All my FG's are high

Bearcat Brewmeister said:

Actually, the carboy should not contain any oxygen near the end of fermentation. CO2 is heavier than O2 and its release from the fermenting wort quickly pushes all of the oxygen out. IMHO, oxygen is not the issue. If it is a primary fermenter, I wouldn't want to stir up the trub late in fermentation.

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I guess I'm just not worried about either scenario--when you shake a carboy like I did it immediately starts spitting out more CO2, so 3 minutes after you replug it all the oxygen is pushed out.....the trub will resettle pretty quickly, I'll leave it in primary for another week and then a couple weeks in secondary.....

maltMonkey said:

I guess I'm just not worried about either scenario--when you shake a carboy like I did it immediately starts spitting out more CO2, so 3 minutes after you replug it all the oxygen is pushed out.....the trub will resettle pretty quickly, I'll leave it in primary for another week and then a couple weeks in secondary.....

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Except the oxygen that you just dissolved into the beer via the shaking is NOT ALL pushed out . Trust me, i did it on my first few batches that were finished too high and did not realize at the time, that is what was causing my oxidation issues with my finished product. When i stopped doing that, my oxidation issues magically dissappeared.

Usually escaping co2 scrubs o2 out of the beer.

McKBrew said:

I rarely get a beer to finish below about 1.018. One theory to consider is whether or not you are adequately aerating the wort before pitching yeast. I think it could be the root cause of some of my problems. Just shaking the fermenter only gives a certain percentage of oxygen, using a aeration stone is better, and pure oxygen with the stone is the best.

Someplace I read how much each method affects the oxygen content of the wort, but I can't remember where right now.

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That made a huge dif for me. Was in the 1.020 range for most brews until I built an aeration rig. Now I get 1.010 to 1.013 an almost every brew.

kenb said:

Except the oxygen that you just dissolved into the beer via the shaking is NOT ALL pushed out . Trust me, i did it on my first few batches that were finished too high and did not realize at the time, that is what was causing my oxidation issues with my finished product. When i stopped doing that, my oxidation issues magically dissappeared.

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I will take your word for it--hopefully since it's an RIS it won't have as much negative impact as it would on say a pilsner. I'm sure you can understand my frustrations with these high final gravities

maltMonkey said:

I will take your word for it--hopefully since it's an RIS it won't have as much negative impact as it would on say a pilsner. I'm sure you can understand my frustrations with these high final gravities

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Will not be noticeable on an RIS..at first....maybe after 4-6 months you may notice it.

Well, I checked the thermometer built into my MLT tonight against my digital probe thermometer, and it's dead on.....

Also, the amber ale FG is at 1.024 and done....so I'm still scratching my head a bit over this.

maltMonkey said:

Well, I checked the thermometer built into my MLT tonight against my digital probe thermometer, and it's dead on.....

Also, the amber ale FG is at 1.024 and done....so I'm still scratching my head a bit over this.

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Is that the one you mashed at 158? if so, it doesn't matter how much yeast/aerating you do, unfermentables are unfermentables...just mash at a much lower temp next time.

Yep, mashed at 158. I've been mashing at 153°-154° ever since I discovered the issue. I'll be checking the gravities on the last 2 I mashed at this temp range in less than a week (fingers crossed).

Just a quick update.....I just checked on my last 2 batches that I mashed @ 154°....One finished at 1.013 (70% att), and the other is almost done @ 1.015 (also about 70% att).

So I think I think that it definitely was mash temp keeping the FGs up. I never thought it would make such a huge difference, but you live & learn, I guess.

Yeah, I mashed an ale at 158f once and my fg was so bloody high I think it could have been used as a meal replacement.

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned fermentation temperatures! I just racked a nice maibock style ale to the secondary and was surprised to find an FG of 1.024 when I was expecting something around 1.014. I almost always get between 70 and 80% attenuation, so my technique is pretty good. My problem was the temperature. SWMBO always keeps the heat pretty high during winter, so after the yeast took hold, I put the primary out into a hallway by the back door. It's significantly cooler out there than it is in the apartment, so I thought it would be an easy solution. I didn't realize that the temperature drops down below 50° overnight. I'm pretty sure most of my yeast fell asleep or just really slowed down. I'm going to let this one sit in a much warmer place for a few weeks and see what happens...

Yeah, place it warmer amd give the carboy a swirl to rouse the yeast.

If you still have this problem after mashing at 152 and reducing the crystal grains and such... go to 148. I mashed a beer at 148(on purpose) once... had only a pound ofg crystal 10, pitched us-05 and it came down to 1.002 very dry.