High gravity help

Hey, everyone; I have been having the same attenuation issue with two separate beers, and I was hoping to get some advice.

I am brewing two different double IPAs, one with an OG of 1.105, and the other at 1.090.

The first was a partial mash, with mash temp about 154, was fermented with a 1 gal starter of pacman, and left in the primary for just over 3 weeks. I then left it to dry hop for 2 weeks.

The second was mashed at 156, fermented with 2 packs of S-05 and left for 17 days, followed also by a 2 week dry hop.

Both of these beers' SG comes in at around 1.035 at the moment. My question is, are they done fermenting? If not, did I screw myself for racking so soon? Can I bottle them or do I have to repitch?

As an added bit of dramatic tension, one of them needs to be ready to drink by Jan 21st.

are you confident that your mash temp readings are accurate?
what about your fermentation temp? is it controlled?

You mashed too high. I suspect you had lots of crystal malts, and didn't use any simple sugars to offset the unfermentables.

Result = Very sweet beer.

You didn't post your recipe, so I am only assuming, but an IPA should have very little crystal (0.5 lbs maybe), fermented low (150 F or even lower especially if using extract for 50% or more of the fermentables), and have some simple sugars to help dry them out.

1.035 is high, and to me would be way too sweet, but it may be all you get from it. PacMan shouldn't have any issues with temperature, and is good to at least 11%, so that's not your problem.

Fermentation temp for both was kept at about 66 the whole time.

As for recipes, Calder is right; I did not add any simple sugars; the actual recipes are as follows:
9# Light DME
3# 2 row
1# C60
1# Carafa II (Steeped,not mashed, for color)
0.5# Honey Malt
4 oz Biscuit

and

7.5# Light DME
2.5# 2 Row
0.5# Rye malt
1# C60
0.5# Vienna
4oz Carapils

Before you ask, the weird choices were for a reason. Do you think the special grains in these recipes were enough to contribute to the high SG's?

Bumping my own thread. Anyone have advice?

Jtc2811 said:

Do you think the special grains in these recipes were enough to contribute to the high SG's?

Click to expand...

Certainly should not have been an issue with the second one. 1 lb of crystal is not toooooo much. Mashing at 156 didn't help, but you should be lower than 1.035. If you were talking about 1.020/1.025 then I would say you were done.

Beer #1: 1 lb Crystal, 1 lb Cara (you probably got more unfermentables from it by just steeping; and for future reference, it does have starches that can be converted), and half lb of honey, might give you .005 to .008 unfermentable points.

Lets say .008 of unfermentable sugars (though that is on the high side); your effective 'fermentable' gravity then went from 1.097 to 1.027, or 72%. A little on the low side, but might be done.

You might want to check your thermometer. Maybe you mashed higher than you thought.

With that recipe I would think you should be able to get lower then that. Especially with pacman, at that temperature it should be able to tear through that beer.

Well, I bottled the 2nd one. Waiting a week in the first to see if it changes. Lets hope I don't get bombs or a flat beer