Belgian ale - all ok?

[Manngold]

Hi all. Bit of a novice here. I made a Belgian ale yesterday using the BIAB method. Due to time commitments I couldn't pitch the yeast or take a reading. I have just checked on it, and it has this on the surface:


I went ahead and checked the gravity (1.062) strongest yet for me. And then pitched yeast. Having only done kits before, I have never seen these bubbles floating on my wort before pitching. Is it ok? I drew a sample to taste, and seemed fine - but has only been in the Fv for a day.

Thanks

[RobWalker]

yep. either yeast getting going, oxygen (which is fine at this point,) or maybe looks a bit hop oily to me.

an honest tip for all grain brewing, unless your brew has a cactus growing out of it, don't worry about how it looks.

[Manngold]

Thanks Rob.

One more thing, it has been sitting at 1.018 for the last 5 days. A bit higher than I would have liked. Can I add some standard English Gervain yeast to bring this down a bit. Really don't want bottle bombs as I plan to prime with 150g of sugar.

Thanks

[serum]

What yeast did you use? Some can be a bit erratic and others benefit from a gentle stir and some increased heat to finish off. They generally attenuate well.

As long as you have the profile you want a bit of extra yeast might help but Belgian strains can generally take much higher gravities than what you've made so I can't see why it's struggling.

What recipe did you use?

[Manngold]

Hi Serum,

Thank you for the quick response. It was a kit recipe that I bought from the Malt Miller. It is the following:

http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.ph ... ductId=593

I used the yeast provided which is a T-58. Would you recommend a gentle stir? I have notched the heat up to a steady 21 - 22 C. I didn't really fancy going much higher than that. In terms of the pitch, I just added dry, that is what the packet recommended (instructions on the yeast). To be honest, I am still not 100% sure how to re hydrate yeast - do I need to add sugar, or is water sufficient? I find conflicting answers on this.

Thanks for your help.

[serum]

I've not used dry yeast for a Belgian brew. You may have underpitched or it might not have been viable enough. It's hard to say.

Hydration is just putting it in water at the right temperature but without sugar or extract. If you got another sachet of the same yeast it would probably do the job. Again you hear a lot of conflicting opinions about whether or not it works. In my experience liquid yeast with a good starter is always a safe bet. All of the brews I've done with liquid have gone down as far as they needed to whereas my kit brews, which all used dried, were a mixed bag.

[jmc]

I make 1062 -> 1018 = 71% attenuation.

Looking at T-58 spec sheet 70% is suggested attenuation.
I would have expected just few points lower as Rob's recipe has 680 Belgian candy sugar (as it proper for the style).

If conditions were not ideal, yeast may have done the best it can, though I'd be tempted to raise to max 22C and rouse then give it another week to see if it can reduce FG a little.

[windrider]

I brewed this kit last month from Malt Miller and bottled it last week (using my BIAB setup). I got an OG: 1.065 & FG: 1.016, so spot on what I was hoping.

I didn’t rehydrate the yeast and just added it on top of the cooled wort. Found it very fast and it was down to my target FG after 7 days (kept @ 20°c). Allowed 2 weeks before bottling. The small amount I tried tasted great.

What was your volume in to fermentor?

[Manngold]

Thanks guys.

Serum - I think I will rouse it as you suggested, I am in no fuss of bottling early.

JMC - thanks for that information. Whilst the recipes from the MM have been really good, there isn't alot of detail, and I was going by the suggestions from BeerSmith mobile.

Windrider - my cooled volume was about 22L. This is only my second BIAB so am still getting to grips with the amount of water to use at the start.

Thanks for the response guys. I am still learning the ropes with this all. As soon as I think I have got one aspect under my belt, something else comes along for me to think about!

[windrider]

I set my recipe for 20 litres of cooled wort in to the fermentor. So it matched the the Malt Miller OG (using BIABacus). That’s probably why you are slightly out on your OG/FG?

I would say you are spot on and would leave the yeast, can't see it getting any lower.

[Manngold]

Thank you for all the advice guys. I ended up leaving it another week in the fv and ramped up the temp very slightly. Got about 66 330ml bottles out of it. Tasted lovely down the tube (reminded me of my time in Brugge and Ypres). I ended up priming with 150g of table sugar for 22l. Final gravity was at 1.018 - which makes the yeast about 70% if beersmith is correct.

Once again, thank you for the help.