Milk Stout FG/Bottling question.

I have been a long time reader of these forums and so decided to finally join up and perhaps contribute some of my knowledge and also gain plenty more specific knowledge myself.
I have been home brewing for a fair while and while not a complete newbie I certainly have plenty left to learn and refine.

I know there are plenty of posts similar to mine however I wanted opinions from some resident experts on my particular situation and recipe.

Ok it is bottling day today. And new Brew day tomorrow. (If I decide to risk my brew at the current FG)

My recipe is as follows:
6 lb 3oz of Briess golden light DME

(Steeping Grains 30mins @ 164f initial which slid to 152f over the half hour)
1 lb 4 oz Dark chocolate Malt
8 oz of Roasted Barley
8 oz of Carapils
8 oz of Carafa special II malt

Additives
8 oz of lactose at 10min to flame out
2 tablespoons of Cacoa at 10 min to flame out

1.5 oz each of Challenger 6.5% AA at 60 and 30 mins

Pitched 1 pkt of rehydrated safale S-04 yeast at 71.5f

Was a partial boil / steep in 3.5 gallons and top up water to a total batch size of 5 gallons.

Beersmith and brewers friend calculated an og of 1.054 and 1.064 respectively however my reading was 1.078.

Kept fermentation at approximately 60 to 62f for 10 days. Increased temp at Day 10 to 66f and took fg reading at Day 14 and got 1.030. Swirled fermenting bucket and increased temp to 70f ... Now 14 days later (4 weeks in primary) and 3 readings later it is still at 1.030
FG on calculators was supposed to be 1.018-1.019 .

My questions are:
Why was my initial OG and FG so much higher then calculators.
And is it safe to say my fermentation is done and to bottle as is.

Sample is lightly carbonated with a smooth sweetness and light banana esters in aroma mainly ... Tastes good thus far.

Any input much appreciated...Cheers!

I should add ... I suspected a stuck fermentation because I am .01 above what the calculators said I would be hence the reason I swirled and increased the temp of the fermentation bucket. I can't see that I would have added that much more unfermentables through the steep so I am a little confused as to what exactly has happened here. I don't want to bottle and risk getting bottle bombs as I have/had high hopes for this beer and it was pretty expensive to boot.
Feel free to comment or critique ... I am ready to bottle or not as soon as I get some outside input.
Any help or advice will be appreciated !

Cheers!!

Any ideas...??

Are your gravity calulcators taking the lactose into account?

You must be entering something incorrectly into BeerSmith, because it should have been higher than 1.054, you should have gotten than just from the extract. With the steeping grains plus lactose, 1.064 is probably more correct. As for why you were so high, you probably didn't thorougly mix the top off water and wort, and thus the error was in the reading, not the actual gravity. Just assume it was at 1.064.

I would expect an FG somewhere in the high teens or low 20s. Lactose is almost completely unfermentable (or even completely unfermentable) by brewer's yeast, so that'll bump it up, but from what should have finished in the mid teens without the lactose, that's still finishing high. However, extract is prone to finishing high, and with a hard fermenting, hard flocculating yeast like S-04, if you didn't properly control the temps (you started too warm and cooled it down too low), that the yeast quit early. If warming and rousing didn't work, I would try pitching new yeast. You don't want to bottle a beer that's potentially 10 points high, or you may end up with bottle bombs.

One more thing- that gravity is checked with a HYDROMETER, and NOT a refractometer, correct? Or at least if it's a refractometer, is that a corrected reading?

Cool cheers for the replies.
Yeah I have 2 hydrometers to make sure of my readings so I am certain the readings are correct.
So seeing as the general consensus is that it is indeed a stuck fermentation would repitching some rehydrated US-05 now still result in the increased body and mouthfeel I am looking for? I only have US-05 on hand right now and it is a more forgiving yeast then the S-04 seems to be.

iijakii said:

Are your gravity calulcators taking the lactose into account?

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I belive they are ? And if they weren't half a 1lb of lactose only adds .0035 points roughly by my calculation so it should still only be in the low to mid 20s tops I would think?

I went ahead and repitched a packet of rehydrated US-05 yeast to try to get these final few points off the FG ... I have the fermenter at 68-69f so if this doesn't budge it within the next week I will assume it's bottling time ... But I will give it another 2 weeks just to be sure and to clean up the ferment somewhat. That will make it 6 weeks in primary total so should be well on its way once it is bottled ... I will let you all know how it's looking in a couple of days once (hopefully) the ferment has started again.

Good luck. I would suspect given the time in primary before you added the 05, that it was done. Sounds like you did everything you could to drop that gravity. How bit a starter with the 04 did you make? Did you aerate? I have never mixed yeast strains before, so I'll be curious to see what 05 + 04 do to your beer. I know MOST use 04 for porters, stouts and browns while 05 seems to be the choice for ambers, APA's and IPA's. That being said, I'm doing a pale ale with 04 as an experiment to see how it turns out. However, I am ONLY using 04 - not combining strains. Good luck on the brew. I know high FG stinks, but there have been a few extracts I did where looking back on it, I should have just accepted a low ABV beer that tasted good (sweet, IMO is fine for a chocolate stout) and I was too hung up on lowering the gravity and while I might have upped my ABV buy .5%, it cost me a better tasting beer. Taste >>> ABV, IMO. Best wishes!

eadavis80 said:

Good luck. I would suspect given the time in primary before you added the 05, that it was done. Sounds like you did everything you could to drop that gravity. How bit a starter with the 04 did you make? Did you aerate? I have never mixed yeast strains before, so I'll be curious to see what 05 + 04 do to your beer. I know MOST use 04 for porters, stouts and browns while 05 seems to be the choice for ambers, APA's and IPA's. That being said, I'm doing a pale ale with 04 as an experiment to see how it turns out. However, I am ONLY using 04 - not combining strains. Good luck on the brew. I know high FG stinks, but there have been a few extracts I did where looking back on it, I should have just accepted a low ABV beer that tasted good (sweet, IMO is fine for a chocolate stout) and I was too hung up on lowering the gravity and while I might have upped my ABV buy .5%, it cost me a better tasting beer. Taste >>> ABV, IMO. Best wishes!

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Yeah thanks for the reply and good luck message! you could well be right ... It may have been done before I added the US-05 . However I figure the 05 is a fairly neutral yeast flavour wise and if indeed it is done the yeast will drop out of suspension because they have nothing left to eat and there will be no harm done.
I guess for a $7 pack of yeast and a little time it was worth the effort just to make sure I don't end up with delicious chocolate bottle bombs

Will be taking a hydrometer reading this Saturday 6 days after repitching with the US-05 yeast.
It seems to have kicked back into gear based on the temperature readings being elevated over the past 2-3 days however I will only really tell once I take a reading.

I do have a question to people in the know.
If indeed the beer has dropped the last few points in gravity will I need to give the stout another 2 weeks to clean up again ? Or will a further 1 be enough?
Remembering in 1 weeks time the beer would have been in primary a total of 6 weeks.

If the gravity has been stable for 2-3 days, then go ahead and bottle. Stouts usually need more time to condition, either in the fermentor or the bottle. Id go ahead and get let it carb up as it conditions though

6 weeks is longer than I've let anything non-wild sit in a fermentor. Even an imperial stout I would ferment for 4 weeks

So took a gravity reading today a week after repitching the US-05 and the Gravity hasn't budged still hovering at approx 1.029-1.030... So safe to say time to bottle?? ...My next question ... What is people's opinions ... Should I now bottle condition with the full amount of priming sugar or halve it ? I don't want an over carbed stout but I do want a nice creamy head if possible... Thoughts?