High OG and yeast

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Thantos
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Location: San Francisco Bay Area

High OG and yeast

Post by Thantos »

Hi all,
First time posting here! I just made a 5 gallon batch of my usual sweet stout. I have made this beer many times and all ways had an OG of around 1.049 and a FG of around 1.017. For some reason using the same brew gear, technique, recipe and ingredients I ended up with an OG of 1.122 @ 60 deg F. So I am a little confused on two things:

1) how I got this sudden increase in OG?

2) Because the OG is so high should i have used more yeast?

I pitched two vials of White Labs liquid, one WLP002 (english ale) and one WLP082 (edinburgh ale) just like I always do with NO starter. Per the Mr. Maltys Calc. I should have used four at the high OG. Its been going for about 24 hours now and seems a little slow to kick off. Should I add another two vials? and if so how should I do it just pop the air lock and add it then reseal? Or do I need to be worried about sterility issues?

Thanks in advance
Gene1
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slothrob
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OG

Post by slothrob »

That's too big an OG change to explain easily. I suspect at least some degree of sampling error, was it a partial volume boil that didn't get mixed well with the top up water, perhaps?

That high an OG certainly would be better off with more yeast. I'm also not sure how well those yeasts do with high alcohol. You might want to add in a pack of US-05 dry yeast, but either way you could add yeast directly to the top. If it's possible that the OG isn't really that high, it would be an awful big waste of money, though.
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shaggyt
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slow start

Post by shaggyt »

in my experience w/WP yeasts, the vials take a while to start so even with two vials pitched for 24 hours, it might be some time before serious activity begins.

I moved to starters for this very reason...I was too impatient waiting for fermentation to begin. Also, the starter helps hit the higher end of the attenuation for your yeast.

Good luck.
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