A little help needed regarding California ale V yeast

[redarmy990]

Good day all,
I brewed a clone recipe of a bells two hearted. All grain
It has currently been in fermenter for 11 days and has dropped from1.066 down to around 1.024 @ 70 degrees , Started out at 67 degrees

Tilt is saying 1.020 and hydrometer is at 1.024 - Question - as it's been sat there for just over a day, with out movement , I think I can add my dry hop addition, but what could have caused it to have not fully fermented out to the 1.017 that was estimated.

I made a yeast starter from a can of propper wort and the 16oz of distilled water recommended.

 

[BeerAndTele]

Hmmm … grain bill and mash temp come to mind. What did those look like?

 

[redarmy990]

11lb 2 row
2.5 lb vienna
14oz caramel 60
5 oz carapils
Mashed at 150 for 60 minutes, raised to 168 mash out and sparge.
Boiled 75 minutes

I dropped temp last night back to 68 from 70 and it dropped to 1.021, not sure why

 

[tracer bullet]

Did you see some vigorous fermentation for a few days?

It's fermentable grain and a good mash temp and time. I'd expect the gravity to have lowered a little more, but it's probably simply done.

 

[redarmy990]

I'm fermenting in a spike CF5, it took off quickly and dropped from around 1.066 down to 1.026 in 6 days - then took 4 days to go from 1.026 to 1.024.
I have just dry hopped it, will leave those in for 3 days then cold crash
The hydrometer sample I took tasted good so hopefully will have a nice beer

Thank you for your response and help

 

[BeerAndTele]

Sorry couldn’t be more helpful. Grain bill and mash temp look good, as does ferm temp. As long as you had healthy yeast, you should be fine. 1.024 does sound a little high though. I’ve made some good beers with 051. Pretty clean, a little fruity, flocs better than 001, and leaves a you with a fuller bodied beer. Hope it turns out well for you.

 

[couchsending]

How did you oxygenate? This is more often the issue with under attenuation especially with higher floccing yeast strains.

I’d measure the gravity before you crash. Centennial is notoriously high in enzymes and can cause some decent hop creep. You might get to 1.017 with hop creep honestly. Do you know how to do a forced Diacetyl test? I’d do that before crashing.

This is a weird yeast strain. It’s technically a lager yeast. Leaves a sulphur character to the beer and is pretty estery.

You can buy the Bells yeast if you want. It’s available through Bells and through The Yeast Bay.

 

[redarmy990]

How did you oxygenate? This is more often the issue with under attenuation especially with higher floccing yeast strains.

I’d measure the gravity before you crash. Centennial is notoriously high in enzymes and can cause some decent hop creep. You might get to 1.017 with hop creep honestly. Do you know how to do a forced Diacetyl test? I’d do that before crashing.

This is a weird yeast strain. It’s technically a lager yeast. Leaves a sulphur character to the beer and is pretty estery.

You can buy the Bells yeast if you want. It’s available through Bells and through The Yeast Bay.

Thanks so much,
Since dry hopping gravity has dropped another few points, now down to around 1.020.

Going to cold crash tomorrow evening and then take a final reading for my notes.

When it was fermenting away got a lot of Sulphur smell, but that has since disappeared.

 

[dmtaylor]

You should calibrate your mash thermometer in both ice water and in boiling water and look up the boiling point temperature for your particular elevation on this planet. My mash thermometer is a few degrees high on one end and a few degrees low on the other end so in between I figure it is accurate within 1 degree. Most people however might not be so lucky. If you mashed at a temperature that was much higher than you thought, this could explain your issue.

Also be aware that Cal "Ale" V yeast is actually Saccharomyces pastorianus, i.e., a lager yeast, based on genetic testing -- it is actually closely related to WLP840 American Pilsner yeast. This would explain the sulfur you experienced.