Hey all! Hopefully I'll be posting here pretty often. Read through quite a few threads, and a lot of what I already saw helped. So thanks. Anyway, on to the story.
Got a kit for Christmas and decided to jump in the deep end off the start and try my first batch as an all-grain. Figure if it's wonderful, then I can brag it's only my first batch, and if it's horrible, I just say that it was only my first batch. Made my own mash tun and wort chiller, and everything went great on brew day. Did a lot of reading and came up with my own recipe by combining this that and the other. Recipe is as follows:
8.5 # Bohemian Pilsner
1.5 # Cara-pils
1.5# Crystal Malt 60L
1# Steal Cut Oats (cooked first)
Strike w/ 5.5 gallons 175 degree water. Dropped to 165. Wait 90. Sparged with 3 gallons of 165 degree water. Total: 5 gallons.
Steeped in pot the following for 15 min at 165 degrees:
3 oz. Black Patent
6 oz. Chocolate
9 oz. Roast
Turned nice dark brown and smell was WONDERFUL. Boil schedule as follows:
.5 oz. Chinook (60 min)
.5 # Molasses (15 min)
1 oz. Fuggles (5 min)
1 oz. EK Goldings (5 min)
End of boil, total was 4 gallons at SG 1.071 (exactly what I was aiming for!) Used Ferm-Cap S to control boil and used it again in primary to control krausen. Just enough to cut it down, 5 drops in each case, I think. Yeast was WYEAST Irish Ale in a starter begun 12 hours earlier (should have been 24, but oh well.)
Here's the actual question. I let it sit for 2 weeks before going to bottle. It was pretty active the first 3 or 4 days, but then quieted down. Thought it had finished. Got done with bottling, and went to take my measurements, and the FG was only 1.031 instead of the expected 1.017. So apparant attenuation is only 57% instead of the expected 75 or so. What I'm wondering is, what happened? Was the yeast still working and I bottled too soon and now have a bunch of bombs in my cabinet?
The sad part was even the initial tasting was pretty good (yeah, even flat and warm). I'm looking forward to letting it sit a few weeks before drinking, but am slightly worried. Figure they get to be covered with a blanket while maturing to cut down on any potential mess.
Got a kit for Christmas and decided to jump in the deep end off the start and try my first batch as an all-grain. Figure if it's wonderful, then I can brag it's only my first batch, and if it's horrible, I just say that it was only my first batch. Made my own mash tun and wort chiller, and everything went great on brew day. Did a lot of reading and came up with my own recipe by combining this that and the other. Recipe is as follows:
8.5 # Bohemian Pilsner
1.5 # Cara-pils
1.5# Crystal Malt 60L
1# Steal Cut Oats (cooked first)
Strike w/ 5.5 gallons 175 degree water. Dropped to 165. Wait 90. Sparged with 3 gallons of 165 degree water. Total: 5 gallons.
Steeped in pot the following for 15 min at 165 degrees:
3 oz. Black Patent
6 oz. Chocolate
9 oz. Roast
Turned nice dark brown and smell was WONDERFUL. Boil schedule as follows:
.5 oz. Chinook (60 min)
.5 # Molasses (15 min)
1 oz. Fuggles (5 min)
1 oz. EK Goldings (5 min)
End of boil, total was 4 gallons at SG 1.071 (exactly what I was aiming for!) Used Ferm-Cap S to control boil and used it again in primary to control krausen. Just enough to cut it down, 5 drops in each case, I think. Yeast was WYEAST Irish Ale in a starter begun 12 hours earlier (should have been 24, but oh well.)
Here's the actual question. I let it sit for 2 weeks before going to bottle. It was pretty active the first 3 or 4 days, but then quieted down. Thought it had finished. Got done with bottling, and went to take my measurements, and the FG was only 1.031 instead of the expected 1.017. So apparant attenuation is only 57% instead of the expected 75 or so. What I'm wondering is, what happened? Was the yeast still working and I bottled too soon and now have a bunch of bombs in my cabinet?
The sad part was even the initial tasting was pretty good (yeah, even flat and warm). I'm looking forward to letting it sit a few weeks before drinking, but am slightly worried. Figure they get to be covered with a blanket while maturing to cut down on any potential mess.