ESB FG seems too low

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B_Lines

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I did my first all grain and the OG was a 1.040. after primary and secondary the FG is 1.002. target was about a 1.014 i think. Is that from a bacteria or wild strain of yeast?

10.5 lbs of grains and the WPL002 yeast. That was in the started for about 24 hours prior.

An help would be nice
 
I think it def. finished dry but I doubt there was an infection or anything. 1.040 is a pretty low OG (especially for an ESB) so I'd expect it to finish somewhat low.

What was your mash schedule? What was your grain bill?

Might also check that your thermometer is accurate (both for the mash temp as well as correction factor when checking gravity).
 
I agree there's no reason to suspect an infection if it doesn't taste infected / sour / horsey / etc.

As DrinkNoH2O noted, 1.040 is a little low for an ESB. OG on batches I've done was more like 1.050-1.055, so it could be that you just got less saccharification and started and finished lower than expected.

But a drier-than-expected finish could be the result of mashing too low. What was your mash temperature?
 
That's 95% apparent attenuation.....

White labs lists that strain at 63-70%.

Are you sure your hydrometer is reading correctly?

EDIT: wait do least manufactuers list apparent or actual attentuation? I can't remember
 
In my hands WLP002 attenuates more than WY1968 which is a similar strain. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a british yeast go that far down- I've never even had US05 do that. It was a pretty low gravity beer though, so if you mashed lower than you thought, had a real low % crystal in there, and fermented warm, I suppose it's possible. What temperature did you mash at? What was the grain bill? Do you know your efficiency? What temperature did the beer ferment at (beer temp, not ambient temperature)? Did you aerate at all or use pure O2?

+1 to checking the calibration on your hydrometer. Put it in some tap water (don't need distilled, the TDS in tap isn't enough to show up as a difference from distilled on a homebrew hydrometer) at 60F and make sure it's reading 1.000.
 
I'm with daksin - 1st thing I thought is maybe a low mash temp produced a lot of fermentables.
 
O.k. here are some numbers
Grain Bill
1/2 lb 60L
9 lb 2row
1 lb 90L

3 gallons of strike water washed in at 160. I added the 5.2 ph stabilizer and at 30 min the PH was 5.0 and the temp was 154 in the center. I mashed in a 10 gallon igloo cooler with a false botton. I rinsed the grains and had a total of about 5.8 gallons with an OG of 1.043. One thing i know i did wrong is i didnt have enough sparge water as my HLT is only 5 gallons (new one is coming).
 
Your water to grain ratio is nearly 2 to one. Is that what the recipe calls for? It's not ridiculously high but most recipes I work with are between 1.2 and 1.5.
 
you scared me for a second there haha. I was like i thought that was actually a little on the low side. Temp reading were at about 70 and i took into accound the small difference. I actually ran and checked that i wasnt using my 160* hydrometer but it was right. I also put my hysrometer in tap water and its almost right on. So i know my reading are right. Just dont know why. I'm gonna bottle tomorrow and lets hope it turns out ok :mug:
 
Looking at your strike temperature and pounds of grist, I'd wager you mashed cooler than you expected, unless you actually measured the mash temp. Especially if your grain was a little cooler than the calculator assumes, you could have been below 150. How's it taste?

Edit: That is a lot of crystal malt. Even if you mashed low I'm really not seeing how your FG could get so low with all those unfermentables. How does it taste? There may be something wild in there chewing on your beer. I like my ESB dry (a la Alesmith Anvil) so I mash it low, around 150, and let the crystal and the yeast add back a bit of mouthfeel. It typically finishes around 1.014.
 
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