coastwx

Recipes 

Good news it taste decent already, but it will improve a lot. I did a 10 gal Milk Stout 5 weeks ago split between two 5 gal carboys. I wanted a sample for my New Years Party, so I kegged one after 16-18 days and was surprised how tasty it was at such and early age. It finished at 1.020 by the way, which is think is ok for a milk stout. Just bottled the second batch (30 days in primary) last night and some of the bitterness from the dark malts had smoothed out a lot. I'll look forward to comparing the kegged and bottled version in a month.

troub

Recipes 

At the beginning of December I brewed the Midwest Irish Stout kit...it just made it to bottles this past weekend mostly because of issues with high gravity. I checked the gravity over three days after 2.5 weeks in primary, and it was holding steady at about 1.022 (from an OG of 1.045, so that was pretty bad). I rocked the carboy a bit and moved it in front of my heating vent, and got another krausen. Checked gravity again a few weeks later and it was steady at 1.018. It's supposed to be 1.012-1.014, but I figured 1.018 was about as good as I was going to get. Like yours and others, it tastes great already even though it's flat, room temp, and uncarbed. I can't wait to open up a bottle in a couple of weeks to check it.

The stout was my first brew and it tasted good all the way through. I have a 2.5 week old Nut Brown Ale in the fermenter now, and the gravity is much better on this one (OG 1.044, now at 1.014), but it tastes really rough and not at all good. I'm going on faith, then, that the countless admonitions to give it time will work out.

Maxkling

Recipes 

I'm not quite sure how there would be a difference in attenuation between AG and extracts if your sg's are the same. IMO that would be linked to the yeast. It may just be that people who are going the all grain route have more experience with pitching rates and using yeast correctly. My gravity's have always mostly been spot on, especially fg's.

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troub

Recipes 

And going the extra step(s) to better control fermentation temperature, etc. I think mine stalled mostly because it got too cool. That, or I didn't properly measure the OG somehow -- I can imagine that it may have been a few points higher than I measured, either due to top-off water affecting the reading (very possible), temperature correction (again, cold top-off water affecting the temperature reading in a way that wasn't consistent throughout the wort), etc. I think several of these things, especially the idea of topping off to reach the final volume, can cause gravity issues with extract that don't really occur with all-grain. Either incompletely mixed solution causing the gravity to appear lower than it really is if thoroughly mixed, missing the correct top-off volume to end up with a slightly more concentrated solution than expected, etc. (I forgot to measure and mark the carboy BEFORE adding my wort, so I pretty much guessed the final volume based on hydro readings and what I thought it should look like -- when I racked to my measured/marked bottling bucket, it came up to about 4.75 gallons, so I think I did a good job, but who knows?)

Maxkling

Recipes 

Well your correct about the top off water but that has nothing to do with not hitting your fg. That would just give you a inconsistent sg "readings". If your fermentation stalled and there are still fermentable sugars, then you add your priming sugar on top of that and bottle your in a bad spot for bottle bombs. Once the yeast becomes active it will consume and can possibly overcarb depending on how much you missed your final target gravity by.

Well with extract if you follow the instructions of the recipe and use the correct amount of everything your still in a better spot than AG. With AG there are way more complicated variables rather than water measurement that can effect your efficiency and SG.

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"Gun Control Means Using Both Hands."

dcp27

Recipes 

theres easily a difference. with AG you have control over the amount of fermentables in your batch through mash temps, with extract its whatever the manufacturer did which usually happens to be higher temps. Briess extracts for instance are only 75% fermentable, which in most cases is good enough, but with AG you can get into the 80s.

Docjowles

Recipes 

Yup. There's an entire chapter about it in Ray Daniels' "Designing Great Beers". If the extract manufacturer mashed 10 degrees higher than your AG batch, or used different grains, it could easily be very different.

You can work around it (once you've made a batch and seen how much you're off by). If your extract is too fermentable, just use less. If it's not fermentable enough, sub out some percentage of it for the same weight in table sugar.

kd7enm

Recipes 

This is one thing that has me a little worried, since my FG was 1.024. Hopefully I haven't made any bottle bombs.

My next brew is going to be a wheat beer: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wheat-beer-recipe-help-216794/

kd7enm

Recipes 

Tasting note: I think next time I'll add some lactose, which I hear will give it a more creamy milk-like mouth feel. I'm a big fan of Sam Adam's Cream Stout.

-Tyler