I've never managed to keep any of this around long enough to try any this late in the year. It's usually gone by February at the latest. Not sure what I'm going to brew for the holidays this year. Maybe an imperial cherry stout?
If you add the additional points to your starting gravity you will come up with a close approximation. Use the new starting gravity to calculate your ABV. It's not going to be perfect. But it will be close.
Did you add any yeast nutrient to this? Either in the boil or when you added the additional yeast. If you didn't, that could explain why the finished higher. Yeast needs more than just the sugar in the wort to ferment properly.
I see no harm in cold crashing this. I usually keg this and let it clear over the course of 2 weeks. 2 weeks in the keg fridge is no different than cold crashing. Gelatin shouldn't hurt either. Though I don't see the need.
That's impressive. The best I've ever done on this was a final gravity of 1.018. Did you use Wyeast 1388? Did you make a starter? If so, what is your starter process? Next year I might add WLP 090 on day 3 or 4.
I have nothing to back this up but I feel this would be fine. As long as it is stored properly. I opened a few bottles of a Wit i brewed in 2018 this past summer. They tasted perfectly fine. Not as good as when they were originally brewed but still carbonated and drinkable.
You should be at terminal gravity, around 1.020 or below, before racking to secondary with the cherries. Reaching 1.020 or below is going to take 2 weeks or more. Don't try to hurry this. 6 weeks from brew day till ready to drink is not unusual with this beer.
My measured mash efficiency for this years recipe was 71.5%. It's not going to be a direct conversion. You do not have to be concerned with mash efficiency.
We need to do a little math.
Using Briess Pilsen Light DME with 1.043 PPG. Assuming a 6 gallon batch, which is what I brew. We need to...
That's a good experiment. You can drop the water adjustments that are isted in the PDF. They are for my water here in central PA.
Let me know how they turn out.
I brew all grain. My recipe is in this thread: Brewing a Troegs Mad Elf Ale Clone + Recipe I've gotten a good response on it there and in the comments on YouTube. Make sure you look at the updated recipe from this year. It's in an attached PDF here: Brewing a Troegs Mad Elf Ale Clone + Recipe
I wonder when that BYO recipe is from? Looking at their website now: Mad Elf Ale they have removed any reference to hops from the page.
The 2018 version of that page: Mad Elf Ale Which is what I based my recipe on, states Hallertau and Saaz. Honestly, any addition for 15 IBU's will work here...
I followed the directions from here: Beersmith3 BJCP Water Profiles - fermware.com to add the BJCP water profile guidelines to Beesmith. Then matched the target profile for 26D Belgian Dark Strong Ale.
Hope that helps. Let me know how it turns out.
I don't see any reason why you couldn't use the store brand of cherries. My local grocery stores, Giant and Weis, do not have store brands of the of the cherries to try. I did find the Oregon cherries at Giant this year. The first time ever that I've seen them there. Cleaned them out of what...