is this beer savable

[troutie]

Jan 23 rd brewed a Quad Belgian style beer using Safale T58 yeast
start gravity 1.108 ish
after 2 weeks at 18 c in the fermenting cupboard it had dropped to about 1040 sg
and stayed there for another 5 days so did a bit of googling for stuck ferments and on some advise from the net
added some youngs wine yeast only to find on google later that wine yeast can kill the ale yeast
its still at 20c

ok just tested it again and its at 1035 and tastes very sweet .

is it a drain job or can it be saved

bit more info mashed low at 65 degrees
and used candi sugar
wanting a dry and strong beer

[Morten]

How many liters?
Did you make a starter?

A beer with such a high gravity requires ALOT of good, healthy yeast.
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

[Belter]

20C seems a bit low for a Belgian yeast. How many packets did you use?

[Rick_UK]

Yes the high alcohol content is a hostile environment for the yeast so needs careful handling and selection. Never made anything over about 8% abv though so can't share any experince.

If you can't get it going again you could just liquor it back and have a large quantity of less strong beer. Or brew a very dry beer and blend them (pilsner enzyme will get a beer down below 1.005.) I wouldn't bin it unless it's infected.

Rick

[troutie]

Thanks
used 2 packets of the yeast
23 ltrs
no sign of infection

might raise the temperature a few degrees and see it it wakes up

[richtangsoo]

Their is something called dry beer enzyme, which I got from my local brew shop ages ago.
It comes in a little sachet and I used it in a porter, it worked a treat and started fermentation again, it might be worth looking for.

If it was my beer I would fight tooth and nail for it.

[6470zzy]

Jan 23 rd brewed a Quad Belgian style beer using Safale T58 yeast
start gravity 1.108 ish
2 weeks at 18 c

Sounds as though you have under pitched your yeast to me. Your OG is a very high one , did you rehydrate the yeast before you pitched it? If not you will have killed off a good quantity of them right off the start.

In a case like this a good wine yeast to use is the K1V-1116 it can work through the alcohol environment and will take care of the maltotriose as well which most wine yeast cannot.

Cheers

[CestrIan]

I agree - you've underpitched the yeast. I would have made a dubbel at 6-7% first and then used all of the yeast from that brew for the big beer. In future it is easier on the yeast too if you add the candy sugar towards the end of the fermentation. If there are a lot of simple sugars in such a big wort then the yeast will get to work on the simple sugars first and then give up on the complex sugars towards the end. If you had added the candy sugar at the end then you would have got a lower FG.

Anyway what to do now. If you've got temp control, I would start to increase the temperature slowly 1-2 degrees per day up to 24 - 25C. It can't hurt. Belgians are often warmed up as the fermentation progresses to keep the yeast active towards the end of the ferment. Some finish up at 27-28C. I would try this before you ditch it. Also what FG did you expect to get down to. I haven't used T58 before but a quick search on google shows that 70-75% attenuation is normal. For an OG of 1108 that gives an FG of 1027 - 1032 so you're not that far away from what you might expect. The wine yeast is not a bad shout, but Champagne yeast might help get the FG down. I would try that, get the temp up and give it another week.

Good luck! God save the beer!!

[6470zzy]

The wine yeast is not a bad shout, but Champagne yeast might help get the FG down.

Good luck! God save the beer!!

Champagne yeast does not eat the maltotriose sugars that the K1V-1116 does, so actually the K1V-1116 will dry out your beer better. Just food for thought.

[troutie]

Thank you all points will now be permanently logged in my memory.

Yes I did rehydrate the yeast but it does seem to follow the pattern mentioned by CestrIan
in it did set off quite briskly and then tailed off .

I have just upped the temp controller a couple of degrees to 23c and will ramp it up over the next week and see what happens
and will get some Champagne yeast ordered .

I Definitely dont want to bin it until all recovery methods have been tried.

Champagne yeast does not eat the maltotriose sugars that the K1V-1116 does, so actually the K1V-1116 will dry out your beer better. Just food for thought.

Wow that seems a beast of a yeast
got some on order now Thanks for the replies folks

[6470zzy]

and will get some Champagne yeast ordered .

.

Before you order the Champagne yeast........give this a listen, highly informative
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/ ... ea-Comfort

Cheers

[troutie]

Update some bubbles in the airlock after I got the temp up to 23c
but SG still the same

The K1V-1116 yeast arrived this morning so rehydrated 2 x 5gm sachets and pitched them in at 14.00
fingers crossed they get chomping on the wort .

[troutie]

Tis a sad day as tested the beer and no change at all to the SG and tastes very sweet
so consigning it to the compost heap and going to do a small Belgian followed by a big one and use the lessons learned
with this beer for hopefully a Quad sometime soon