Beer Forum

Hey guys... So I brewed an imperial stout about 5 days ago that had way more OG then anticipated. I was shooting for 1.098 but ended up with 1.120 (due to refractometer issues, which I will be posting about in another thread). I used a yeast starter for the initial pitch but that amount was only for the 1.098.. Now Im thinking of adding 2 more vials to help those little critters out.. What do you think? Is this going to be a problem? Are they going to eat each other and give off flavors?

At this point, I wouldn't bother adding any more yeast, unless your fermentation has stalled. Any issues that may arise from underpitching would have occurred several days ago during the yeast growth phase.

Well the fermentation never really took off.. It had some small amounts of bubbling but i havent noticed much action.. I plan on taking a reading tonight and seeing where its at...If its not near my FG should I throw more in? Its is significantly underpitched, will alllowing more time cure that or is pitching a vial or two an option?

If you need to repitch, make another starter and pitch at high krausen.

Did you do anything to aerate? That may be a bigger issue in getting them to take off if you did not.

spiderwrangler wrote:Did you do anything to aerate? That may be a bigger issue in getting them to take off if you did not.

I did my typical shake the crap out of the fermenter method but I guess it may not have been enough given the high gravity.
My starter was 1.6 liters with 2 vials. I just dont think that is enough for this high OG.

What are some of the concerns with pitching another vial? Why should I make a starter? Is it just to get the yeast active and happy?

2 vials in 1.6 L won't give you all that much growth, so your initial yeast numbers wouldn't be much beyond the 200bil from your starters...