Let it go or add more yeast?

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eadavis80

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Brewed up NB's milk chocolate stout a week ago. Added some additional grains for a mini mash - a 1/2 pound of oats and a 1/2 pound of pale malt, which I combined with their steeping grains. The recipe also has a pound of lactose, which I know is non-fermentable. Pitched one packet of rehydrated Safale 04 and fermented around 65-66 for the week. Gravity this morning was 1.030. I mashed around 156 because I wanted a sweeter beer. Should I assume it will continue to drop and finish around 1.025 or would you add more yeast? I have some harvested 1098 on hand I have used for stouts before with good success so I thought about making a small starter and pitching that at high krausen, but part of me says let it go another week and see where it's at next weekend. Right now it's at 4.4% as OG was 1.063. Thanks.
 
High mash temp., lactose, low attenuating yeast, and a bunch of oats will lead to a high FG. Check it again in a couple days, but I bet that's as low as it's going to go.
 
That's what I figured and that's okay. I wanted a full-bodied sweet stout and that's what it is. I was just hoping it would finish 1.025, not 1.030 and that's still possible. I'll see where it is next weekend and rack atop its nibs.
 
Let it go. It's young. You built a profile with your mash temp and lactose that supports a fuller bodied beer. It's still a fermentable mash however and 04 should be able to eat through it.
 
Took another reading and it's still at 1.030. Tastes and smells exactly what I was looking for though, and with a pound of lactose it's kind of "really" a 1.020 beer, which isn't THAT low. Wasn't sure if the oats raise FG or not, but I did purposely mash at a pretty high temp. Last time I added yeast due to a "high" FG, I was not happy, so while I'm a LITTLE bummed it didn't get down to 1.025, I'd rather have the 4.4% taste like it is now than jeopardize messing with the flavor profile in hopes of raising the ABV .5%.
 
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