phuff7129

Recipes 

Hi all,
Need your expertise as usual. I have DFH 60 Minute IPA clone that has been in primary for 2 weeks. My OG was 1.062 which was right on the money and after 2 weeks it is at 1.020. I used Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale yeast with a 1 liter starter.

When I put this in primary I had no activity in the airlock after 2 days so I pulled the lid to see what was going on and I had a very healthy krausen. Even though I never had any activity in the airlock when I pulled the lid off the bucket today you could see the remains of the krausen on the lid and it looked like it had fermented out.

I checked the gravity and it was 1.020. 1.020 is almost in the range of attenuation for this strain and the expected gravity was 1.018.

The gravity sample tasted really good so should I even mess with it? I am used to using Wyeast 1056 American Ale and getting down around 1.010 - 1.014.

I also recently learned about Mr Malty and according to their pitch rate calculator I should have pitched a 1.5 liter starter so I may have under pitched a little.

So what would you guys do?
Leave it alone and go ahead and dryhop it?
Stir it up a little and check it again in a couple of days?
Maybe pitch a little more yeast?

Also what do you do when the yeast you choose wont attenuate the beer to the gravity you want. Do you just make a bigger starter? Mr Malty doesn't seem to take into account the attenuation profile of the yeast.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Oh almost forgot. I know you guys will ask about my temps and the actual temp of the wort was between 67 and 71 the entire time so there are no temperature issues.

__________________
Fermentation is not pretty.

pm5k00

Recipes 

I would try rousing the yeast and let it ferment around 70F for a few days and then check gravity. If this was all grain, try mashing at a lower temp next time too.

__________________
Cibolo Pale Ale - Imperial Belgian Wit - Forbidden Fruit IPA - Centennial Pale Ale

NordeastBrewer77

Recipes 

was it an extract brew? if it was, 1.020 might be your FG. you could try rousing and warming, seeing if that gets the FG to drop a few points.

__________________
The Polk Street Brewery
Brew Blog
Primary: Honey Weizen (a ,Midwest kit), Columbus IPA
Secondary: No. 3 Burton, RIS
Bottled: Simcoe IPA, Northern English Brown
Kegged: German Alt, Octane IPA

Give a man beer and his thirst is quenched. Teach a man to brew and it will never be again.

wailingguitar

Recipes 

Your gravity is off by .002.. that's not much at all. I wouldn't worry with it myself, but if you want to try to rouse the yeast it couldn't possibly hurt anything.

There are so many factors that could be at work here. I am inclined to think that it is most likely one of the reasons that pm and Nordeast mentioned... slightly warmer mash in the case of an AG, or just the quirky nature of extract brews.

__________________
"Why did you.... what was the point of... how drunk were you when you decided this was a good idea?" - DMartin

phuff7129

Recipes 

Yes it was an extract brew. Do you thing I under pitched? What should I do to not have this issue next time? By the way Nordeast, you keep helping me out. I appreciate it. I see you are a Mpls guy, where do you buy your ingredients?

__________________
Fermentation is not pretty.

NordeastBrewer77

Recipes 

mainly at Midwest, can't beat their prices and a couple of the guys there are really great when ya get to picking their brain. one used to brew at a local pub and is very knowledgable and will go out of his way to help customers. i also buy a lot from Brew & Grow in Spring Lake Park, it's right up Central Av from my house, so it's nice and convenient. the guys there are helpful and very nice, but their information is a bit dated and sometimes not that great depending on who ya talk to. but they're always nice and a couple of them are really good brewers.
as far as your issue, i'm thinking it's the extract stall. a lot of times they poop out around 1.02. some things you can do are; use DME when you can, when using LME add some or all at flameout to avoid caramelizing it, when using LME try to get it as fresh as possible. both Northern Brewer and Midwest have a really high turnover and their LME seems to be very good quality. they both use Briess LME, i believe, packaged up in Forrest Lake, so it's fairly fresh. there's also the option of doing a small partial mash, it's no harder than steeping grains and it can really help. if you want to give it a try, i'd be more than happy to walk you through your first PM batch, just let me know. i'll message you my contact info, forgot to do that earlier anyway.

__________________
The Polk Street Brewery
Brew Blog
Primary: Honey Weizen (a ,Midwest kit), Columbus IPA
Secondary: No. 3 Burton, RIS
Bottled: Simcoe IPA, Northern English Brown
Kegged: German Alt, Octane IPA

Give a man beer and his thirst is quenched. Teach a man to brew and it will never be again.

phuff7129

Recipes 

Thanks Nordeast, I appreciate it. I am going to stir things up and turn up the heat and see if I can get it down a bit. I look forward to hearing from you when you know your brew schedule. Cheers!

__________________
Fermentation is not pretty.

Calder

Recipes 

I know a lot of extract brewers stall out around 1.020, but I don't beleive it has anything to do with extract. I think it has more to do with inexperience; poor aeration, low pitch rates, low temperatures, low attenuating yeast, large amount of unfermentable steeping grains, etc.

I normally partial mash, but have done a lot of extract batches and have very few that have finished above 1.010.

Sorry for calling you out on this, but I see so many people using this as an explanation for a low attenuating beer, that it really frustrates me, when we should be trying to figure out what in the process caused the problem.

....... I also see a lot of comments saying that 'A lot of prize winning beers are made with extract', which completely refutes the 'high FG' explanation.

pabloj13

Recipes 

1) I think most people attribute it to caramelization of the sugars in the extract that render them unfermentable.

2) The idea that "a lot of prize winning beers..." and "Some people get the 1.020 curse" are not mutually exclusive.

__________________
Future Brews Bell's IPA
6.5 gallon glass Two Hearted clone
6.5 gallon bucket Empty
6 gallon BB Empty
5 gallon glass Empty
Bottled Noberon wheat 05/05/2012, Ommegawd Hellepin 04/15/12, Apfelwein 04/01/12, Skeeter Pee 03/15/12, Two-Hearted clone 02/16/2012, Ed Wort's Apfelwein 02/13/2012, Smooth Oatmeal Stout 1/25/12
RIP Falconer's Flight IPA 12/17/11

My Grilling and Beer Blog

BrewKnurd

Recipes 

i'm glad you said this so i didn't have to.

__________________
I am the brewer formerly known as discnjh.
"If God had intended us to drink beer, He would have given us stomachs."
-David Daye