NB Chocolate Milk Stout High Final Gravity

[Kevin0778]

I brewed the Northern Brewer Chocolate milk stout Extract with Specialty grains, followed the instructions and got an original gravity of 1048, a little low(don't know why). So it fermented well the first week with the Wyeast 1332 Northwest ale (i made a starter). After about a week and a half i racked it into the secondary. I stupidly did not check the gravity until i had it into the secondary. The gravity was 1026. Thats too high right? I figured I'd let it sit another week in the secondary and check it to see where it was at, well it's still sitting at 1026. What should i do? Is this a problem?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Kevin

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Yes, that is very high. Are you using a refractometer for final gravity? What temperature is it at?

here are the top ten causes of a stuck fermentation:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/11/top-ten-reasons-why-your-final-gravity.html

 

[emiller0408]

I brewed the Northern Brewer Chocolate milk stout Extract with Specialty grains, followed the instructions and got an original gravity of 1048, a little low(don't know why). So it fermented well the first week with the Wyeast 1332 Northwest ale (i made a starter). After about a week and a half i racked it into the secondary. I stupidly did not check the gravity until i had it into the secondary. The gravity was 1026. Thats too high right? I figured I'd let it sit another week in the secondary and check it to see where it was at, well it's still sitting at 1026. What should i do? Is this a problem?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Kevin

That's not too high because that kit has lactose in it and lactose doesn't ferment out. Mine ended at 1030 and tasted great!!! You're good to go!

 

[WoodlandBrew]

I guess some people might like the taste of the beer even if it is high for the style. 1.048 down to 1.026 is 2.9% ABV and is equivalent to a cup of coffee with 4 teaspoons of sugar. 65% attenuation is normal for the style which is low compared to other styles. The OP is much lower at 46%.

http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/final-gravity-as-indication-of-sweetness.html

 

[DLR1987]

Did you do a full boil or top off with water at the end? I made the silly mistake of adding 2x the amount of water to my first batch

 

[emiller0408]

I guess some people might like the taste of the beer even if it is high for the style. 1.048 down to 1.026 is 2.9% ABV and is equivalent to a cup of coffee with 4 teaspoons of sugar. 65% attenuation is normal for the style which is low compared to other styles. The OP is much lower at 46%.

http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/final-gravity-as-indication-of-sweetness.html

People....again. This kit uses a pound of lactose.... Which doesn't ferment. Trust me, I'm a chemist.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

People....again. This kit uses a pound of lactose.... Which doesn't ferment. Trust me, I'm a chemist.

I wasn't suggesting that lactose or malto dextrin will ferment the same as typical malt extract.
Here are some blog posts that discuss unfermentable sugars a little further if you are interested.
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/final-gravity-in-recipe-formulation.html
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2013/02/wort-sugars.html

The OP is seeing poor attenuation, even with a pound of lactose, a FG of 1.019 would be more reasonable. There is likely something else going on here. Perhaps under pitching or inadequate aeration.

To make a 5 gallon batch with an OG of 1.048 given that there is 1lb of lactose:
4.3 lbs of DME would be 194 gravity points at 75% attenuation that's 48.5 points toward final.
1lb of Lactose would be 45 gravity points all staying until final.

OG = (194+45)/5 = 47.8 (or 1.048)
FG = (48.5+45)/5 = 18.7 (or 1.019)

To hit the 1.026 that the OP is seeing there would need to be 7 more points of sugar remaining. That's only 55% attenuation of the DME which is not normal.

 

[emiller0408]

I wasn't suggesting that lactose or malto dextrin will ferment the same as typical malt extract.
Here are some blog posts that discuss unfermentable sugars a little further if you are interested.
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/final-gravity-in-recipe-formulation.html
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2013/02/wort-sugars.html

The OP is seeing poor attenuation, even with a pound of lactose, a FG of 1.019 would be more reasonable. There is likely something else going on here. Perhaps under pitching or inadequate aeration.

To make a 5 gallon batch with an OG of 1.048 given that there is 1lb of lactose:
4.3 lbs of DME would be 194 gravity points at 75% attenuation that's 48.5 points toward final.
1lb of Lactose would be 45 gravity points all staying until final.

OG = (194+45)/5 = 47.8 (or 1.048)
FG = (48.5+45)/5 = 18.7 (or 1.019)

To hit the 1.026 that the OP is seeing there would need to be 7 more points of sugar remaining. That's only 55% attenuation of the DME which is not normal.

You're accounting for the lactose in your math....which doesn't ferment

 

[Kevin0778]

Yes, that is very high. Are you using a refractometer for final gravity? What temperature is it at?

here are the top ten causes of a stuck fermentation:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/11/top-ten-reasons-why-your-final-gravity.html

No, I used a hydrometer. Right now the temp is 68 degrees.

 

[Kevin0778]

Did you do a full boil or top off with water at the end? I made the silly mistake of adding 2x the amount of water to my first batch

This was not a full boil. I topped it off at the end with water.

 

[Kevin0778]

One thing I am thinking about now is when I steeped the specialty grains for this kit. I screwed up and steeped it in only one gallon of water. I meant to put at least two gallons in for the boil. I'm assuming that maybe that had something to do with my problem??

 

[WoodlandBrew]

To the OP: Sorry this is getting a little off topic, hopefully this is useful information for you as well.

You're accounting for the lactose in your math....which doesn't ferment

yes. That is correct.

Read this post:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/12/final-gravity-in-recipe-formulation.html

It will explain it.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

One thing I am thinking about now is when I steeped the specialty grains for this kit. I screwed up and steeped it in only one gallon of water. I meant to put at least two gallons in for the boil. I'm assuming that maybe that had something to do with my problem??

if the recipe was counting on some conversion of the steeping grains then the temperature may have something to do with your OG being low. The difference in water volume shouldn't be an issue.

 

[youtastelikeaburger]

I think you went to secondary too quickly and therefore stalled your fermentation. I would imagine the kit has an expected FG? If so what was it?

 

[hoghead]

I believe you did not mix well enough after topping off with water so when you took a sample for an OG it showed lower than it was. It is hard to not get the expected OG of an extract kit unless you used the wrong amount of water. I would just go by the expected OG of the kit, and your FG is not high for that kit because of the lactose used.

 

[DLR1987]

This was not a full boil. I topped it off at the end with water.....



Did you add too much water? I'm wondering why your OG was so low...

 

[SamLynchburg]

I didn't want to start a while new thread for this question because I just brewed this same kit but I have a question about possibly overbittering this beer.
I usually brew AG but bought this kit to have an easy 5 gal batch. My AG setup is better suited for the 2.5-3gal batch.

Well while brewing I decided I didn't really want much more than 3-3.5 gallons anyway so I figured I would just not top it off as much when I was done. So I ended up topping up to 3.5 gallons and assumed I would have a slightly higher gravity end product. However I forgot to adjust my hop additions. So 3.5 gallons ended up getting 1 oz. Cluster (8% AA) @ 60min and 0.5 oz of the same @ 20min.

By my calculations I'm showing it potentially to be at 50 IBU. Is this gonna be really bitter for a stout? I know my gravity will be a little higher but is it enough to offset it? As others have said the kit includes a whole pound of lactose. The wort tasted pretty bitter but I don't really think that's a good indication. I'm going to let it age awhile so I figure it will mellow with time. Unfortunately I don't have any gravity readings to add to the mix. My wife "accidently" broke my hyrdrometer while cleaning (and used up all the glue on purpose). Jk. But I did brew without it.

 

[DLR1987]

50 IBU should be fine, especially if the gravity finishes higher than normal. And yes if it tastes too bitter now, just wait awhile. Cheers.


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