Simple Question

Howdy all - long time lurker, pretty new brewer.

Made my first all grain batch about 2.5 weeks ago, and everything seemed to go quite well. Making an IPA (with close to enough hops to be hitting 100 IBU's) and my OG was 1.064.

When I added in some dry hops last Wednesday, I got a reading of 1.023, which is the same I got on Sunday. Was planning on bottling this Saturday, but it seems as if that number is a bit too high.

Am I in the ballpark?

It seems a little high, but there may be no way to fix it now. Could be that you mashed too high, leaving unfermentables in the wort. Or there was a problem with the yeast. You would have to say more about your process to give us ideas about it.

Welcome to HBT!

Thanks for the quick response

I mashed in with 3.5 gallons at around 160, which I brought down using a cup or two of cold water to about 154. Let it sit for an hour, vourlafed (sp?) and drained into the kettle.

Batched sparged with 4 gallons at 170 for about 20 mins, vourlafed, and drained into the kettle. Boiled for an hour, with an ounce Warrior @ 60, Simcoe at 20, Cascade @ 5, and then steeped with an ounce of Centennial, Amarillo, and Columbus (Ithink) for 30 mins before firing up the immersion chiller.

Dropped it down to 70, pitched two packets of dry S-05. Ambient temps at the time were about 75 in my girlfriends house, so I set the bucket in a large rubbermade tub filled with water to try and keep the temps somewhat stable.

The beer smells fantastic, and the hydrometer sample tasted excellent, I'm just trying to avoid any exploding bottles - the girlfriend will NOT be pleased.

I should also add that, my kettle being only 7.5 gallons, I filled it up to the 6.5 gallon mark with wort, and poured the rest into a container (roughly .5 - 1 gallon of make-up wort), which I added in 30 mins into the boil.

*It appears that the post I typed just prior to this one has disappeared

What temperature are you fermenting at? If it is too low, warming it up may help take some more points off. (the sleepers will awaken)

Is your hydrometer accurate? If it is, and the SG isn't dropping any more, I'd guess that your mash temperature was higher than "about 154" and you just have a more dextinous and less fermentable wort as a result. It'll be safe to bottle if that is the case.

Yooper said:

Is your hydrometer accurate? If it is, and the SG isn't dropping any more, I'd guess that your mash temperature was higher than "about 154" and you just have a more dextinous and less fermentable wort as a result. It'll be safe to bottle if that is the case.

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Using tap water, the reading I got from the hydrometer, after letting it sit to room temp, was right at 1.000

As to the temp, it was between 150-155 on every reading I took, iirc. I can't get to my notes atm to confrim, but I do recal being very diligent in trying to maintain a constant temp.

If your mash temp is right, then your FG does seem very high. Bringing the temp up to around 70 should rouse some yeast to finish up. If after a couple days it doesn't change, then bottle.