonic plague."