Buzz Kill

[lostnfoam]

hey everyone recently i brewed a honey bee ale. the kit came with some specialyt grains 3 lbs of amber exract and 3 lbs of clove honey. all went well with the boil i had a starting gravity of 1.046 which hits right on the money for the recipe. it say for a week at 65 -69. i transfered today and to my surprize I'm way low for my FG right now im looking at 1.005 when i should be at 1.012. I have some ideas that way have went wrong like maybe some badies got in and messed this up.

i was thinking i would have been on the higher side since on boil day i left about a 1/2 gal of muck in the kettle so i could have less stuff floating around. im kind of mad been way off. what do you all think?

 

[Beerrific]

What kind of yeast did you use?

 

[lostnfoam]

ahh sorry to leave out the most important part. it was america 1056 i made a pint starter and pitched it all. i also have to make an edit, i just did some calculation on promash and with my temp adjustments im looking a fg of 1.002... man i cant belive this happen. the only good part is the alc. with the original sg and fg i was looking at 3.2 3.5 per a bottle now im looking 5.51 with my readings of 1.044 and fg of 1.002. looking at the attenuation of 78.83 it's just about right the discription does say 73-77%. Flocculation: low–medium. Optimum temp: 60°-72° F. and the temp i had it at was 65- 70.

 

[Professor Frink]

I recently did my first all grain, a Flying Fish Farmhouse Ale Clone, and the final gravity came out at about 1.002. I was pretty worried that it was so low, but it actually came out pretty good, maybe a bit on the dry side, but definitely the sour-mash/low hoppyness I was looking for. I wish I knew why the FG got down so low, but since it tastes good, I'm not too worried:fro:

 

[RoaringBrewer]

You really only have 3lb. of malt in there, so 1.005 doesn't seem too low to me. Honey ferments out almost completely, so you'll be left with a pretty 'dry' end product. Probably very light in body too.

Not sure I'd ever really want to brew a beer that was 50% malt/50% honey... Maybe 75/25 or so, but 50/50 just seems too close to beer-mead cider.

Let us know how it turns out but 1.005 doesn't seem all that low based upon the recipe and yeast selection. I often get near 80% attenutation out of 1056 and thats with all malt. Would be even better with honey that ferments more completely...

 

[sirsloop]

i bet thats got some bite to it!! Give that beer a good couple months before you drink it... honey has a tendency to make the alcohol flavor real pronounced

 

[lostnfoam]

thanks everyone. i knew the honey would breakdown quick. i guess i was just trying to follow the recipe to close and well found a flaw. i ran all my info in promash and everything added up to what it should be.

and yes it is supose to be a mead type beer. its the summer so i figured i would try something new. not sure if im going to use more honey to prime or to just use priming sugar? well has anyone use honey? does it give and werid off flavors, or am i just going to dry this beer out more useing it?