Imperial BLIPA - No krausen, little Co2

[ezraburke]

Brewed an Imperial Black IPA on Friday night, managed to nail the recipe bang on - aimed for ~70% efficiency for a starting gravity of 1.083, hit 1.080 so pretty ****ing happy with it. Only issue is the FV is quiet as hell in the garage (wrapped up in blankets at the minute).

Recipe below:

________________________________________________
STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.083
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 8.7%
IBU (tinseth): 107.11
SRM (morey): 42.21

FERMENTABLES:
4.25 kg - German - Pilsner (69.9%)
430 g - Flaked Barley (7.1%)
400 g - German - Carafa III (6.6%)
400 g - Treacle (6.6%)
0.2 kg - Dextrose (3.3%)
200 g - Honey (3.3%)
200 g - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (3.3%)

HOPS:
50 g - Chinook, Type: Pellet, AA: 13, Use: Boil for 50 min, IBU: 74.39
50 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 32.73
25 g - Centennial, Type: Pellet, AA: 10, Use: Boil for 0 min
50 g - Amarillo, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 8.6, Use: Dry Hop for 10 days
50 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 7, Use: Dry Hop for 5 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 68 C, Time: 65 min, Amount: 8.3 L
Starting Mash Thickness: 3.1 L/kg

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 each - Protafloc, Time: 0 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
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Brewday was uneventful. Mash was 68 for an hour in my mash tun, no temp loss over that time. No sparge method used with a voile bag to get all the precious wort out of the grain. Nailed SG as above.

- Added the treacle mid-boil
- Added protafloc about 10mins from end of boil
- Added the honey at flameout
- Pitched the yeast dry, no starter at approx. 22oC.

I'm used to going in on high gravity beers but the activity in the FV is hella quiet. There's a vaguely alcoholic smell coming from it and there is a little bit of co2 coming off it but it's not exactly bubbling away.

Any ideas what's going on or how i could kickstart it? I've got some yeast nutrient i've bought that could be put into it if that's a solution to getting this up and running?

 

[MyQul]

What temp is it in your garage? If it's cold in there you could bring it inside. US-05 has got quite a low temp range so It probably will be ok if it's cold in your garage. You'll just need to give it longer to ferment - kinda like a an imperial black pseudo lager

 

[ezraburke]

Actually not 100% what the temp is in the garage - shall check tonight. I've got an imperial Rye IPA in there too, same sort of gravity region and yeast which is bubbling away which got me worrying. I've never used adjuncts like treacle or honey so have no experience of how they might affect fermentation...

 

[MyQul]

Not sure if honey/treacle has any effect on fermentation (apart from being 100% or near enough fermentable and make the beer a bit drier). I've used both and not noticed anything odd going on during fermentation
Apart from temp the only other thing I can think of is using enough yeast and aerating thoroughly. But by the sounds of things your experienced in brewing imperial styles and would have pitched and aerated adequately?

 

[ezraburke]

Yeah, i think by the sounds of it it may just be down to temp range in the garage. I spoke with LHBS about the issue (hence the nutrients) and the only other thing she would have recommended was perhaps making a yeast starter - pitching dry usually works fine with US-05 (in my experience) but it's just a slow starter this one.

May speak with SWMBO about bringing it into the house for a short period of time to allow it to kickstart. I can imagine what that conversation will go like though...

 

[Wardy]

I used Safale US-05 in my last 3 brews. All started between 1.066 and 1.072 and all stopped around 1.032 despite temperature being a constant regulated 20 C. I was going to just throw them in kegs but my local brewshop recommended mangro jacks workhorse yeast. It got 2 of them going and they are now down to 1.020 and still going so I'm going to use 2 packs of Safale us05 in the next brew or might even use the workhorse yeast if the flavour comes out ok.

 

[ezraburke]

I've got another US-05 on the way. Checking the garage temp tonight, perhaps the FV will come inside for a little while if it's too cold and i think, at any rate, i'll pitch the other yeast from a starter.

Sigh.

 

[ezraburke]

Inside now, krausen formed.

 

[Leon103]

Taken a reading with the hydrometer to see if it was actually doing anything.

 

[ezraburke]

I'm dry hopping tonight anyway so i'll get the hydrometer in to see if it's coming down any - it's a high gravity ******* so may take some time to come down to 1.016!

 

[MyQul]

Glad to hear it's doing what it's supposed to. Bringing it into the warmth seems to have done the job

 

[rodabod]

It's pretty essential that you monitor the fermentation temperature. Hard to get consistent results otherwise.

 

[rodabod]

Also, hydrate dry yeast before using it. It's easy enough to do.

 

[Badseed1974]

I did a smoked porter recently with an SG of 1.090, 2 packs of safale 05 got it down to 1.014. I imagine it mighta struggled with just the one pack.

 

[ezraburke]

I pumped another US-05 into it and it took off like a rocket. The temp in the room is constantly about 20oC so the yeast must have just been cold. Took about 3 days or so and it came down to 1.020 and now its' sitting pretty at the FG of 1.016.

Bottling on Sunday!

Labels here:

 

[MyQul]

That label is AWESOME. Picture is great and love the word play on a vader quote

 

[ezraburke]

That label is AWESOME. Picture is great and love the word play on a vader quote

Cheers man! :thumb: I think half the fun of brewing has been designing the labels...

 

[MyQul]

Oo! just realized you picked the vader piccy because its an imperial beer. Even more word play - love it!

 

[machin05]

Awesome label and awesome sounding beer! Congrats

 

[ezraburke]

Bottled!