Stout at 1.022

[joelshults]

Brewed a Stout (extract with steeped grains) that was bottled after spending 2 days shy of 4 weeks in Primary bucket.

OG was 1.065 and FG was 1.022.

8.8 lbs Briess Pilsen LME
18 oz Roasted Barley (steeped for 30 min @ 155)
8 oz Flaked Oats (steeped for 30 min @ 155)

Nottingham Dry yeast for almost 4 weeks. Between 65 and 70 degrees.

Did my FG get low enough? I've heard a lot about extracts stopping in this area and just wanted to make sure I wasn't in store for bottle bombs. This is my fifth batch but the first one that I've had a hydrometer.

Thanks!

 

[MalFet]

That's a 66% attenuation, which is a smidge low for this yeast. In the future, it's worth trying to bump up the temperature a few degrees to see if you can't persuade the yeast to eat a bit more before you bottle. I don't suspect that you'll get bottle bombs, but maybe don't condition this particular batch next to your collection of faberge eggs?

 

[joelshults]

I've also read that steeping some grains adds Gravity Points but very little of it is fermentable. Could that account for some of this?

 

[MalFet]

Possibly. Flaked oats are typically not steeped, because the starches need mashing to convert to sugar. I'm not sure what effect flaked oats would have on OG, but you won't get much that's fermentable from them.

 

[statseeker]

Looks like you have a session beer there. What were your mash temps? Higher than normal mash temps will lead to fewer fermentable sugars being extracted. This would lead to higher starting and final gravity. The other possibility is that your yeast just petered out too soon, in which case I'd swirl it up a bit to get more lively yeast into the mix.

 

[MalFet]

Looks like you have a session beer there. What were your mash temps? Higher than normal mash temps will lead to fewer fermentable sugars being extracted. This would lead to higher starting and final gravity. The other possibility is that your yeast just petered out too soon, in which case I'd swirl it up a bit to get more lively yeast into the mix.

It's an extract recipe. No mash.

 

[joelshults]

I opened one of these last night after a week and a half in the bottle. I know it still needs time to condition but I just had to test it in the name of Science. It's carbing up very nicely and tastes pretty good. I know it will get a lot better over the next few weeks.

However, it was a little sweet for my tastes. I was wondering if some of the sweetness will dissipate as it conditions or if that part of the flavor is going to hang around.

I know I should just Relax and give it time; I'm just curious about every stage of the process. I know people say that bitterness, hoppiness, fruit flavors, and just about everything else will diminish with time, but I'm not sure if I've read anywhere that the sweetness will diminish too.

Thanks for all of the help!

 

[MalFet]

I opened one of these last night after a week and a half in the bottle. I know it still needs time to condition but I just had to test it in the name of Science. It's carbing up very nicely and tastes pretty good. I know it will get a lot better over the next few weeks.

However, it was a little sweet for my tastes. I was wondering if some of the sweetness will dissipate as it conditions or if that part of the flavor is going to hang around.

I know I should just Relax and give it time; I'm just curious about every stage of the process. I know people say that bitterness, hoppiness, fruit flavors, and just about everything else will diminish with time, but I'm not sure if I've read anywhere that the sweetness will diminish too.

Thanks for all of the help!

The sweetness is likely from the relatively low attenuation; there is a relatively high level of sugars floating around in there. The sweetness might lose some of its hard edge (if it has any), but I doubt it will every dry out much. Give time a shot, though. I've been surprised by how much time can heal wounded beers, often in ways that I didn't expect it to.

 

[juslod]

I opened one of these last night after a week and a half in the bottle. I know it still needs time to condition but I just had to test it in the name of Science. It's carbing up very nicely and tastes pretty good. I know it will get a lot better over the next few weeks.

However, it was a little sweet for my tastes. I was wondering if some of the sweetness will dissipate as it conditions or if that part of the flavor is going to hang around.

I know I should just Relax and give it time; I'm just curious about every stage of the process. I know people say that bitterness, hoppiness, fruit flavors, and just about everything else will diminish with time, but I'm not sure if I've read anywhere that the sweetness will diminish too.

Thanks for all of the help!

I recently just kegged a stout that had a 1.062 OG and a 1.022 FG that I couldn't get to drop any lower. I forced carbed it and it tasted a little sweet to me. A week or two after I tried it again and it seems like the sweetness has dropped off a bit once the other flavors mended together more. Hopefully this is the case with your brew

 

[joelshults]

Just an update to how this beer turned out. The sweetness did subside a little as the flavors melded. And I think this one should continue to get better with time.

A friend bought some Heavy Seas - Peg Leg Imperial Stout (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/898/19667) and we did a side by side taste test and they were almost identical. So that's pretty good, a beer I made tastes a lot like a commercial one. It wasn't a clone of Peg Leg, it was a clone of Freeminer's Deep Shaft Stout, but I've never had one of those so I don't know how it compares to that.

 

[RM-MN]

Just an update to how this beer turned out. The sweetness did subside a little as the flavors melded. And I think this one should continue to get better with time.

A friend bought some Heavy Seas - Peg Leg Imperial Stout (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/898/19667) and we did a side by side taste test and they were almost identical. So that's pretty good, a beer I made tastes a lot like a commercial one. It wasn't a clone of Peg Leg, it was a clone of Freeminer's Deep Shaft Stout, but I've never had one of those so I don't know how it compares to that.

That's pretty good for your beer to taste almost the same as the commercial one but here's some even better news. Your beer is likely to continue to get better over the next few weeks but the commercial one is probably as good as it will get. Congratulations!