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Author Topic: restarting fermentation  (Read 1113 times)

Offline hornets nectar

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restarting fermentation
« on: December 23, 2010, 12:43:30 pm »
Question . I  have a English style Barleywine that started at 1.080 and finished at 1.040 and obviously needs to be restarted as it should finish around 1.023.
I have racked to secondary and had to go out of town for a week or so and the carboy has been in the basement at cool temps  40-50's , by the way the beer is beutifully clear at this time.
Can I slowly warm the beer back up to room temp and repitch to restart and finish the fermentation or am I stuck with a tasty but overly sweet beer ?   ??? ???

Offline bonjour

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Re: restarting fermentation
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2010, 12:50:33 pm »
1.080 is not that big of a beer and you shouldn't have a problem with it, but . . .

It sounds like you racked to secondary prior to the fermentation being completed.
This means you likely have a stalled fermentation.  The best fix is to warm it up to fermentation temp (mid 60's) and add a working population of yeast, figure about the amount that you racked it off.

Two ways,  First, get a growler of fresh active yeast from a friendly brewpub
second, make a small beer and pitch the yeast cake at 1 week.  No O2 addition.
Fred Bonjour
Co-Chair Mashing in Michigan 2014 AHA Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan
AHA Governing Committee; AHA Conference, Club Support & Web Subcommittees



Everything under 1.100 is a 'session' beer ;)

Offline hornets nectar

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Re: restarting fermentation
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2010, 01:21:04 pm »
Thanks ! I will have to repitch since we have no brew pubs around here .
I am about to do a cream ale , so your saying use the yeast cake from that
and repitch the bigger beer ?
Will that work ?

Offline bonjour

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Re: restarting fermentation
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2010, 01:22:44 pm »
Absolutely,
that will work
Fred Bonjour
Co-Chair Mashing in Michigan 2014 AHA Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan
AHA Governing Committee; AHA Conference, Club Support & Web Subcommittees



Everything under 1.100 is a 'session' beer ;)