Help with high FG: under-pitched or too many unfermentables?

[Sachibachi]

Hi,

I have a red ale that has been in the primary for 2.5 weeks. OG was 1.070 and it has now been stuck for a week and a half at 1.025 (abt 65% attenuation).

I'm wondering what is causing this, I don't think it is temperature as it has been sitting at between 70 and 72F, so too warm if anything. My very uneducated guess is that it is one of two things, due to a couple of errors I made in the brewing process:

1) I underpitched the yeast: I poured a single packet of dried yeast straight into some warm wort and then pitched that without rehydrating in water first. However Krausen formed fairly quickly and gravity reached 1.026 in 4 days.
or
2) I used an all-grain recipe and converted it to an extract. By converting I mean I replaced the base grain with extract. Problem is the recipe asked for a certain amount of munich and victory malt which I didn't mash but rather steeped at 170F as at the time I didn't quite grasp the difference between steeping and mashing. So I'm wondering if the high FG is due to a lot of starch from the munich and victory not being converted during the steep?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this and more importantly whether you think there is anything I can do at this stage to get the gravity down? The beer tastes great but is definitely on the sweet side!

The grain bill for the recipe is:
6.6lbs pale LME
1lbs8oz pale DME
1lbs8oz Munich malt
1lbs4oz Victory malt
1lbs crystal 50

I used Safaled US-05 yeast.

Thanks

 

[how1]

My guess is steeping the the munich at 170F isn't going to give you much fermentable sugar and adding 1 lb of crystal will also bump up the final gravity. I always had trouble getting extract beers down below 1.014. Maybe next time you should steep the munich around 150 or so. It would be like doing a mini mash. Maybe someone else has a different theory.

 

[flars]

What is the volume in the fermentor? Are you using a hydrometer or refractometer for measuring specific gravity?

 

[Sachibachi]

I've got 5 gallons in the fermenter and use a hydrometer to measure gravity. pour from the fermenter spigot into a long thin tube and measure in that.

 

[flars]

Your beer could be done. The sweetness may be from unfermentable sugars produced in the warm steep and the amount of crystal used. Bottle conditioning may change the perceived sweetness.
I would let it sit for a few more days and check SG again. It is ready to bottle if the SG doesn't change.

 

[Sachibachi]

Thanks. I was afraid that it was the unfermentables and therefore that nothing can be done... Is 1.025 unheard of for a beer? or will it be more passable when carbonated. It is not undrinkable right now just fairly sweet. It's around 50IBU.

 

[aprichman]

Carbonation produced via secondary fermentation (i.e. bottle conditioning) won't drop the FG. If you're using dextrose or cane/beet sugar to prime you will probably end up with the same FG. If you're using DME you will probably end up with a slightly higher FG than you started.

In other words, carbonation shouldn't make your beer any more or less sweet. Next time I'd avoid steeping such large amounts of grain - especially if you're steeping around 170F.

 

[slym2none]

Is 1.025 unheard of for a beer?

No - with lots of unfermentable sugars, that's right about what I'd expect.