Too high terminal gravity

Hi everyone,

I am at my 13th day and for the past three an expected final gravity of 1.012
Is still at 1.019

OG was 1.047
TG should be 1.012
SG after one week in primary and almost another full week in secondary
Is 1.019

I am afraid I screwed it up.
Can anyone help?
Should pich more yeast?
Temperature fluctuated around 64 and the second week 68/70

We need some more info.
Extract or AG?
Mash temp?
Liquid or dry yeast? Starter?

Try to gently swirl to get yeast back in suspension and ramp up temp to 70-72

Along with Luckey37's questions,
Was your OG on target?

I've had plenty of brews not hit the exact target gravity specified in the recipes. Doesn't mean it's screwed up though. Worst case you'll have a more flavorful beer with less alcohol.

I ended up adding more yeast and amylase enzyme.

If it is an extract recipe sometimes it will just refuse to get much lower than that.

i had the same problem with a concentrated wort kit i bought. juat add water kind of thing. my OG was .056 the "intructions" said to rack it after 3 or 4 days or when the OG goes down to .20 i checked it and it was so i racked it over.

left it in secoundary for 2 weeks. it slowly cleared up real nice took a reading and ... .020!!!!!! wtf

but according to the math i got the formula for getting the ABV is OG(1.056)-FG(1.020) x 131 =4.7%

i tasted the uncarbed beer and it tasted fine. leaving it in bottles for 2 weeks. been 5 days and i can already see sediment on bottom.

so if i end up with decent tasting beer at 4.7abv i will be more then happy!!!!!

but i already have my secound batch going and its not leaving the primary for 3 weeks!!!!

My bet is that it's done, especially if it is an extract batch. You didn't screw anything up (except for transferring to secondary, which, I suppose can be forgiven). Many extracts are not that fermentable and many, many extract batches finish around 1.020, regardless of what the recipe says it should finish at (search the forum for "curse of 1.020"). Give it another few days and see what happens - you could raise the temp or swirl the yeast and you might drop another point, but don't be worried if you don't.

unionrdr said:

And leave the bottles alone for 3-5 weeks. 2 weeks is def not long enough to carb & condition fully. Good beer cannot be rushed.

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Spoken like a man that has his homebrew pipeline in place. I fully understand and agree with time and patience making beer better. However, with a pipeline that ran dry my first brew getting back in is an intentional rush job because a decent yet green homebrew still beats most store bought. As long as it doesn't blow up! And as long as I remember not to pour that pound of sediment hanging out in the bottom of the bottle.

Now this second batch is going to get all the time it wants. Well as long as the rushed batch holds out!

unionrdr said:

I only got that 1,020 thing once,& fixed that. It was a big beer though. I just can't understand where this manymanymanymanymany extracts stop at 1.020 comes from so regularly. I just don't have that problem.
I do suspect that some extracts you folks are using are either inconsistent in there manufacture,or have too many crystal malts & the like in them. If what you're using keeps stopping at 1,020,check your process & what brand of extracts you're using. It can be as simple as a faulty part of the process. Or maybe the recipe needs a little added sugar to make it ferment down farther. Little things in the process/recipe can have big concequences.

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Absolutely. It is definitely some extracts and certainly not all. I also think that steeping too much crystal malt will exacerbate the problem, as will under-pitching and under-aerating. The point though is that 1.020 may be finished and nothing else will get it lower.

madchemist83 said:

I ended up adding more yeast and amylase enzyme.

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I think that's a mistake. 1.019 is only .007 higher than your target, and with an extract brew it's not uncommon for fermentation to finish higher like at 1.020.

But what is done is done and it's too late now. Next time, I'd be inclined to let it be, or at the very most to pitch a new higher attenuating yeast.

yea the extract sounds like the problem. i picked upo the same kit for my second batch lol and it was on sale because the yeast was old so i got it new yeast. i wonder how bad the wort is.. oh well like i said 4.7abv is fine for me.

i have a rubbermaid cooler in the mail and all the parts to mod it to a mash tun!!!!
so i have one more extract brew after this then i move on!!

Greenbasterd said:

yea the extract sounds like the problem. i picked upo the same kit for my second batch lol and it was on sale because the yeast was old so i got it new yeast. i wonder how bad the wort is.. oh well like i said 4.7abv is fine for me.

i have a rubbermaid cooler in the mail and all the parts to mod it to a mash tun!!!!
so i have one more extract brew after this then i move on!!

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Extract brewing per se is not a bad thing. It's just the combination of low fermentability of some extracts with common noob "mistakes" (not pitching enough yeast, not aerating the wort, not being patient enough, etc)

You can make good beer with extract. (though all grain certainly gives opens up your options)

No my problem was that I pitched yeast when the wort was still hot so I'm pretty sure half of it died.