"Missed" Target Final Gravity

[d_rock]

I'm on my third brew, this one is a Monday Night Drafty Kilt clone. I used Nottingham dry yeast, rehydrated before pitching. I had a very violent fermentation at around 18-20hrs that blew out the airlock (I now know better, and will use a blowoff tube next time), it continued to foam over for several more hours, and then when it calmed down I cleaned and replaced the airlock. Still had very active fermentation for a couple days, noted swirling yeast and what not- this was my first time using a carboy rather than a bucket, so seeing the active fermentation was cool! Fermentation temps was stable at 70 degrees.

OG reading was 1.072, right on the money of a predicted 1.070-1.075 OG. Today (9 days) I checked my FG, and got 1.010 (8.14%ABV)- the predicted FG was 1.018-1.023 (7.2%ABV).

There doesn't seem to be any signs of infection, and it smells wonderful. My recipe calls for one week in secondary, and then add priming sugar and bottle. Other than an overall higher ABV, what kind of effect would the higher attentuation have on the final product? My first two brews were right on point with predicted OG/FG, so this is a first for me.

 

[allthingsgiant]

It might taste more dry than sweet, but otherwise, it will be delicious.

 

[heckler73]

http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/nottingham-ale-beer-yeast

The recommended fermentation temperature range of this strain is 14° to 21°C (57° to 70°F) with good tolerance to low fermentation temperatures (12°C/54°F)

Try fermenting a little cooler next time as you're right in the upper range of the yeast - probably why you needed a blowoff tube.

 

[heckler73]

Florida, April, 3rd batch. I see! This is the first time you've fermented with warmer temperatures in your house, right?

 

[jekeane]

Was the fermentation 70 degrees ambient/room temperature or in a fermentation chamber / swamp cooler? Nottingham is a beast and will chomp through just about anything especially if it is allowed to ferment to warm. If you were at 70 room temperature then it is likely you were upwards of 76-78 which is outside of nottingham's happy range.

My guess is you may have some fusel (hot) alcohol off flavors in there. But you wont know till you try it.
I would let a beer that size sit in primary for at least 3 weeks (maybe 4 if you were too high) skip secondary and then package

PS where are you in Jacksonville? Are you a member of the homebrew club? (C.A.S.K) If not we have our monthly meeting this saturday, social hour starts at 6. This month we are at Green Room Brewery out at the beach. If you want/need more info send me a msg. It's a good time and good people, well except me.

 

[j1n]

is that 70 ambient temp or beer temp? i think 70 is too high for notty yeast. i ferment it at 60.

 

[d_rock]

Was the fermentation 70 degrees ambient/room temperature or in a fermentation chamber / swamp cooler? Nottingham is a beast and will chomp through just about anything especially if it is allowed to ferment to warm. If you were at 70 room temperature then it is likely you were upwards of 76-78 which is outside of nottingham's happy range.

My guess is you may have some fusel (hot) alcohol off flavors in there. But you wont know till you try it.
I would let a beer that size sit in primary for at least 3 weeks (maybe 4 if you were too high) skip secondary and then package

PS where are you in Jacksonville? Are you a member of the homebrew club? (C.A.S.K) If not we have our monthly meeting this saturday, social hour starts at 6. This month we are at Green Room Brewery out at the beach. If you want/need more info send me a msg. It's a good time and good people, well except me.

Ambient temps were from 69-70, I'm using an interior closet for fermentation right now until I can get a ferm chamber set up. Temps stay very stable and didn't get over 70. Making do with what I have for now, but I've got plans for a ferm chamber/kegerator build this summer.

I went ahead and racked it to secondary (before I saw your post), I was anxious to get the remainder of the blowoff mess cleaned up (gotta keep the wife off my back about my closet brewery!). I'll let it stay in secondary a bit longer.

After reading up on Nottingham, I see that my results perfectly match the characteristics of this yeast! I feel better about it now, at least it seems expected rather than the chance that something went wrong.

I'm not a CASK member, yet. Was planning on checking you guys out sometime soon. I'm in Doctor's Inlet. I can't make it this weekend, but I'll definitely plan on it in the future. I'll shoot you a PM with my contact info.

Thanks for all the inputs, folks!

 

[jekeane]

Yeah Green room is a hike from there. I'm over by NAS / (po)Ortega. You should check it out when you can it's a lot of fun. The monthly competitions can help you figure out alot of stuff about your beers too which is nice.

 

[Pappers_]

Where did you get the target FG from?

 

[ktblunden]

Ambient temps were from 69-70, I'm using an interior closet for fermentation right now until I can get a ferm chamber set up. Temps stay very stable and didn't get over 70. Making do with what I have for now, but I've got plans for a ferm chamber/kegerator build this summer.

Wort temperature during fermentation can be as much as 10 degrees higher than ambient because fermentation creates heat. I live in the desert, so I definitely know what you're up against with temperatures.

Try the swamp cooler method to keep fermentation temperatures lower. Get one of those large rope handled tubs, put your fermenter in and fill it with water and float some frozen water bottles in it. You can also wrap a tshirt around your fermenter. The tshirt wicks water up into it and then evaporation cools your fermenter more. Plus the tshirt keeps your wort safe from the light.

 

[d_rock]

Where did you get the target FG from?

I used a kit from www.barleynvine.com which came with a guide sheet. A certain yeast wasn't specified, but I used the Nottingham on recommendation from my local brew supply guy.

Wort temperature during fermentation can be as much as 10 degrees higher than ambient because fermentation creates heat. I live in the desert, so I definitely know what you're up against with temperatures.

Try the swamp cooler method to keep fermentation temperatures lower. Get one of those large rope handled tubs, put your fermenter in and fill it with water and float some frozen water bottles in it. You can also wrap a tshirt around your fermenter. The tshirt wicks water up into it and then evaporation cools your fermenter more. Plus the tshirt keeps your wort safe from the light.

I'll definitely try one of those methods next time. My first two brews were over the winter, so the ambient temps were a few degrees cooler, mid-60's. First batch was a Sweetwater 420, second was a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and both of those turned out great. I tasted the wort when I checked my FG, and it does seem a bit dry. I'm still training my palette to distinguish flavor characteristics but I do notice a pretty strong alcohol presence, I'm interested to see how it turns out once it's bottled and ready.