Finishing Gravity pretty low.

Im doing a williams brewery extract kit. its my 3rd batch. the first two turned out ok, but nothing amazing. finally i decided to try something stong, which is typically the kind of beer i like. i went with a west coast style imperial ipa.

i did not check my starting gravity, my first mistake.

the beer spent 9 days in the primary, then an additional 18 in the secondary. it was stored in a 68-73 degree room.

today i took the first hydrometer reading. and its at 1.032, while the directions for the kit are telling me to expect 1.042.

my questions are: what could i have done to cause this? how, and in what way, will it effect the beer? and what general tips do you have to counter act this kind of thing in the future?

Thanks in advanced.


Edit: Thought i would update: everything turned out great, im not sure if this is how the beer is supposed to taste, but it tastes as good as something i'd pick up in the store. ive had the chance to have a few and i couldn't be happier with it.

finishing gravity of 1.032 is not low, its very high... are you sure the FG from the kit expected 1.042, thats very high

yes, im sure that they called for 1.042 i just triple checked, just to make sure. i have the paper right here.

i also thought it sounded extremely high (most beers ive tried previously were 1.018-.022

although i have a Belgian quad that is saying 1.028)

but this does say 1.042.

Highly unlikely that number is right. What was the OG?

he forgot to take the OG reading, but if it is that high now, are you sure fermentation even occurred? is there lots of gunk around the edges?

yeah, it bubbled like crazy for 4-5 days. and grew a pretty big amount of foam after going into the secondary after a day or so.

and yes, i forgot to take an OG

the best i can do is this: "Makes 5 gallons of strong ale with a starting gravity of at least 1.088"

its not the starting gravity that i had, but it is what i *should* have had. had i checked.

Normal FG for an American IPA is in the 1.010 to 1.018 range. Normal OG is 1.055 to 1.075 or so.

I dunno what kind of weird IPA recipe you've been given if it actually says to expect a FG in the 1.040's. Many ales aim for an OG in the 1.040's. All I can say is that a lower FG corresponds to a higher alcohol content. So if your yeast is crapping out at 1.032 and the recipe says it's going to crap out at 1.042, you've only made stronger beer.

Of course, without knowing your OG we can't really say too much. What kind of yeast did you use?

i've never heard of a beer finishing at 1.040 -- not even a barleywine. It would probably be damn near undrinkable, like syrup.

i think this is the yeast i used. but im not 100% sure. again this is only my 3rd batch.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/XL_1056_AMERICAN_YEAST_P1632C79.cfm

well, thanks for the comments. i guess i just have one final suggestion: should i wait to see if the FG goes down a bit, or bottle it up because its already quite a bit lower than the directions say?

Tell us the recipe, somebody will figure out what your OG was. "At least 1.088" is pretty weird for an OG in a recipe.

GrizlyGarou said:

Tell us the recipe, somebody will figure out what your OG was. "At least 1.088" is pretty weird for an OG in a recipe.

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it was an extract kit. so i really dont know. this is as close as they come to really saying what is in it. "14 pounds of our blended malt extract,"

GrizlyGarou said:

Tell us the recipe, somebody will figure out what your OG was. "At least 1.088" is pretty weird for an OG in a recipe.

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he did say it was an IMPERIAL IPA, right? so that kinda is in the ballpark.

SmilinGoat said:

it was an extract kit. so i really dont know. this is as close as they come to really saying what is in it. "14 pounds of our blended malt extract,"

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That's a bunch of extract. For 5 gallons, your OG would be about 1.104, 6 gallons it'd be 1.086. How much yeast did you put in there?

GrizlyGarou said:

That's a bunch of extract. For 5 gallons, your OG would be about 1.104, 6 gallons it'd be 1.086. How much yeast did you put in there?

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1 pack of liquid wyeast. what came in the kit.

SmilinGoat said:

1 pack of liquid wyeast. what came in the kit.

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I'm guessing the FG will be closer to 1.015 or 1.020 than the 1.042 they claim.

Did you taste the sample when you checked the gravity?

GrizlyGarou said:

I'm guessing the FG will be closer to 1.015 or 1.020 than the 1.042 they claim.

Did you taste the sample when you checked the gravity?

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yes, it didnt taste quite as strong as i'd expect out of an imperial IPA, however its the first time ive tried a non-conditioned one.

SmilinGoat said:

yes, it didnt taste quite as strong as i'd expect out of an imperial IPA, however its the first time ive tried a non-conditioned one.

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It's probably not done fermenting yet. Was it pretty sweet still?

I'd leave it alone for at least a week. That's quite a beer for one smack pack with no starter.

GrizlyGarou said:

It's probably not done fermenting yet. Was it pretty sweet still?

I'd leave it alone for at least a week. That's quite a beer for one smack pack with no starter.

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ok, thanks.

lol, pretty funny i came in here thinking one thing and the opposite is apparently the case...

Well, usually when the gravity goes that far below what the recipe says, there's an infection of some sort. I think there must be a typo or something in there.

It's also a good thing you didn't bottle it when it got down to the 1.044 they said it would stop at. Mopping up beer with glass shards in it isn't all that much fun...

GrizlyGarou said:

Well, usually when the gravity goes that far below what the recipe says, there's an infection of some sort. I think there must be a typo or something in there.

It's also a good thing you didn't bottle it when it got down to the 1.044 they said it would stop at. Mopping up beer with glass shards in it isn't all that much fun...

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i really hope its not infected with anything. it tastes fine, as far as i can tell. no awful smell either. when opened there was no mold or anything on top...

well i finally heard back from Williams brewing, he assured me that it is a surprisingly high, yet accurate, FG at 1.042... then went on to say that my beer is fine.

im still a little unsure about all this, considering all the comments in this thread. however i guess i'll just have to go through with it, hope i dont get burst bottles, and report back with how it turns out.

in the mean time i am going to bottle, put them in cardboard beer 24-pack cases that i have for just such an occasion, then close them, then put them in garbage bags.

this way if they burst, the boxes will stop the glass from getting everywhere, and the garbage bags will stop the liquid.

SmilinGoat said:

well i finally heard back from Williams brewing, he assured me that it is a surprisingly high, yet accurate, FG at 1.042... then went on to say that my beer is fine.

im still a little unsure about all this, considering all the comments in this thread. however i guess i'll just have to go through with it, hope i dont get burst bottles, and report back with how it turns out.

in the mean time i am going to bottle, put them in cardboard beer 24-pack cases that i have for just such an occasion, then close them, then put them in garbage bags.

this way if they burst, the boxes will stop the glass from getting everywhere, and the garbage bags will stop the liquid.

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Wait to bottle until the gravity stays the same for at least three days. There's no other way to make sure you didn't waste all that time making it and waiting for it to finish fermenting. If he says your gravity is fine and the FG in the recipe is right, then one of those statements is wrong.
A lot of those recipes are written in such a way that you can follow them and get beer fast, but that doesn't mean it's going to be the best beer you could have made with those particular ingredients.

Or bottle it. It's your beer, after all!

well quality is important. i'll wait.

Thought i would update: everything turned out great, im not sure if this is how the beer is supposed to taste, but it tastes as good as something i'd pick up in the store. ive had the chance to have a few and i couldn't be happier with it.