Stuck Stout or finished?

Hi all,

Brewed a Stout and after about 10 days the gravity was about 1.020. We transfered to secondary, and even though it bubbled a bit the FG after another week and a half was still about 1.019-20. We ended up bottleing anyway. Here is to hoping that there will be no bottle bombs. Specs to follow.

Predicted OG: 1.055 Actual: 1.052
Predicted FG: 1.016 Actual: 1.019-20

4KG (8.88lbs) Marris Otter
1.2KG (2.6lbs) Flaked Barley
.9kg (2lbs) Roasted Barley

White Labs British Ale

Mashed around 151F

We had the room temperature around 66F . Could it be that the large amount of Flaked Barley kept our FG up higher that we expected?

Thanks for any input!

Any thoughts? Good or Bad?

big supper said:

Hi all,

Brewed a Stout and after about 10 days the gravity was about 1.020. We transfered to secondary, and even though it bubbled a bit the FG after another week and a half was still about 1.019-20. We ended up bottleing anyway. Here is to hoping that there will be no bottle bombs. Specs to follow.

Predicted OG: 1.055 Actual: 1.052
Predicted FG: 1.016 Actual: 1.019-20

4KG (8.88lbs) Marris Otter
1.2KG (2.6lbs) Flaked Barley
.9kg (2lbs) Roasted Barley

White Labs British Ale

Mashed around 151F

We had the room temperature around 66F . Could it be that the large amount of Flaked Barley kept our FG up higher that we expected?

Thanks for any input!

Click to expand...

I think you answered your own question! I'd bet that it's finished---and that it's high because of the FB. That's alot!

I think it's done. You'll get a slightly thicker stout, but 1019 isn't all that bad. What is your method of measuring mash temp? I used to rely on a thermowell with a single point of measuring and found this to be very inaccurate... even with stirring. (I'm currently drinking a 1024 oatmeal stout because of this and it's still pretty good.) You'll probably want to figure out what went wrong so this doesn't happen again. The flaked and roasted barley amounts are a possibility, but the enzymes in the MO should have taken care of it. Was it a tried and true recipe?Some other possibilities (besides mash temp) are:

Fermentation temps (your 66F seems fine though)
Lack of adequate aeration
Water:Grain ratio (thick mash)
Lack of enough yeast nutrients (this is extremely rare in all-grain)

Did I miss any?

Thanks guys!

I was mostly worried about exploding bottles.

I think that we do need to work on our aeration. Right now we are just vigorously pouring our wort into the fermentor, and stirring the heck out of it.

One other thing, is that we brewed last minute and used no starter. I know that this is a no-no but the guy at the LHBS figured that with this beer it was not necessary. From now on we are using starters and if we do not have time, we will use dry yeast.

Our mash shouldn't have been too thick as we used about 1.2 liters/pound.

For next time, we are definately bumping down both the roasted and flaked barleys.