Can We Talk about Final Gravity?

[sonvolt]

What factors contribute to a particular brew's final gravity? Ok . . . let me see if I have this right . . .

Obviously potential gravity is a reading of the total amount of sugars that would "potentially" ferment. If every sugar in the brew does ferment, a final gravity reading would yield a 1.000 reading, right. Well, not all sugars are fermentable, so any gravity reading after fermentation will be a measurement of the sugars remaining in the beer which did not convert to alcohol, CO2, and other byproducts. Am I right so far?

Okay . . . now, non-fermentable sugars contribute to mouthfeel, body, etc. So, some unfermentable sugars are desireable as most beer drinkers are not looking to brew very "dry" ales & lagers. In fact BJCP identifies appropriate/expected final gravities in relation to specific styles of beer.

Here are my questions, and what I would like to talk more about . . . What factors contribute to final gravity? Obviously when brewers add unfermentable adjuncts like lactose, FGs will be higher, right? Are there factors in the mash that may contribute to creating a high yield of unfermentable sugars? What specialty grains may add unfermentable sugars?

In the last four brews I have made, I have become very frustrated in terms of FG readings. I did a Belgian Wit which finished at about 1.010 (perfect). Next, I did a berry wheat using virtually an identical grain bill and the exact same yeast - finished at 1.020 . More recently, I did a "Big" APA that finished at 1.010 and an ESB with a very similar grain bill - I think that it is finished at 1.019 which is high for the style.

What things can I do to have more control over my FG?

 

[Lou]

If every sugar in the brew does ferment, a final gravity reading would yield a 1.000 reading, right.

No. Pure ethanol has a specific gravity of 0.789. If you had a mixture of just ethanol and water (all sugars fermented, no proteins, starches, etc. present), you'd have a SG somewhere between 1.000 and 0.789 depending on the relative proportions.
that being said, excluding the intentional addition of unfermentable sugars, time and temperature of the mash has nearly everything to do with final gravities... i'm sure someone who is more knowledgable will share more on that.

also, everything in a solution contributes to the gravity of that solution -- not just sugars.

 

[cweston]

My understanding is that kilned malts like crystal, caramunich, etc. add a far higher percentage of unfermentable sugars than other grains. So one way to achieve a lower FG would be to scale those back from the grain bill. Ditto with carapils/carafoam.

Mashing at lower temperatures also tends to convert more of the starches into fermentable sugars and therefore lead to lower FGs.

Sucrose is virtually 100% fermentable--this is why so many Belgian styles use it: to have a high alcohol content with a fairly dry finish (lower FG).

Finally, some yeast strains are more attenuative than others. If you take the gravity from malts (not from sucrose, which ferments 100% more or less) and multiply it by the attenuation rate of the yeast, that should give a decent estimate of FG.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Perhaps the Kaiser will pop in...he's quite an expert on mash temps and fixing the fermentability of the wort. In any case, as cweston points out mash temps (which we don't always control as well as we'd like) will have a definite effect on the fermentability of the wort, as well as how long you mash.

Are you aerating your wort, and if so, how? Aeration will have an impact on how well your yeast performs.

Also, the physical condition of your yeast could have a bearing on how well they ferment the wort.

 

[david_42]

Final gravities can be under 1.000, I routinely see this in ciders, much less common in ales though.

The main contributors to FG for home brew are: proteins, unfermentable sugars, starches and unfermented sugars. When doing all grain, mash temperature and pH are the main variables. Mash temperature range is very narrow for a highly fermentable wort, 150-152F. Palmer has a good discussion in his Chapter 14. Just a few degrees, high or low, for the mash can raise the FG ten points or more.

 

[sonvolt]

Ok, so for my last batch . . . I used the following grain bill:

12 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1/2 lbs. Crystal 40L
1/2 lbs. Crystal 10L
1/2 lbs. Carafoam

My OG was 1.071 and it is currently reading at 1.019. Mashed at 150 for just over an hour, fly sparged for just over an hour. Given my grain bill, is this about right for a final gravity reading? I feel like it is pretty high, but the OG is also higher than I anticipated as well.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Which yeast did you use? The attenuation for your yeast strain is just as important as any other factor for calculating the FG.

 

[cweston]

Ok, so for my last batch . . . I used the following grain bill:

12 lbs Pale Ale Malt
1/2 lbs. Crystal 40L
1/2 lbs. Crystal 10L
1/2 lbs. Carafoam

My OG was 1.071 and it is currently reading at 1.019. Mashed at 150 for just over an hour, fly sparged for just over an hour. Given my grain bill, is this about right for a final gravity reading? I feel like it is pretty high, but the OG is also higher than I anticipated as well.

