douglasbarbin
Well-Known Member
I brewed an AB clone (or close enough for my purposes, anyways) with an OG of about 1.074. It was a 5-gallon batch (maybe slightly more, but not much) and I pitched a fresh packet of rehydrated Danstar Windsor (I know...). Fermentation started off rather vigorously, within a matter of hours, with the airlock bubbling several times per second. After maybe 2 days, the airlock activity stopped. I have heard horror stories about Windsor finishing at unacceptably high gravity, so to be on the safe side, on day 3, I pitched a yeast cake of US-05 from a previous 2.5 gallon batch.
Fast forward one week (so 10 days total in primary), and I was planning on racking to secondary today and letting the beer sit in secondary for another week or three. But when I took my hydrometer reading, I only got 1.024 (and perhaps higher if I account for the temperature being almost 90 outside where I took the reading). So I am going to wait a while and hope that the yeasties finish this beer a little lower than 1.024.
For what it's worth, BrewMate says I am supposed to finish this particular recipe at 1.018. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what 6 points means in terms of how accurate the recipe will taste compared to how it's supposed to taste. What I do know is that I am coming in about 0.7% ABV lower than I intended to, but my main concern is flavor.
My question is, should I bother pitching more yeast, give the yeast I already pitched more time to do their work, or just accept the fact that my FG will be 1.024? I have a couple 7-gram packets of the new Sterling English Ale that I could pitch, or some champagne yeast. I don't know how much good it would really do, or if I would just be wasting yeast at this point. Thoughts/comments/ideas/opinions?
Fast forward one week (so 10 days total in primary), and I was planning on racking to secondary today and letting the beer sit in secondary for another week or three. But when I took my hydrometer reading, I only got 1.024 (and perhaps higher if I account for the temperature being almost 90 outside where I took the reading). So I am going to wait a while and hope that the yeasties finish this beer a little lower than 1.024.
For what it's worth, BrewMate says I am supposed to finish this particular recipe at 1.018. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what 6 points means in terms of how accurate the recipe will taste compared to how it's supposed to taste. What I do know is that I am coming in about 0.7% ABV lower than I intended to, but my main concern is flavor.
My question is, should I bother pitching more yeast, give the yeast I already pitched more time to do their work, or just accept the fact that my FG will be 1.024? I have a couple 7-gram packets of the new Sterling English Ale that I could pitch, or some champagne yeast. I don't know how much good it would really do, or if I would just be wasting yeast at this point. Thoughts/comments/ideas/opinions?