How big of a batch was this? 13lbs LME + 3lbs of specialty grain should have gotten you higher than 1.073 I would think for a 5 gallon batch. But a 10 gallon batch would be lower than 1.073.
This was for a 5-gallon batch.
For a 5 gallon batch, 13 lbs of LME plus the grains you list below should get you a beer that's 1.099 not 1.073. If you do partial boils, its nearly impossible to mix the wort evenly. If you're doing a full boil then maybe your hydrometer is off, or there wasnt 13lbs of LME. With an almost entirely extract beer, it's pretty impossible to miss your gravity readings unless you have a lot more/less water than 5 gallons, or something else catastrophic happens.
Regardless, a starter probably would have helped as at that gravity, a single smack pack is underpitching.
Yeah...I was a bit unsure about that. Some of what I read suggested that would be fine, others suggested a starter. Honestly, with the Wyeast slap-packs, I didn't know that a starter was even required.
Given the recipe, if this beer was 1.099 OG then a starter is almost a must. You can use the pitching rate calculator over at
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html or i prefer
http://yeastcalc.com/ as it does stepped starters easier. This will tell you how much of a starter to make to pitch the proper amount of yeast.
It would help to know what specialty grains you had.
1/4# Black Patent
1/2# Crystal 80
1# Chocolate
1/2# Cara-Pils
1/2# Munich
All of these are steeping grains except the Munich. So you did "mash" the Munich a bit high but it probably wouldn't have a noticeable effect in the end beer given the small amount. Steeping the rest at 165 is fine.
What yeast and what temperature did you ferment at?
It was a Wyeast "English" if memory serves. Temperature was probably around 70 °F.
70 is good, though I usually shoot for a bit lower and then raise the temp toward the end of fermentation to help the yeast finish up. I don't know the specifics of the strain you used but 68 is a good general purpose fermentation temp to use. 70 is good too but some yeasts might throw off some more flavors at that temp. Depends on the yeast
You could try raising the temperature a little bit and gently swirling the carboy/bucket (don't splash the beer as that could introduce oxygen) to rouse the yeast and see if that helps.
Temperature control is something I don't have a whole lot of experience with. What are good methods for heating/cooling?
I built something that resembles a "son of a fermentation chamber" (google it). For heating i got a Lasko personal heater for $18 and hook it up to a temp controller i have (search the forums for "ebay temp controller" and you'll see what i use). For cooling I don't have to do it much but if I do i use a water bath with frozen water bottles to keep the temp down. Also make sure you're measuring the temp of the bucket/carboy and not the room temp. Fermentation creates heat and it can raise the temp of the beer a few degrees easily.
Did you oxygenate the wort at all before pitching? Either with oxygen or at least violent splashing/sloshing around?
Nope. Didn't realize I was meant to. Is that more important for high gravity beers?
Oxygen definitely helps the yeast get started. There's lots of ingenious ways to do this if you poke around the forums. I got a regulator for the little disposable welding oxygen bottles you can get at home depot and a diffusion stone. You can do whatever works for you but at the very least pour the wort violently intot he bucket/carboy and shake it around for a couple minutes to get some oxygen dissolved.
Honestly 1.022 isn't that unreasonable for an extract batch with that high of an OG. Extract is usually less fermentable than wort produced by AG methods (AG lets you control the fermentability by varying the mash temp. The mash temp is alredy locked in for extract). There might be little you can do to get it to go much lower.
And if that's the case, I'll live with it. It just seems with a specific gravity of 1.022 that there should still be a fair amount of sugar for the yeast to eat, but it makes sense that oxygen could be a limiting factor, or like you said, the beer was underpitched in the first place. Would a second batch of yeast do anything at this point? Would I get the same effect by just rousing the yeast?
I believe you underpitched a lot based on the recipe and original gravity of 1.099. However, given the gravity probably started that high, 1.022 is actually pretty good. That's 77% attenuation so I'm guessing you wont get this beer much lower without drastic measures.
