Damn Work!

[Uncle Albert]

Hello Gents

Need some help on whether my first extracts brews are a lost cause.

I had two 40 pint fermenters on the go with an extract recipe for Trippel and relevant white labs yeast

All was going well - SG was 1.077 or round abouts. Had them fermenting for 3 weeks at relatively low temperatures. Then got the dreaded call from work - need to you leave tomorrow for 6 weeks.

So I did emergency kegging in my crusader legs. The beer was nowhere near fermented out and was very sweet. I had some leftover I made into an oxtail stew and that was ok, but it was certainly not drinkable.

They are in my cold garage at the moment with my other kegs. My only option as I see it is to leave them all spring and summer, when the ambient temperature will rise and they will finish fermentation. I will ease a little pressure off in a few months by unscrewing the leg slightly.

Will they ever be drinkable?

Cheers

J

[allanmb]

Doubtful. If you are meticulous with sterilisation and the beer is high enough in ABV (>8%) and there is absolutely no light getting to the brew then perhaps, but otherwise it would be a lost cause in my opinion.

[Uncle Albert]

Starsan sterilised and zero light due to being in crusader leg. Guessing around 5 percent abv when legged.

[Fil]

how much pressure can the crusaders take?? if 80-100g of sugars can create condition and upto 12psi in a pb, what is the theoretical pressure build up with the mass of sugars left in your brews? I would be googling for a calculator/formula to help ..

to be safe unscrew the keg spear a lil and let it ferment out without pressure build up you can always tighten and gas up to condition on your return.

even if the kegs can contain the pressure the beer may need a few hundred shake and vent cycles to come close to dropping to a level of condition you could serve..

just my view..

[Uncle Albert]

Cheers Fil. Not sure of pressure rating but it will be high - 1.5mm thick SS. Unfortunately I did not take a FG as too much of a rush, so sugars is unknown.


I will bring them inside to warm up and slightly unscrew then give them 6 Months.

Cheers

[Uncle Albert]

I think my main uncertainty would be over any strange flavours from sitting on yeast for 6 months? Assuming yeast does get back to life when beer warmed