Final Gravity a little high?

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AllGoNoShow

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For the first brew I did a True Brew Canadian Ale kit (Muntons dry yeast)....pitched the yeast at 75 degrees...been fermenting between 64-66 degrees. Bubbled like crazy for 48 hours then basically stopped. OG came in right where it was suppose to (1.43) but I checked the final gravity a week later...it was at 1.015 and it should be at 1.010-1.012. Checked again 4 days later-still 1.015.

Should I be worried? Anything I can do to get her down a bit (its been fermenting now for 11 days). I wanted to bottle it this weekend.
 
I would guess that it's about done! We've been discussing Muntons yeast around here lately, and sort of come to a consensus that it doesn't really attenuate all that well. If it's NOT moving at all, and it's at a reasonable temperature (68 degrees or so) then you're safe to bottle this weekend.
 
Agree with Yooper... definately bottle that Canadian Ale this weekend!! I do all I can to hit my gravity points, but certainly won't get too hung up on 2-3 points... with everything that could go wrong with a process, that isn't bad.

Also, the fact that you've made no progress in 4 days after gravity check says your liquid gold is ready for the bottle. Good luck.
 
I have had the same problem before - i had an OG of 1040 and the FG only got down to 1014-1015. I used coopers dry yeast which is probley similar to muntons. Beer was a little weak on alcohol content but it tasted just fine.
 
AllGoNoShow said:
... I wanted to bottle it this weekend.
Do it.

Then...sing the mantra...

70 degrees for 21 days...
70 degrees for 21 days...
70 degrees for 21 days...
70 degrees for 21 days...
70 degrees for 21 days...

No cooler, no sooner...
 
agree with BierMuncher, I know it's hard to wait, I am a new brewer too and its easy to put all your thoughts into that brew but you just have to forget about them till they are ready, brew more to get your mind off it
 
Raising the dead once again...

I revived this post to ask a similar question. After two weeks of fermenting, my Nut Brown Ale (using Wyeast #1098) went from a OG of 1.052 to a FG of 1.018.

The recipe calls for a FG of 1.013.

I'm leaving it primary for another week, and I carefully twisted the bucket back and forth to try and wake some yeast up. The current temp is 68, but I fermented closer to 64 for the first couple weeks.

If none of this brings the FG down, is 1.018 acceptable, or will I have to try some other tactics?

I'm not too worried. I plan to just leave it be now for the week, but I figured I'd ask in preparation if no more fermentation occurs.

Thanks.
 
Raising the dead once again...

I revived this post to ask a similar question. After two weeks of fermenting, my Nut Brown Ale (using Wyeast #1098) went from a OG of 1.052 to a FG of 1.018.

The recipe calls for a FG of 1.013.

I'm leaving it primary for another week, and I carefully twisted the bucket back and forth to try and wake some yeast up. The current temp is 68, but I fermented closer to 64 for the first couple weeks.

If none of this brings the FG down, is 1.018 acceptable, or will I have to try some other tactics?

I'm not too worried. I plan to just leave it be now for the week, but I figured I'd ask in preparation if no more fermentation occurs.

Thanks.

1.018 is a fine FG for a brown ale.
 
how about for an IPA? my FG is 1.017, should have been 1.010. Does anyone know why this happens? Is it related to temp somehow? (I think my mash temp was a little lower than it should have been, fermentation temp a little higher)....thanks!
 
how about for an IPA? my FG is 1.017, should have been 1.010. Does anyone know why this happens? Is it related to temp somehow? (I think my mash temp was a little lower than it should have been, fermentation temp a little higher)....thanks!

FG is a function of several factors- yeast strain, ingredients, and pitching rate primarily. An IPA with lots of crystal malt and a low attenuating yeast strain might finish at 1.022, while an IPA with no crystal malt and mashed at a lower temperature with a well attenuating yeast strain might finish at 1.007! So the answer here is "it depends".

If your IPA "should have been 1.010", how did you determine that number? What were the ingredients?
 
1.010 came from the recipe - one of yours, actually! (By the way I have brewed a couple of your recipes and they have been excellent, I'm sure this will be no exception!)
Actually reading the recipe is the only method I have used to find expected FG, I'm still fairly new at this.

This is a Lakefront IPA clone-ish, done as a partial mash:

6 lbs light dry extract
3 lbs pale malt
12 oz crystal 20L
8 oz crystal 40L

Hops:
1.25 chinook - 60 min
1 oz cascade - 5 min
1 oz cascade - 0 min

yeast: S04 (no starter, just sprinkled dry into the bucket)

The beer tastes great so far, so I'm not all that concerned about the high FG, more curious how it all works.

For pitching rate, would over pitching make FG lower since there's more yeast working in there, or higher since they get started faster and maybe don't get to be as thorough? I'm curious because I'll be racking this beer into secondary to dry hop this weekend and was planning on brewing another batch and pitching it onto the yeast cake from this one (which would be over pitching, but I haven't let it stop me in the past). Maybe I should rethink that method?

Thanks for your help - and your recipe!
 
For pitching rate, would over pitching make FG lower since there's more yeast working in there, or higher since they get started faster and maybe don't get to be as thorough? I'm curious because I'll be racking this beer into secondary to dry hop this weekend and was planning on brewing another batch and pitching it onto the yeast cake from this one (which would be over pitching, but I haven't let it stop me in the past). Maybe I should rethink that method?

Thanks for your help - and your recipe!

That's a good beer- I like it alot. Overpitching isn't usually a cause of a too-high FG, but I think it's probably best to just get a sanitized glass measuring cup and pull out how much yeast you need. You could put the rest in a sanitized mason jar and save it in the fridge, so you don't need to toss the excess yeast.

Sometimes extract beers don't finish for me at the projected FG. I think it is more a function of the fermentability (or lack of, I guess) of the extract and not the ingredients or yeast strain in these cases. I've had some partial mash beers that wouldn't budge below 1.020, but were still finished.

If the beer tastes good, that's the important thing so I'd try not to be concerned about it.
 
Ah that makes sense that the extract has something to do with it. One more reason to switch to all grain! (which I'll be trying out for the first time this weekend!)

Two more questions - how do I figure out how much of that yeast to use? And do I need to do anything to make sure the rest survives in the fridge for a few weeks till I brew again?

Thanks!
 
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