Missed my FG - What to expect?

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whovous

Waterloo Sunset
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I am trying to do a Breaking Bud clone. My OG was 1.059 (target 1.063) when I brewed on 31 January. This was my first experience with liquid yeast. I brought a package of San Diego Super to room temp (about 67F) and direct pitched it into a little over two gallons of wort at about 61F and put it into a fermentation chamber that was originally at about 62F.

It was bubbling happily the next morning, and picked up intensity over the next day or two and by day 4 the krausen had pretty much dissipated. I added about 4 oz of hops and appeared to get a little more head of foam. I pulled that bag after three days and dry hopped with the same amount again.

I pulled the second bag today and am now cold crashing. Beersmith projected 1.011, but I made only about 1.018, which means I am going to get an ABV of about 5.3%.

Now, I know I could do a couple of different things to try to get my FG lower, but that is not what i want to do here. I used 2015 crop Mosaic for this, and I really want to drink this as fresh as possible.

How will missing my FG by this much affect my flavor profile? Breaking Bud is a really "juicy" APA.
 
It will be sweet. That is the region of sweet stouts.

Taste it. With that amount of hops, it may not matter

Lesson learned - check gravity before adding dry hops to ensure beer is finished.
 
I had one IPA finish a bit high and thought it still tasted fine. It'll be sweeter and more mouthfeel for sure....what temp did you mash at by chance?
 
It turns out my hydrometer measures water at 1.004. So, I missed my OG by .008 on the low side and my FG by .004 on the high side, giving me an ABV of 5.25% rather than the targeted 6.7%.

I bottled and "Syneked" last night, and sampled some of the brew at the same time. Wow. Just wow. If what I tasted last night is any indication of what is going to be in my glass soon, this will be my best brew ever.
 
8 oz of dry hops in a 2 gallon batch? :drunk:

Missed your OG? Check your thermometer and your crush. Also check your brew software for efficiency settings that are too high.

4 days is a bit short to complete a fermentation, and you can raise (ramp) the temp a few degrees (4-8F) after you've reached 80% of your attenuation. Higher temps also help extracting from dry hops. Some brewers cold crash to clarify the beer before dry hopping and bring the temps back up for that.
 
Alright, let's quash this "it'll be sweet" business. That's not a hard and fast rule, and is rarely accurate. Residual sugars aren't typically sweet sugars like sucrose and dextrose. Lactose will give you sweetness and high fg, but unfermentables give things like body, breadth, complexity, and malt flavor. I had a porter stall at 1.030 and it STILL WAS NOT SWEET. It was just too thick and heavy. The flavor was on point though. Ending a little high more than likely means you'll have body and maltiness and slightly lower abv. Don't sweat it, champ.
 
8 oz of dry hops in a 2 gallon batch? :drunk:

Missed your OG? Check your thermometer and your crush. Also check your brew software for efficiency settings that are too high.

4 days is a bit short to complete a fermentation, and you can raise (ramp) the temp a few degrees (4-8F) after you've reached 80% of your attenuation. Higher temps also help extracting from dry hops. Some brewers cold crash to clarify the beer before dry hopping and bring the temps back up for that.

Yup, eight ounces. I confess to being a bit worried about it, but the taste is incredibly smooth, at least so far.

My thermometers are fine and in agreement with each other. I dialed my crush back to .040 because I was getting a little compaction in my grain bed and wanted to avoid it. I suspect it was a combination of that, plus my first time with a liquid yeast (US-05 is my standard), and maybe adding flaked wheat to the grainbill that brought my efficiency way down.

I did ramp up the temps a few times before cold crashing for about four days. I fermented a total of 12 days before cold crashing.

While I am not happy about missing my numbers so badly, judging by the tastes I took before bottling, this beer came out incredibly well.
 
Yup, eight ounces. I confess to being a bit worried about it, but the taste is incredibly smooth, at least so far.

My thermometers are fine and in agreement with each other. I dialed my crush back to .040 because I was getting a little compaction in my grain bed and wanted to avoid it. I suspect it was a combination of that, plus my first time with a liquid yeast (US-05 is my standard), and maybe adding flaked wheat to the grainbill that brought my efficiency way down.

I did ramp up the temps a few times before cold crashing for about four days. I fermented a total of 12 days before cold crashing.

While I am not happy about missing my numbers so badly, judging by the tastes I took before bottling, this beer came out incredibly well.

I expect this to be a beer of the gods with that much Mosaic!

A gap of 0.040" is VERY coarse. If you batch sparge, the grain bed is not all that important and the mill can be easily squeezed down to 0.034 or even 0.028-0.030 (my setting). My efficiency with that is around 85-89%. Flaked wheat should convert and give you all the points they contain. I like to mill those flaked goods too, and at 0.024-0.026", same as small kernel grains like rye and wheat. They'd pass through a 0.034" gap mostly uncrushed.
 
I really need to start taking more and better notes, because now that I think about it, I think it might have been a bit finer than .040.

I know when I used a Corona knock-off set as tight as I could get it (no measuring with that puppy!), I got some serious compaction and cavitation as the price for my 88% efficiency. And my Barley Crusher at .030 gave me a bit of a compacted grain bed as well.

This grain was precrushed by my LHBS and I ran it through my BC at whatever setting again. I did not try anything with the wheat.

Anyhoo, I am quite amazed at just how smooth the green version of this beer tastes and feels. My go-to APA is Citra-Mosaic, but this Mosaic-Simcoe may go into heavy rotation.
 
Makes sense. Flaked wheat probably helps as well. Could the yeast be a factor? I dunno.

The yeast can definitely be a factor. I personally really like s-33 for it's mouthfeel properties. I fermented a session ipa out to 1.005 and yet it was still medium bodied and smooth from the yeast
 
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