Hey all, just brewed an imperial stout that measured at 1.095 (refract) or 1.100 (hydrom). I used two smack packs of Wyeast 1028 to pitch and I used my aquarium oxygenator before pitching. I heard on Jamil’s BN show that with big beers they recommend reoxygenating with the oxygen pump for a little bit on a day or two after brew day on big beers.
Do folks think is a good idea or do they have recommended techniques? I know my FG will be higher because of the dark malts I used but just want to make sure that my yeast are happy.
Thanks Denny, yes any suggestions would be appreciated. Also, in terms of an aging profile since this is a big beer, I was wondering, does 14 days in primary, two months in the secondary sound good for a beer in the 1.095-1.100 OG range? This is new territory for me, I want to give time for yeast to do its work well in primary, secondary and bottle
the beer not the calendar. 14 daysin primary might be just fine but you will not know till it’s done. I would plan on more like 28 days in primary (at least, 56 wouldn’t be bad) then either straight to bottles or into secondary for another couple weeks.
I would always go by hydrometer reading for transferring, not by the days on the calendar. The last thing you want to do it transfer all of that beer off of it’s healthy yeast cake before it’s done fermenting. Just let it go in the primary and transfer to the secondary a week or so after you hit a terminal and consistent final gravity.
I’ve had good results on big beers with pure oxygen at pitching, then again at about 15 hours. Pretty sure this discussion is covered in Yeast (White & Zainasheff).
I would focus more on how much the gravity has dropped than how many hours it has been since pitching. If it hasn’t dropped 5 or 10 points in that strong of a beer, I would feel very comfortable hitting it with more O2.
I’ve only done it within the first day, but I think I’d be pretty comfortable even a couple of days out. I do it with my staggered additions with meads that size for 5 or 6 days (aerating, not pure O2, but I’m not sold that there’s a huge difference), so why would beer be that much different?
It shouldn’t be much different, I agree. The other thing you can do that might be more important than adding more O2 is to knock the CO2 out of solution. That will help your yeast too.
This can benefit the yeast during their lag phase when they are still absorbing nutrients and O2, but avoid it when you start to see a krausen forming on the top of the beer.
My current technique for big beers is to add oxygen as it goes into the primary fermenter, then re-dose that evening just before I go to bed, about 6 hours later. Next morning active fermentation is evident. Has made significant contribution to lowering my final gravity and reduced my occasional stuck fermentation issues with those finicky yeast strains. Have also tried adding oxygen the next morning before active fermentation started with the same results.
So its been three weeks in primary on this beer, its down to about 1.042, according to my last reading. I expect since my recipe included Roasted Barley, Midnight Wheat and Flaked Wheat Ill have a higher FG. BeerSmith tells me that with the two packs of Wyeast 1028 I should have a final gravity of 1023 after a starting at 1.101. Should I keep at it in primary? Also is there a point to perhaps pitching one more pouch of yeast and reoxygenating with my aquarium pump and stone? Thanks
I don’t think that any of those malts you mention inherently increase FG. If they converted as expected they will ferment. They are not like crystal/cara malt that is made up in part of un-reducible, un-fermentable sugars