Festive Wee Heavy

Follow-up.
That WLP530 is an eager bunny. Two weeks in primary and she’s still producing enough CO2 to keep the airlock pushed up.
Took a sample: went from OG 1075 to 1011, which gives an ARA of 86%.
Raw yeast taste still overpowers the rest of the beer, but it has a solid body, and a mild, spicy bitterness. Transfering this to secondary over the weekend, when I’ll be rebrewing this recipe, only now I’ll pitch with proper 1728 Scottish Ale yeast, which Ive prepared two weeks up front. 1 quart starter in 1060 SG wort.

Follow-up.

Brewed this again today. Smooth sailing all around, with about 20 liters of 1.085 wort cooling in the primary vessel as we speak. That 1728 starter I made for the first batch is now a fully active quart or so. Will pitch this later, and then I’ll put the whole shebang in the cellar at 16°C/61°F where I’ll let it do its thing for as long as it needs.
Used 50 grams of target @T-30 this time instead of 100g of EKG, as I’d run clean out of the latter. Definitely a more pungent hops, but it’ll do fine.
I found out I’d tripled the amount fo roast barley in the first batch (300g instead of 100) so this one is much lighter, with a more pronounced redness, whereas the first one is darker, with a concealed red highlight. WLP530 definitely put its stamp on batch#1, which will likely end up more like an amped dubbel. #2 should be more true to style, but time will tell.

I totally know that feeling when you “f” up the first go-round and immediately want to rebrew the recipe, just to say you got it right. In fact, it actually keeps me up at night. I usually get about 2 of those a year and don’t typically make it back to rebrewing them until about 10-12 mos later. Shame.

As for the 530 batch, you should split it half. leave half as is, and add some D-180 syrup and cane sugar to make yourself a Belgian Dark Strong. Then you got 2 for one beers.

UPDATE: YES! That 1728 is really doing its work this time around. Pitched late last night and left the fermentor outside. About 14°C ambient. Full frothy krausen this morning. Moved it to the basement, in case the weather perks up. Which it doesn’t like have any intention of doing, by it should be so lucky.

Yeah. Plus: half of the Clan already thinks every dark-red beer tastes like an abbaye ale(*) even if it’s nothing to do with that, so I want to be able to make’m notice the difference, even if I forcefeed it to them by means of a bagpipe bong.

*) actually, they use “trappist” as a reference, for some reason equalling that with Rochefort 12. I have so much work ahead of me…

As it is, it’s already closing in on 10% ABV. I think addind more sugar to that would certainly kill it. And syrup…I’m loathe to add any of that post-fermentation. But I hear you: the malt bill is good starting point for something Strong, Dark, and, for want of better word, Belgian.

Wow!  I would say at 10% that you already have a nice Belgian Dark Strong Ale then.

Well…apart from the sugar which normally lowers the body on those, that is.
That Belgian Wee (for want of a better name) came down from 1085 to 1011, which computes to 9.71% ABV.
I don’t suppose WLP530 is going to go much lower still, but I’m giving it its own sweet time. 87% AA already is on the high side but I’m not taking chances with this one.
1728 should only ever reach about 70% max, which would make batch 2 end up at around 1025, with 7.8% ABV. Two quite different beers alright.

Yeah, with those gravity readings I would suspect that the 530 is done.

You can get 85% attenuation out of that yeast.  It’s not the yeast as much as the wort that determines attenuation.