That's 73% attenuation. Not sure what yeast you used, but Wyeast claims 73-77% for 1056, for example. So you're in the ballpark, although I agree you might have expected a bit lower. 77% would be more like 1.016.

 

[sonvolt]

I usually use White Labs yeasts, but this was a "spur of the moment" brew. I didn't have a starter made, so I pitched two packets of Cooper's Dried Ale Yeast.

 

[Kaiser]

The main contributors to FG for home brew are: proteins, unfermentable sugars, starches and unfermented sugars. When doing all grain, mash temperature and pH are the main variables. Mash temperature range is very narrow for a highly fermentable wort, 150-152F. Palmer has a good discussion in his Chapter 14. Just a few degrees, high or low, for the mash can raise the FG ten points or more.

Yep, that's what I was about to answer as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that the FG we are measuring is the apparent FG of the beer. This means it has been skewed by the alcohol in the beer. If you want to measure the real true FG you will have to boil out the alcohol and replace the loss with water. Then you can measure the real FG, which can never drop below 1.000. One of the reasons why beers rarely have an apparent FG below 1.000 is due to the proteins and limit-dextrins. The latter are the branch points of the amylopectin which cannot be fermented by brewers yeast and cannot be split by the enzymes in the mash.

But there is the problem of hitting a particular FG with your mash schedule. I guess that's what you want to get at. Single infusion mashes have the inherent problem that the attenuation of the wort is very sensitive to the temperature since the mash is happening at a point where the beta amylase starts to break down and the alpha amylase starts to ramp up its activity.

Are any of you seeing consistent attenuations for your single infusion mashes for a given yeast strain and mash temp?

Since I see the hitting the target attenuation as the main challenge of mashing I also asked on a German brewing board, and the consensus there was that step mashing for saccrification is the answer. The common German step mash has 2 saccrification rests. One is the maltose rest at about 61-63*C (142-148F) which is held for time X. Then the mash is raised to the saccrification rest at about 71*C (160F) where it is held until the mash is converted (shouldn't take more than 20min).

Now why is this more reliable in terms of attenuation, because the rests are at the activity peaks of the amylases (beta a. for maltose rest and alpha a. for saccrification rest) and the amount of maltose produced is determined mainly by the length of the maltose rest, not its temperature. Both rests are fairly insensitive to temp changes of less than +/- 1K (+/- 2F). And time is more reliably measured than temperature anyway.

The careful reader may have already observed, that there is only so much maltose that can be produced by the beta a. until help from the alpha a. is necessary. If you need a more attenuative wort, you would add a rest at 66*C (150F) after the maltose rest. This rest is actually the only saccrification rest that is observed in single infusion mashes.

So far I have done only 3 mashes with stepped saccrification and I got fairly consistent results with regards of the achieved attenuation of the wort. Future step and single infusion mashed will tell me if my theory actually holds or not, or if it is only making things more complicated than necessary.

Regardless of your mashing schedule, you should keep good notes. These should include:
- grain bill
- actual starting mash temp
- actual finishing mash temp
- actual mashing time (make sure you mash-out and never let your run-off drop below 170 when it is in the kettle)
- yeast used
- OG
- amount of yeast pitched
- (forced ferment test when dealing with lagers)
- FG

Based on these notes you may or may not see a trend by which you can plan future mashes.

Kai

 

[sonvolt]

Wow . . . that is great info, Kai . . . but it will take me a few reads before I will really understand it.

I suspect that I am not keeping my runoff at 170 degrees . . . would this result in higher FGs?

 

[Kaiser]

I suspect that I am not keeping my runoff at 170 degrees . . . would this result in higher FGs?

No, that will only result in lower FGs. The reason I pointed this out is the fact that you want the enzymatic activity confined to the time of mashing and there is nothing unpredictable happening to the wort composition after you started mash-out.

Higher FGs are caused by insufficient beta amylase activity. The most common cause for this are mashing temps that are to high. The beta amylase (like most other enzymes) has a rapid activity loss as the temp goes beyond its activity peak. At this point they also start to denature.

Another reason could also be that you mash time is to short.

Kai

 

[Kaiser]

I kinda hoped to have more of a discussion on this subject.

I'm in particular very interested how consistent the attenuation is that you guys get in your mashes. So far I haven't done enough AG batches to get an idea from my own experience. There is also little available on the web regarding this subject.

