1.020 fg imperial Ipa w/ 95ibus 7.5 abv

Hey guys, longtime troll, first time poster. Anyways, the fg of my ipa is 1.020 and hasn't moved. I'm going to dry hop with 1.5oz citra, .5 cascade, .5 magnum. I'm thinking of doing it for 10-14 days. Anyways... Do you think my fg is about right for a beer with such a high ibu level to give it some balance? should I aim lower? My bf said ipas *should* be around 1.014, but he isn't sure since it's gonna have such a high ibu rating. Thoughts? Thanks!!!

What was your OG? What is the average attenuation of your yeast? Was this an extract recipe?

Extract. Safale us05 80ish?, og was 1.070.

Its probably a few points higher than expected. Did you use 2 packets of yeast?

I bet it will still taste great. A little sweet but not necessarily in a bad way.

We only used 1 pack. We were told one Pack for anything less than 1.080. The first 12 hours, fermentation was crazy. In a 6.5 gallon bottle, all the empty space was filled with brown crap and it got into the water bucket too through the blowoff tube... Maybe we lost some yeast? Perhaps pitch another?

One pack is close to perfect, just a little more would have been nice. You can use this in the future:

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

But given how close you were to suggested on the site I don't think that's the issue. It could be the extract which can cause higher than expected FGs. Could also be fermentation temps but given that its been cooler in NE for the most-part that may not be an issue.

Just realized that I never asked how long has it been fermenting? Did you take a gravity measurement? Has the Krausen (brown stuff) gone away?

Sorry I mean do you have 2 different gravity measurements 2-3 days apart?

There is no "perfect" answer for correct final gravity It depends on starting gravity, IBU's, type and amount of yeast used, initial oxygen and nutrients, and fermentation conditions. That being said most IPA's with an OG of 1.070 ish would probably be shooting for an FG in the 1.012 to 1.015 area. I just kegged up an Imperial Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA) at about 95 IBU's that started at 1.084 and finished at 1.015 with lots of love and attention during ferment. For me the residual sweetness is about as high as I would care for, but personal taste preferences come into play there as well.

I'm sure yours will be tasty. In the future on such a large brew you can shave a few more points by using a bit more yeast, giving extra oxygen at the start of fermentation, and adding a bit of yeast nutrient (about 1/4 tsp) mixed in with some boiled DME wort to the primary at fermentation start plus about 72 hours.

Enjoy

Sorry for the noobness. I told my bf I didn't want any help this time from recipe to drinking so I'm not sure of a lot of this stuff. It's been in primary for 6 days, it got hot today (80's) and where I put the beer got up to 75 so I took a reading, I haven't taken one since the original. The room was at 68 until today. Guess I'll have to wait? Nthe crap covers the whole upper part, but it's all settled since day 3.

Ooops, I assumed you had been in fermenter longer. No need to apologize for noobiness. We've all been there, That beer is likely not done fermenting yet, and definitely not ready to come out of primary yet. The bigger the beer the longer it takes to ferment, and then condition. At 6 days I'd bet it is still gonna drop a couple points in gravity and will definitely need a bit of time to come together. My recent 1.084 IPA beer took about 10 days or so till the gravity stabilized. On day 12 I moved it onto a dry hop in secondary and gave that a week, then several more days in the keg carbing up. Big IPA's can be a balancing game as you want to give it enough time to condition, but not so much time that your hop signature is dropping off.

Ok. Well, the yeast on the bottom isn't as big as I remember and the top of the beer doesn't have any foam/yeast... The inside is caked with brown crap, I'm assuming yeast, and I think I lost a lot of it... I'll give it a day or two and take a reading... If nothing I'll just pitch another. Good idea?

Keep the fermenter as close to a constant 70 as you can and see if a couple more points don't come off of it. Pitching more yeast into a primary that already has a good amount of alcohol is not recommended. As yeast ferment they produce co2 and alcohol which are both toxic to them. As they ferment they sort of acclimate to the toxic environment a bit as they create it, however if you put fresh yeast into such an environment it shocks them and they usually will not perform.

There are a couple ways to look at/ deal with your beer.
Best case is the yeast are still working and they will knock a few more points off the beer.
Next, you may like the beer with the residual sweetness and keep it as is.
You could also brew another batch and back blend them to balance the taste.
If you really wanted to use more yeast to knock the gravity down you could get some more yeast, and put them in some starter wort. When your starter is at high krausen, you would pitch the actively fermenting yeast into your stuck primary. This at least gives you yeast that are acclimating themselves to an alcohol/co2 environment, and are actively fermenting. This can be successful, but there is no guarantee that it will ferment the current beer any lower. Sometimes the wort just had a high level of unfermentables and it is done.

For now, I'd just keep the temp stable and wait and see.

Cheers

Lol me and my no patience. I think I'm gonna have a beer.

We have a large bucket and I put 60-65 degree water in it because it hasn't cooled down any up here and it's humid. Hopefully this will bring it down to non stressful (for me) temps and stays lower overnight until it cools off. *sigh* Beer me.

So i took a gravity reading this morning before work. still at 1.020. Its been about 15 hours since my last reading, i took the syphon thingee and gently stirred up some yeast at the bottom. the water bath is at 69 degrees... hopefully this gets it goin.

Plascentofawoman said:

Hey guys, longtime troll, first time poster.

Click to expand...

I think the word you were looking for was "lurker" not "troll". No one likes a troll, no one notices a lurker.

lol true, not like i joined until yesterday, i just lurked in the shadows..

unfortunately, it seems getting stuck at 1.02 is a rather common occurrence with extracts for whatever reason. while 1.014 is ideal, 1.02 will still be ok with how high your IBUs are. if it doesn't move down any further I wouldnt sweat it, and you can always just tell your bf it did:cross:

Weird! Well, i added 1/2 tsp amylase to my imperial ipa the other night and i'll take a reading after work... part of me thinks i overreacted to my FG. I'll let you know how it turns out! But 1.020 probably shouldnt be too bad considering your ibus will be pretty high, it should take away from the sweetness.

Yeahh, I think I'm just gonna let it be for another week. Move it to the second carboy, let that sit 2 weeks, then bottle for 2-4 weeks. Let me know what happens with your brew!