Membership questions? Log in issues? Email info@brewersassociation.org

Author Topic: 1st Brew, need advice  (Read 726 times)

Offline SpecialJ77

  • 1st Kit
  • *
  • Posts: 5
1st Brew, need advice
« on: September 15, 2020, 05:00:47 pm »
Thanks in advance.  Brand new to the hobby and loving it. 

I am brewing a belgian tripel as my first brew.  Yeast was Safale S-33.   I have followed the directions explicitly but My OG was higher than I expected at start.  It was 1.060 so I figured I would roll with it as a dubbel.  It has been in a fermenter for 9 days strictly temp controlled at 65-67F and my gravity is now 1.020.  I tasted it and it is very sweet and looks very cloudy.  (not unpleasant tasting but too sweet for beer IMO).  I plan on bottle conditioning straight from primary this week.  What is my solution at this point?  I counted on it not being a true tripel but I did not expect it to be this sweet.  Can I pitch more yeast at this point?  I feel like I should have bought an extra packet and pitched it to begin with.

Thanks for your advice.

Jason 

Offline tommymorris

  • Official Poobah of No Life. (I Got Ban Hammered by Drew)
  • *********
  • Posts: 3869
1st Brew, need advice
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2020, 06:46:43 pm »
Thanks in advance.  Brand new to the hobby and loving it. 

I am brewing a belgian tripel as my first brew.  Yeast was Safale S-33.   I have followed the directions explicitly but My OG was higher than I expected at start.  It was 1.060 so I figured I would roll with it as a dubbel.  It has been in a fermenter for 9 days strictly temp controlled at 65-67F and my gravity is now 1.020.  I tasted it and it is very sweet and looks very cloudy.  (not unpleasant tasting but too sweet for beer IMO).  I plan on bottle conditioning straight from primary this week.  What is my solution at this point?  I counted on it not being a true tripel but I did not expect it to be this sweet.  Can I pitch more yeast at this point?  I feel like I should have bought an extra packet and pitched it to begin with.

Thanks for your advice.

Jason
Is the specific gravity stable? If not you could get more attenuation by waiting.

Another packet of yeast likely would not have made a difference. Yeast reproduces until it decides there are “enough” cells for the volume and food content (sugars) available. Starting with two packs would have just stopped the reproduction a tad sooner. Either way the total yeast in the wort would have been about the same and those yeast would have eaten all the available sugars (at least all the types of sugar that yeast variety is capable of consuming).

Someone else may be able to comment on the feasibility of adding a different variety of yeast to eat sugars/starches the S33 yeast was unable to consume. I have never done that so I don’t know if it is a good idea or bad.

PS. You only need to post in one sub-forum.  A lot of us read the forum via the timeline or unread posts features and see all the posts from all the sub-forums.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2020, 08:12:19 pm by tommymorris »

Offline BrewBama

  • Official Poobah of No Life. (I Got Ban Hammered by Drew)
  • *********
  • Posts: 6048
1st Brew, need advice
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2020, 07:06:53 pm »
S-33 is an English Ale fruit driven strain. It gives a high mouthfeel and body to the beer because it probably doesn’t metabolize maltotriose and it only gives a medium sedimentation — a powdery haze when resuspended in the beer.

You could add another strain to try to dry the beer out. Maybe EC-1116 which is good for restarting stuck fermentations.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
« Last Edit: September 15, 2020, 07:36:52 pm by BrewBama »

Offline SpecialJ77

  • 1st Kit
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: 1st Brew, need advice
« Reply #3 on: September 16, 2020, 05:08:37 am »
Thanks for the replies.  I appreciate it.