Does anyone have a enzyme activity vs. temperature graph? This would have to be shown for a particular PH value though. I know Palmer has a graph on his How-To-Brew, but It only shows activity ranges

Kai

 

[sonvolt]

I kinda hoped to have more of a discussion on this subject.

I'm in particular very interested how consistent the attenuation is that you guys get in your mashes. So far I haven't done enough AG batches to get an idea from my own experience. There is also little available on the web regarding this subject.

Does anyone have a enzyme activity vs. temperature graph? This would have to be shown for a particular PH value though. I know Palmer has a graph on his How-To-Brew, but It only shows activity ranges

Kai

I was hoping for more as well. I brewed for years before I owned a hydrometer . . .; I always thought that once yeast had been pitched and the fermentation began, everything would be just fine. Since going AG, however, I realize that I've ended up really thinking hard about FG and where I want the beer to be when the whole process is finished. I feel like this is the part of the process where I have the least control right now.

You mentioned PH . . . PH affects efficiency, right? So, PH also factors into FG?

Here is another question that I have that may have some bearing on FG - Do all physical areas in the mash convert at the same time? I have been doing iodine tests for conversion, and I never begin sparging until I get a positive conversion test. But . . . is it possible that some areas in my mash tun have converted when other areas have yet to convert - i.e. top vs. bottom? Should I be "stirring" my mash at various intervals throughout the mashing process?

Also, can you (or others) better explain how I may be able to calculate attenuation? By this I assume that you mean where your beer finishes . . . i.e. the degree to which the yeast is able to consume the available sugars. If I am right, then this is the same issue I started the thread with . . . and my answer - obviously- is that my attenuation is anything but consistent . . . and I want it to be more consistent.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

You mentioned PH . . . PH affects efficiency, right? So, PH also factors into FG?

My understanding is that pH affects that activity of the amylases and hence will contribute to fermentability profile of your wort. So the plots the Kaiser is looking for would be 3-dimensional plots with amylase activity vs pH vs temperature. Of course, he's also mentioned that time is a factor, so....hmmm, think I need to go have a coffee.

 

[Kaiser]

You mentioned PH . . . PH affects efficiency, right? So, PH also factors into FG?

PH does not so much affect efficiency, it is just another factor that affects enzymatic activity. Palmer has a nice graph about the peaks if enzymatic activity:
http://www.howtobrew.com/images/f79.gif

As you can see, the aplhas like it less sour than the betas. But what this graph lacks is the strength of enzymatic activity at a particular PH - temp point.

Here is another question that I have that may have some bearing on FG - Do all physical areas in the mash convert at the same time? I have been doing iodine tests for conversion, and I never begin sparging until I get a positive conversion test. But . . . is it possible that some areas in my mash tun have converted when other areas have yet to convert - i.e. top vs. bottom? Should I be "stirring" my mash at various intervals throughout the mashing process?

Not all areas of the mash will convert at the same rate, as there are temperature gradients in a non-stirred mash. The best vessel for mashing is a heated (temp controlled) and stirred mash tun. But I don't stir so often either because I'm also using a cooler as mash/lauter tun.

Also, can you (or others) better explain how I may be able to calculate attenuation?

For gravity (or better extract) measured in Plato it is:

apparent attenuation = (starting extract - remaining extract) / starting extract

For SG it should be:

apparent attenuation = (OG - FG) / (1 - OG)

This is the apparent attenuation (skewed by the alcohol) if you want to get the real attenuation (percentage of the sugars that have been fermented) you need to multiply it by 0.81

and my answer - obviously- is that my attenuation is anything but consistent . . . and I want it to be more consistent.

Try to take notes about the actual mash temps and times. Hopefully you will see a trend in your attenuation and can use this information for future batches. It will also mean that you need to hit your mash target pretty close. So keep some boiling water and ice at hand. Alternatively, you can also vary the time of the saccrification rest. A 90 min rest should give you more attenuation than a 60 min rest at the same temperature.

Unfortunately it is hard to tell you what mash temp/time will give you what attenuation. There are to many factors involved and you need to figure this out for your system.

Kai

 

[sonvolt]

Okay . . . currently, I don't do any sort of sac rest. Is this possible with a cooler setup like I am using. In other words, how will I manipulate the temp inside my cooler with any degree of accuracy?

I've been doing single infusion mashes - hitting between 149-151 for anywhere between 1 and 1.5 hours.

 

[Kaiser]

Okay . . . currently, I don't do any sort of sac rest. Is this possible with a cooler setup like I am using. In other words, how will I manipulate the temp inside my cooler with any degree of accuracy?

