Trappist brews on the agenda

[greenxpaddy]

Missed the OG some way on that. 1.072. Won't be so strong after all.

Dubel mash ph is 6.2. Terrible. And I halved my carbonate addition. Should do an acid rest with Dingemans Pils Malt me thinks

[barney]

Missed the OG some way on that. 1.072. Won't be so strong after all.

Dubel mash ph is 6.2. Terrible. And I halved my carbonate addition. Should do an acid rest with Dingemans Pils Malt me thinks

That sounds about right if its just the wort OG, just add a kilo or two of sugar.

[greenxpaddy]

OG was post boil. Going to live with it slightly weaker should still be over 8% abv

I've decided I don't need any carbonate in any pale beers. See how that goes. Wish I hadn't got ph strips now. One more thing to worry about!

[greenxpaddy]

All done. Starting at 17c will nudge up 1 per day.

[greenxpaddy]

Day 4.5

Dark Trappist has gone from 1.072 to 1.027 but kreusen has fallen already and the beer looks fairly clear. Should I be worried? That one had a little more yeast than the other. I'll check the gravity tonight again and if it hasn't moved will stir it right up. Have to get it down from there or it will be sickly sweet

Honey Trappist has gone from 1.073 to 1.027. The kreusen is still high and the beer is very milky with yeast, so that one looks good.

[Barley Water]

If your mash Ph is jumping around all over the place depending our your recipe, try using that 5.2 stabilizer stuff. That stuff is a buffer which forces the ph down. I use it for every brew I do because I have slightly alkaline water, I don't even bother measuring the ph anymore because I know that stuff keeps it where I want it. You know, better living through chemistry and all that (especially important when doing a beer with all light grains).

[jonnyt]

How much of it do you need though?

[floydmeddler]

Had great success with my first Belgian Honey Beer: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=38871&hilit=+belgian+honey

Am currently planning on bottling this one over the weekend: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=46377&hilit=+belgian+honey

Good luck with it!

[greenxpaddy]

Hi all.

Back from Hols, and have a problem. Honey and dark Belgian both been at 21c for last week. Honey has finished, going to be nice and dry and strong! Fg of 1.010.

The dark Trappist is where I have the problem. It has stopped at 1.025. Attenuation of only 66%. the mash temp was not too high so that can't be it. Have never had to contend with a truly stuck ferment before. I gave it a really good stir before I went away but it didn't do the trick.

Now I wonder what I should do. Risk bottling at a high fg .... Hmmm that could be risky.

Or should I bottle the honey trappist and throw the yeast cake from that one in? Trouble is that yeast must be seriously stressed..... It achieved 86% attenuation from 1.073.

Any thoughts?

[greenxpaddy]

Based on advice from over the pond, I am going to bottle the honey Trappist then rack the dark on to that yeast cake to see if it will munch it's way through the new sugars. Worth a shot.

[greenxpaddy]

Ah, no improvement from the rerack onto the yeast cake.

Last night I also added some yeast vit, sometimes that works.

Looks like I will have to just leave it at 1.025 6.5%.

I have thought about possibly pitching some more yeast starter at high kreusen but I don't know if I would need to give it some oxygen and then risk oxidation.

Going to just sit it out for now. Will rack to secondary soon anyhow.

[greenxpaddy]

Bottled the Dark last night, primed to 2.3 vols co2.

It tasted ok, very strong as you would imagine. Not a lot of flavour so may have suffered some oxidation with all the faffing about trying to drive for a lower FG. Still its at 1.023 before priming which looks very stable FG.

Again, time will tell how it turns out.

[greenxpaddy]

The single is not highly primed at all. But that's ok with me. There is a definite hint of pink bubblegum which is a surprise since early fermentation temp was 18 degrees c. for 5 days

Nice though, not overpowering

[greenxpaddy]

Honey Trippel update

Couldn't resist opening one to see if it primed ok

If it takes 6 months to get to best condition I'm very happy as its pretty good now!

[Barley Water]

Just an interesting update: the single I did ended up winning a 3rd place metal in the Belgian Specialty category in a very large contest (over 1,800 entries). Needless to say I was very surprised, sometimes simple is better than just good I guess (and a bit of luck never hurts). Intestingly, the Triple made from the yeast cake never carbonated for what reason I can't imagine so naturally it didn't do jack in the same contest. I'm going to try and salvage the situation by dumping the bottles into one of my kegs and force carbonating the stuff. I can't tell for sure what the beer is actually like when it's dead flat like that (and I expect a triple to be fairly highly carbonated, it should make the beer drink way lighter than it is flat). Oh well, if this hobby was easy, it wouldn't be as much fun.