Stalled help

I either didnt mash well or have a wicked stall. did a biab stout
5lb two row pale
1.5 crystal
.5 roasted barley
.25 chocolate

Adding coffee to secondary. mashed 158 for one hour. issue may be that I forgot to take an initial gravity reading. Pre boil was 1.041 now stuck at 1.021 for about a week. used irish ale from wyeast

kcross13 said:

I either didnt mash well or have a wicked stall. did a biab stout
5lb two row pale
1.5 crystal
.5 roasted barley
.25 chocolate

Adding coffee to secondary. mashed 158 for one hour. issue may be that I forgot to take an initial gravity reading. Pre boil was 1.041 now stuck at 1.021 for about a week. used irish ale from wyeast

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1.021 seems about right for that recipe, and that mash temp. It's done.

I was getting different readings from Brewsmith and from my distributors site. Curious.

kcross13 said:

I was getting different readings from Brewsmith and from my distributors site. Curious.

Click to expand...

Well, Beersmith gives you a "standard" attenuation %, no matter what the mash temp or the ingredients. If you plug in 100% corn sugar, or 100% crystal malt, you'll get the same projected FG in that software. So, their FG projection is simply NOT ever accurate.

FG is more than just a simple % of fermentables, although you can guess close with a percentage. The thing is, crystal malt is less fermentable than, say, two-row. And combine that with a very high mash temp, you'll have more "long chained" sugars which leave a less fermentable wort as well. So, usually guessing a FG is not hard, but it takes some practice with looking at mash temps, ingredients, and yeast strain to be able to estimate it closely.

Ultimately though, the point is that missing a prediction doesn't necessarily signify a problem... it merely demonstrates the difficulty in making those predictions (or the lack of variables taken into account). With knowledge and experience, you can get pretty close, but it's crazy how often I see people on HBT getting concerned that they missed their target FG.

The ONLY final gravity prediction that should ever be considered reliable is one determined by a FFT. Even being a single point too high can often indicate that you can probably still attenuate it a bit better (and being UNDER this target FG can be a very bad sign.)

Listen to Yoop on this one. I had exactly the thing happen on my first porter. I mashed at 158F and couldn't get below 1022 or so. Guess who explained the problem to me. The beer is still excellent BTW.

It just so happens that I just re-brewed that recipe yesterday but I mashed at 155 this time just to see what happens.

Just as a point on beersmith, the new version does a better job on gravity estimations. The various grains have different yields, so sugar is listed as 99% fermentable, 2 row 79%, and crystal 72%. Also, the mash temp is now taken into account. I find that it's been lining up much better with reality.