I've been doing single infusion mashes - hitting between 149-151 for anywhere between 1 and 1.5 hours.

The only rest that you do with a single infusion mash is a saccrification rest . Hitting a precise mash temp in a cooler is difficult but can be done with good stirring (watch out for aeration though) and the careful addition of hot or cold water (make sure you have some head room in your mash-tun). Then just let it sit for the time of the rest. It will cool down a little and you should note what the finishing temp was.

Kai

 

[sonvolt]

So, mash in with less water . . . then raise the temp with more hot water?

Is there a place in Palmer's book where I can find a schedule for a sac rest?

 

[Lost]

First of all, Kaiser is giving you really good advice.

You can either add boiling water to raise the mash temp or you can take a decoction - remove the thickest 1/3 of the grains and add them to the kettle. Gently heat and hold at 153 for saccarification and then heat until boiling and add back to cooler to raise temp. Make sure you stir to prevent scorching, a thick bottomed pot or a diffuser is a good idea. This takes a bit of practice - I've been hit or miss with raising the temp sufficiently, generally I'm on the low side. A colander works well to remove the grains but remember you do want a little bit of liquid to help prevent scorching. If instead you'd like to do this by adding an infusion, then here's how you calculate it:

WA = (T2 - T1)(.2G + WM)/(TW - T2)

This equation was taken from Palmer's How to Brew p. 194 in section III

Here's what it means:
Wa = the volume of water you'll need to add in *quarts*
T2 & T1 = Temperature of the mash currently (T1) and the temperature you're shooting for (T2)
G = lbs of grain in the mash
WM = amount of water in the mash in *quarts*
TW = temperature of the water you'll be adding - assuming your cooler limits how much room you have for more water then you'll want to use boiling water (TW = 210F) to minimize the amount of water you'll need to add.

The link at the bottom to ch 14 in How to Brew will tell you everything you need to know about the various temp rests, what they accomplish, and when they're applicable.

Now, as for your original question about FG - Kaiser's done a pretty good job explaining it but I thout I'd add my two cents.

1. Mash Time - the longer the enzymes are in contact with the wort the more opportunity they have to break it down into more fermentables (smaller and smaller chains of sugar). This is assuming the temp and ph are in the right ranges to allow the enzymes to be active. The enzymes must work together to convert the sugars so leaving the wort for an extended period of time at either a very higher temp (alpha amylase) or very low temp (beta amylase) will have a limited effect because each enzyme needs the other to break the starches down into a workable form. In my experience this variable seems to have minimal impact.. as long as you're not mashing for several hours or overnight I doubt adjusting the mash length would have any noticeable affect.

2. PH - different enzymes are active at different PH ranges. We typically shoot for a PH that is a compromise that allows all the enzymes to be active - 5.2 - 5.3 is this number. I would not suggest adjusting mash PH out of this range in an effort to adjust fermentability/FG. There are other factors that are easier to adjust and with them you don't have to worry about tannin extraction as your ph increases. I would definitely suggest checking mash PH to make sure that it is in this range. You can do this with either a tester or PH papers. The papers are a b!tch..

3. Temperature - Again, with infusion mashing we're shooting for a compromise for the enzymes. Higher temps favor alpha amylase and lower temps favor beta amylase. What you need to know is that raising the temp will create a less fermentable batch (higher FG) and lowering the temp will make a dryer beer. I like thicker beers with good mouthfeel so I tend to stick with 154F. Again, you need have a mash temp that allows both enzymes to work but favors one over the other - this is the most common method of adjusting fermentability. Gently stir the mash every 15 min to make sure the temp is uniform throughout the grainbed. Have a look at Palmer's chart - link is at the bottom.

4. Mash thickness - a thicker mash means the enzymes will be more concentrated and conversion will happen faster. It also means that the enzymes will be inhibited by the high concentration of sugars in the solution. Thus, thicker mashes make less fermentable beers. 1 qt per lb and 2 qt per lb are, I think, the two extremes of this range. I generally go with 1.3 qt per lb but may increase that to 1.4 or 1.5 now that I have a larger mash/lauter tun.

5. grains/adjuncts - rice (think bud) effectively thins the beer by raising alcohol content while contributing little or no non fermentable sugars. Adding simple sugars will have the same effect (candi sugar, corn sugar, table sugar, you get the idea) Likewise, dextrin/carapils adds body.

6. yeast - I think the importance of your yeast's attenuation is often understated. I use nottingham dry yeast for most of my run of the mill ales and my FG is almost always 1.015 even when I've adjusted other factors... I attribute this to the yeast I use.

Here's Palmer's enzymatic chart (temp & ph) - I find it useful. The whole chapter is a good read.
http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-1.html

Here's a nice beer math calculator that will give you your real and apparent attenuation along with a few other things. I find it useful because I'm too lazy and too stupid to do much math.
http://www.leebrewery.com/beermath.htm

Hope this helps

 

[Kaiser]

Thanks, Lost.

When I started looking into this subject it was to ensure that my FG will remain high enough. If you are looking to get an (apparent) attenuation lower than ~75% mashing with 2 steps will work. In the first step only the beta amylase will have significant activity, but there are enough starch chain ends availer for the betas to produce almost all the maltose necessary for the desired attenuation. After a 30 - 60min rest there the remaining starch can be converted in a short alpha-amylase-only rest. This will contribute to most of the dextrins in your wort.

Granted that there are limitations for the attenuation with this scheme since you may want to produce more maltose than you can with an beta-amylase-only rest.

For my Bavarian style beers I use the 2 step saccrification approach and had good success with this so far. These beers are known for their low attenuation and a beta-only and a alpha-only rest works well for them to achieve the desired FG.

Kai

 

[AdIn]

I think I need to clarify one thing here for myself. By changing mashing parameters like temperature and time you may change amount of fermentable/non fermentable sugars in your wort which will later affect your FG. But it's important that initially you have only so much of potentially convertible starch in your wort and if you spent (converted) 90% of your starch during Beta Amylase rest it does not matter how long you are going to sit @160F, you only going to get >10% of unfermentable sugars. Alpha Amylase is not going to "assemble" those unfermentable dextrin from maltose. Right? Then here is what not clear to me - most of us use highly modified malt which takes like 30 minutes to convert. And if somebody spends 90 or 60 minutes doing rest @150 - then it does not really matter if you do yet another rest @160 or not, there won't be anything to convert. So, the mashing time intervals we should be talking about here are suppose to be in 10-30 minutes, not 60-90 minutes. Does it make sense?

 

[BadKarmaa]

not the slightest. I'm getting there though. i need to read all posts again. Still, I think I've learned more reading the last two pages than i have from an entire 300 level microbiology textbook! Will someone please grace me with some informational books and/or other resources so I can catch up?

who are you guys? Are you all beer school graduates or what?

P.S.
Kai, you replaced spiderman as my new hero.

 

[1234maverick]

I have a question. I am new here and new to AG brewing. I have my first AG in the fermenter now for three weeks and the FG has stopped at 1020. My OG was 1045. I have determined that my mesh temp was to high around the 160 range. Is there anything I can do to get the FG down lower on this batch?


Thanks

 

[Kaiser]

But it's important that initially you have only so much of potentially convertible starch in your wort and if you spent (converted) 90% of your starch during Beta Amylase rest it does not matter how long you are going to sit @160F, you only going to get >10% of unfermentable sugars. Alpha Amylase is not going to "assemble" those unfermentable dextrin from maltose. Right?

correct, even worse, the alpha amylase is randomly splitting polysaccarides (maltose, matotriose and of course dextrines and starches) this means that even alpha amylase can produce fermentable sugars. That's why the alpha amylase rest (if 2 saccrification rests are employed) is only held until conversion is complete (iodine test negative).

Then here is what not clear to me - most of us use highly modified malt which takes like 30 minutes to convert. And if somebody spends 90 or 60 minutes doing rest @150 - then it does not really matter if you do yet another rest @160 or not, there won't be anything to convert. So, the mashing time intervals we should be talking about here are suppose to be in 10-30 minutes, not 60-90 minutes. Does it make sense?

You are correct that after 60-90min there is nothing left to convert if the mash is held at 150F, but the conversion times cited for malts are the aplha a. conversion times and they are usually 15-20min. Beta amylase works much slower and can't even fully convert your mash due to the branches in amylopectin. That's why you will have to do a alpha a . rest when you made a beta-amylase-only rest, even if this rest was held for 60+ min. But the iodine test will tell you for sure if further conversion is necessary.

Kai

 

[Kaiser]

Will someone please grace me with some informational books and/or other resources so I can catch up? who are you guys? Are you all beer school graduates or what?

