taelmore

Recipes 

Ive been making beer for about 2 years now off and on. Most of my beers turn out really good. It seems to me that my fermentation is stabilized or something. No matter what I do my final reading on my Hydrometer is 1.020, I can use 10 lbs of extract, two packs of yeast or just one and have a good high starting gravity but alway seem to end up the same. I let my last batch go for 14 days in the fermenter and still the same. I tested my Hydrometer and it was good, I even bought a new one to compair and it was the same. Any Ideas on what I may be doing wrong.

Revvy

Recipes 

You're doing extract brewing right? There's what is known as the 1.020 curse, where a lot of extract batches tend to peter out at that point. Making sure you have put in plenty of oxygen and yeast on brew day helps. But some beer seem to stick regardless. A lot of that I think has to do with wort caramelization, where both the process of making and boiling the extract produces or converts some of the sugars into unfermentable ones.

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taelmore

Recipes 

Is there a way to combat this? like a shorter boil or shaking it up after the initial fermentation?

taelmore

Recipes 

And Yes its an extract brew, with some grain steaping at the start.

AxisDenied

Recipes 

All-Grain

Revvy

Recipes 

Some of the caramel reaction has occured in the creation of the extract, so you are stuck there, unless you use dme, and even if you use liquid, use the lightest extract possible. Also, look up late extract additions on here, and do that too.

Also make sure you pitch the correct amount of yeast for the gravity of the beer (making starters for liquid yeast for all beers above 1.020 og.

And make sure you delivier plenty of oxygen prior to yeast pitch.

(Never add any o2 after fermentation begins unless you're making an extremly high grav beer where it's recommended to add more only within the first 12 to 24 hours) adding o2 to fermenting beer can cause oxidation and make the beer taste like liquid cardboard.

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Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew

unionrdr

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Ramitt

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That seems kind of low, did you mean 1.050 or.060, those are numbers i have seen advised .

NordeastBrewer77

Recipes 

when i brewed all extract, i often fell victim to this 'curse'. most of my brews, and almost all made with LME as the base, finished in the high teens to low 20's. i tried pitching more yeast, higher attenuating strains, utilizing late or flameout LME additions. still i got higher that desired FGs. so i started using mostly DME, which did produce dry, better attenuated beer. but i digress, i didn't really start hitting the FG i desired until i started partial mash brewing (BIAB, see DeathBrewer's sticky). i've found that mashing with even a small amount of base malt (even just a pound or so) really helps. i usually mash as much as i can handle, regularly 4+ pounds of base plus my specialty grains, and i now get my beers to dry out as much or as little as i desire. not to mention there's a noted improvement overall in my beers.
BIAB brewing is really no harder than brewing extract w/grains and needs almost no extra equipment, some paint strainers is about all. it does add an extra 1 1/2 or so hours to the brew day, but IMO, that's a good thing.
if you're looking to have your brews finish lower, turn out lighter in color and to have more control over many aspects of your homebrew, i'd really suggest giving BIAB a go.

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Revvy

Recipes 

No, I meant what I said. If you start running the numbers in MR Malty, the first gravity of a beer where you actually having it say that it requires MORE than a single tube or smack pack of yeast is 1.030....SO if a beer is below that you don't need one. BUT at 1.030 or above a starter, EVEN A SMALL ONE is needed.

Especially if it's not a brand new packet of yeast.

Others may advise differently...but I go by what I say.....

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Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew