Re-pitch?

[Belgian Inspired]

NOTE: Pardon my newbie-ness.

I'm on my fourth batch. Extract with about 4lbs of mixed grains steeped at 160 for 40 min. It's an American brown ale....just a heavy duty Rouge Hazelnut clone it put together from 3 or four recipes. I used White Labs California Ale Yeast WL001 - 1 tube with a starter of 4 cups water - 1 cup DME(before I knew about the 10:1). Also used 1 capsule Servomyces and 1/4 tsp Wyeast nutrient at 10 min. Temp was 68 for the first 14 days and 70 since then. OG 1.100. Fermentation died at 1.034. A crappy 64% AA. It been 3 weeks since I pitched, airlock stopped at about 10 days. Same gravity reading for the last four days. Do I re-pitch and if so how the hell do I do it? I see all the time advice to just re-pitch but no instructions on how to do it? I need help....like how to re-pitch for dummies. Temp of beer? temp of yeast? Do I have to use the same yeast? Do I make a starter and do I use Jamil’s pitch calc? Should I rack beer over new yeast or just pour in carboy and give gentle swirl? Enough already from me. 1) Should I re-pitch? 2) How the hell should I do it?

One last note & question on my batches:

batch #1 - big quad....65# AA - 6 weeks in bottles - not really any carb.
batch #2 - Belgian golden.....67% AA...4 weeks in bottle ZERO carb
batch #3 - Belgian Blonde.....77% AA....carbed and delicious in 10 days

I believe the attenuation is obviously the issue.......what the hell do I do with the stuff I bottled that won’t carb......put yeast in bottles, drink delicious zero carb beer…I don’t know?

I have been listening to BN archives like a maniac….at least 40 hours vested so far…..I’m loving the BN army and need the troops to support and educate me.

Cheers

Russ

[a10t2]

What kind of extract? 66% AA wouldn't be too unusual if it was anything other than extra light (amber, gold, dark, etc.). So re-pitching can't hurt, but it might not help. If you want to try it, make up a starter and pitch it at high krausen (probably 18-24 hours). Before you try that you might want to swirl up the fermenter a few times a day. Raising the temperature a couple degrees couldn't hurt either.

[Spelt]

Well according to my calculations, you're still sitting at an ABV of 8.9% with that AA. Even though california ale is pretty tolerant of alcohol that may still poop it out. Also, you seem to have way underpitched for that gravity. Mr. Malty would have grown up that single vial in 6.5L starter or pitched two vials into a 3L starter. I would agree with another pitch using your current gravity for the calculation, however you may want to look at a more alcohol tolerant yeast - maybe even a champagne yeast. If you're into belgians, the switch in yeast might give you an interestingly similar complexity albeit in a brown ale.

I had a similar problem with a very heavy wee heavy I made recently where the OG was 1.100. I could only get it down to 1.014 and that took nearly 3 weeks. Then it took forever to carbonate in the bottle. I was kicking myself that I hadn't repitched. Long story short...it took first place in a local contest. Go figure.

[Belgian Inspired]

DME was Munton's Amber. I'm going to try raising the temp slowly and then swirl for a few days and if no change I guess I may re-pitch. Unfortunately, I didn't discover Mr. Malty until after this batch got under way. Just with everything I learned on these four batches I think number five will be a breeze. Would pitching a Belgian strain be a bad idea? I harvested some yeas from a Left Hand St. Vrain Tripel, not really right for the style but I have it on hand and the alcohol tolerance should be right.

[11amas]

A 1.100 beer for your fourth batch? Brave of you. With extract huh, you may have very unfermentable wort to begin with. I think Beano will cleave up those long chain, branched sugars your yeast won't eat but you may still hit a wall with the ABV tolerance of cal ale. I would throw in some beano and pitch a starter of champagne yeast or a high gravity strain, warm it up, and maybe toss some yeast nutrient in the starter for good measure.

[Belgian Inspired]

I like big beers I thought Beano was a killer. Listening to Brew Strong I thought they said Beano just does not stop and there is no way to control it. So high graity strain, with starter and nutrent and just pour it in and swirl a bit?

[11amas]

If you have an extract that only gives you 60%aa then you are done. You might be able to turn that into a more fermentable wort with an enzyme addition though; it all depends on that batch of extract and how much of the sugar the yeast can eat.