Post #103796 by manu man on Fri, Jul 23, 2004 6:09 PM

The addition of large amounts of sugar (in this case fructose) requires a larger yeast starter. I pitched a 2 quart starter of solid yeast and oxygenated for 2 min with Oxygen. I used a 3rd generation of White Labs yeast, a mix of WLP300 & 380 that I harvested from my conical. My starting gravity was 1.060, the additon of 3 gallons of pinapple juice would of kicked this up to at least 1.065. I racked the brew today, 1 carboy with 1.5 quarts of fresh mango, the other with 1.5 quarts of fresh pinapple. The gravity was 1.008 (% alchol=6.9-7.5%) and the yeast was still working (20 days in the primary). This goes to show that a hefe yeast will continue to work in a high alcohol environment. The best wheat yeast for high alchol is a Belgian Wit. I had one go as high as 11% ABV! Talk about seeing pink tiki's, whew.

[ Edited by: manu man on 2004-07-23 18:13 ]