- The Complete Joy of Home Brewing touches this subject a little bit, but you may have to read between the lines.
- Noonan's "New Brewing Lager Beer" is an excellent book that has extensive information about mashing
- There are lot's of bits and pieces on the web
- But the majority of this information stems from a German Home Brewing board, where multi rest saccrifications are common procedure for Home and Commercial Brewers. Many of them don't really understand why one can mash with only one rest

Between batches there is only so much brewing releated activity do go around. The most common being sampling (a.k.a drinking). But there is also a lot to read and I'd love to get my hands on some actual brewing textbooks. But they are rather expensive

I like to know how exactly things work, but knowing this and actually applying it to make better beer is a different thing. At the end it comes down to how well I do on brewday.

I have my first AG in the fermenter now for three weeks and the FG has stopped at 1020. My OG was 1045. I have determined that my mesh temp was to high around the 160 range. Is there anything I can do to get the FG down lower on this batch?

There has been information about this on this board. The idea is the addition of Amylase to the fermenter. But since you can't stop the enzymatic activity like you do in a mash, you may end up producing rocket fuel. This is a good article on the subject: http://brewery.org/brewery/library/EnzStuckFermAW1095.html

This is the thread about this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=7366&highlight=enzyme+fermenter

You may have to choose between the lesser of 2 evils

Kai

 

[Lost]

I have a question. I am new here and new to AG brewing. I have my first AG in the fermenter now for three weeks and the FG has stopped at 1020. My OG was 1045. I have determined that my mesh temp was to high around the 160 range. Is there anything I can do to get the FG down lower on this batch?

1.020 isn't too terrible but it will be thick. Is it the sort of beer (i.e. porter or stout) where a good bit of mouthfeel will be ok? Keep in mind that carbonating it tends to increase the mouthfeel. Is it too sweet?

If you feel you must get the gravity lower then you need to add some enzyme - amylase - to the beer. You can get it at your LHBS. As Kaiser pointed out though, this can be dangerous.. think bottle bombs or watery beer. If you're planning on keeping/storing this batch then I'd suggest that you not do it. But if you think you can drink it fairly quickly then you may get away with drinking it before the amylase turns your beer watery and alcoholic. Keep in mind that the enzymes will work slower in room temp beer than they would at mash temps so you do have some time here but I wouldn't plan on saving any bottles to try in a few months. Bottle bombs are also a possibility because the amylase will continue to produce fermentable sugars which the yeast will continue to eat and your beer will continue to carbonate.. to halt the carbonation process test your beer at the 1.5 week mark and every 5 or so days after that. When the beer hits the desired carb level then put it in the fridge to stop the yeast/fermentation. Also don't use more than 3/4 of a cup of priming sugar as the amylase will also create sugar for priming. Remember, the fridge won't stop the enzymatic activity so once the beer is carbonated and has the right mouthfeel then you and your friends should drink it readily.

I'm with Kaiser though, don't do it unless you deem it absolutely necessary.

edit: Karma, I'm a grad student in criminolgy at Florida State. No beer school, just recreational reading and brewing. You'll get there faster than you think.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I have a question. I am new here and new to AG brewing. I have my first AG in the fermenter now for three weeks and the FG has stopped at 1020. My OG was 1045. I have determined that my mesh temp was to high around the 160 range. Is there anything I can do to get the FG down lower on this batch?


Thanks

What was your recipe? Was it high in unfermentables?

 

[1234maverick]

Its a Blonde Ale maybe more of Pale Ale so no it is nothing thick. It has a good taste and isnt sweet.

Iam thinking Iam going to just bottle it this weekend and think of it as a good summer time beer.

And take the lesson I learned and brew anther batch!

 

[1234maverick]

What was your recipe? Was it high in unfermentables?

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.0 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 20.0 %
1.27 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00%] (60 min) Hops 18.3 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 15.2 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (15 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (1 min) Hops 0.3 IBU
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 80.0 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 20.0 %
1.27 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrueh [4.00%] (60 min) Hops 18.3 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (30 min) Hops 15.2 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (15 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (1 min) Hops 0.3 IBU
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

That is a ton of crystal which is not fermentable. I'd limit it to 5-7.5% of the grist for a pale ale. If you added that much to get color, just step up to 20L or 40L and use less of it. My 2 cents.

 

[Lost]

I think it'll be fine.. go ahead and bottle it.

That is a lot of crystal.. but I've used that much (plus other specialty malts) in 11 and 12 lb grain bills with good results. It is probably more than most would recommend but I like it and use it extensively.. the beauty of homebrew is you can make it however you want. For example, I don't care for acrid burnt tastes in my brew so I never use black patent. If it tastes good now then bottle it and drink it.