Fermenting high gravity brews

[ChristianSA]

We're going to do a OG1150+ brew soon using a simple incremental feeding scheme.

After consulting our yeast supplier (Wyeast) they recommended a normal ale yeast pitched to start with, and after it takes off we should pitch their champagne yeast.

That is all well - but I do not want to shell out the money for 3-4 litres of champagne yeast needed, since we are only going to use once and stepping up a one-litre tube is out of the question as it would thin out the target beer too much.

My question is: Can anybody recommend a dry yeast, that will do the job?

Any other recommendations are more than welcome.

-Christian, Ølfabrikken

[Diamond Knot]

Christian,

Have you considered dried yeasts? They now come in single strains and may be a better choice for that "one off" beer. Generally, their packages come with a lot more yeast than you'll probably use.

[RobZamites]

I can vouch for Safale S-04 as a very active, extremely flocculant ale strain. The price is right too!

[crassbrauer]

Aeration

If you want to try and stick with your ale yeast, aerate your fermenting wort during about the first quarter or third of fermentation. This will increase your cell count and make up a little for the diminished activity. The amount of alcohol in solution will, of course, become problematic after a while, but maybe your ale yeast can handle it if you help them along.

[Sir Brewsalot]

After reading postings on this forum, I tried S-04 as well, and WOW is it flocculent. Decent attenuation too, and a very nice price.

I didn't bother to liquify it on the first pitch, just sprinkled it in the fermenter on the surface of the wort... I've also repitched a few times, counter to what the instructions say, all with good results (attenuation, floc, flavor).

Something in their lineup may work for a hi-grav, but I'd tend to just overpitch my house yeast, and oxygenate well. For my Barleywine, I used Wyeast 1272 and got 11.5abv out of it...more than I expected.

[Michael Murphy]

Christian, I did exaclty what your looking to do, I fermented it first with beer yeast, a high floc will work to about 11% alc then stop, I let it sit for a week and then used dry Champaign yeast, about a half kilo for 8 hl. I shook the tank (i think you can physically shake a grundy, not too hard. I reshook the tank every day for about 2 more weeks then racked into kegs, I then rolled the kegs once a week for about 3 months. I was very happy with the beer the came out of this.

mike

[ChristianSA]

Christian, I did exaclty what your looking to do, I fermented it first with beer yeast, a high floc will work to about 11% alc then stop, I let it sit for a week and then used dry Champaign yeast, about a half kilo for 8 hl. I shook the tank (i think you can physically shake a grundy, not too hard. I reshook the tank every day for about 2 more weeks then racked into kegs, I then rolled the kegs once a week for about 3 months. I was very happy with the beer the came out of this.

mike

Hi Mike,

From where did you get the dry champagne yeast?


-Christian

[Jephro]

Has anyone used White Labs WLP099- Super High Gravity?
They claim it will ferment up to 25% alclhol >80% attenuuation w/ Medium Floccilation.
No exp. with it myself, but i have always wondered if it really is that much of a beast.

[BMOOR]

Incremental feeding scheme

Can ChristianSA (or anyone else who has done it) speak to the incremental feeding scheme that you were planning. I've heard of doing this, have considered trying it, but haven't talked to anyone who's tried and/or succeded. If anyone can share things like: What gravities were you using? batch size? Oxygen considerations? final gravity? Pitching rate? etc./
Thanks for the help.

[Michael Murphy]

I also know a brewer who actually adds sugar and fresh yeast over and over to the ferementer, which ends with a very succesful super high alchol beer.

[nwcw2001]

high gravity

I know this is all but a dead thread but here's my $.02

I have done this with an outcome of about 23%abv

I used White Labs WLP099- Super High Gravity. I started out oxygenating 4X's what was necessary and giving the yeast 1/3 of the wort at a time over 3 days, giving it time to build itself up to handle the workload. It turned out really nice, it was a sippin' beer!

HTH

John

[ChristianSA]

I know this is all but a dead thread but here's my $.02

I have done this with an outcome of about 23%abv

I used White Labs WLP099- Super High Gravity. I started out oxygenating 4X's what was necessary and giving the yeast 1/3 of the wort at a time over 3 days, giving it time to build itself up to handle the workload. It turned out really nice, it was a sippin' beer!

HTH

John

Hi John,

What was the size of you initial slurry/wort?

What was your initial pitching gravity?

Did you add yeast nutrients?

Did you oxygenate between feedings?

Did you ferment it only with WLP099 or did you use normal ale yeast too?

-Christian