I am looking for some advice. I have a tripel that has been sitting in secondary for many months. Tasted it yesterday and I feel it is still a bit too sweet. It was recommended that I dry it out with some champagne yeast and I will give that a try but I have also heard that the yeast may not be able to handle the left over sugar.
Does anyone have any ideas how I can get another small fermentation going? Maybe I am just stuck where it is? All comments would be appreciated as this has happened before.
You could probably make a small half-gallon batch of wort and use either the Belle Saison or Wyeast 3711 yeasts, and once fermentation is going strong, combine this with your existing tripel. Either of those yeasts (they are the same) will ferment pretty much anything down to about 1.000-1.005. You’ll have to be patient, though… it can take up to 3-4 weeks for this yeast to complete the fermentation.
Champagne yeast will only help if there are still fermentables left. My guess is that after all that time it’s done and champagne yeast won’t do anything. And FTR, using champange yeast is seldom a good idea anyway, IMO.
You need to find out what went wrong so you learn (since it happened before). My suspicion was not enough yeast.
Sounds like you’re a patient guy so I would say rack to secondary, pitch some brett or sour dregs, and forget about awhile and get another beer going. Revisit at 6mos and bE ready for spring/summer next year.
You could rouse the yeast and warm up the fermenter.
I agree with Denny on the champagne yeast. The times I’ve used it, I could taste it. It is not “neutral” as people claim and will give you some flavor.
What you really need to do is not guess and determine if it’s a yeast problem or wort problem. There are lots of well meaning people posting ideas, but we really have no way of knowing what the problem is. Do a fast fermentation test…put some of the beer from secondary onto a separate container…a cup or so should be enough. Pitch a LOT of any kind of yeast into it (even bread yeast will work) and keep it warm for a few days. If it ferments further, then you have a yeast problem. If it doesn’t, then you have a wort problem and the beer will not ferment any further.
Or it could simply be alcohol giving the sweetness that the OP notes here. I suggest a gravity reading to get an idea where the problem lies and perhaps just as importantly - where it doesn’t lie.
I often find uncarbonated beer to taste considerably sweeter than when it is carbed properly. are you sure you are not just panicking? what was the measured OG and FG?