Stout Fermentation Help

[montanafos]

I am on my 3rd batch of beer and went with a Guinness Draught clone. Fermentation was never showing lots of activity in the lock but I realize that's not the true indicator of what's going on...problem is I pitched the yeast and realized I had not checked OG. Figured I would wait until fermentation stopped and if it was close to the FG stated in the recipe I would have an idea of the final alcohol and confirmation that the batch was completed fermenting. So, here's my question...fermentation has stopped after 4 days and days 4-5-6 show FG of 12 and I started...the recipe states... with an OG of 38. Based on quick calculations that's like 2.3% alcohol and the recipe calls for 4.2%. But, I changed the recipe ever so slightly and I'm wondering if the change would have given me a higher OG that has dropped to the current FG of 12 and a resulting higher alcohol content. Here's the recipe and the slight change I made...

14.5 oz Muntons Light DME (I used a full pound)
2.66 lbs Muntons light LME ( Late Addition)
1 lb 6 oz English Pale Ale Malt
10 oz Flaked Barley
1 lb Roasted Barley
12 AAU East Kent Goldings Hops (I only used 2 oz...about 2/3 of what recipe called for)
Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale)

I hope all of this made sense. A concern I have is that fermentation is not completed and I rack to the secondary and once bottled I add priming sugars and I end up with an issue once bottled. The recipe OG was stated to be 38 with a FG of 6, alcohol content of 4.2%.

Thanks for input...

 

[trevorc13]

If you have three days of the same gravity and the bubbles have stopped in the airlock, most likely it's done. When you rack to the secondary you may rouse some yeast and get another point or two off your gravity, but if it conditions for a couple weeks you shouldn't have any problems when you bottle.

Also you probably added a couple points by upping your extract, although I don't have the calculations for what that would give you. Hopefully someone else does. Good luck with it. I doubt you'll have any problems in the end.

 

[Revvy]

The grav reading will tell you NOW where on the journey from Original gravity to terminal gravity, your beer really is. You have the OG...you recipe should tell you what the FG should be...and your gravity reading will tell you what you beer is doing NOW.

Whether or not you to an og reading is kinda irrevelant. If you imput your recipe into any beer calculator it will tell you what your og was, close enough for your beeds. Extract batch gravity are really foolproof. If you added the right amount of water, you got the right gravity.

 

[NaZdrowie]

Whats the temp? I'd leave it in primary a couple days, If its a bit cool they may have stalled out, I just had a similar situation with a higher gravity IPA, moved it to a slightly warmer room for a second week and seemed to do the trick. Mine started strong but seemed to really slow after 4 days above the gravity reading I was looking for. A quick shake to get the yeast back into suspension and 5* seemed to make the difference. I don't mind an extra few days in primary either.

 

[Skaggz]

Adding an extra ounce and a half of DME to a 5.0 gallon batch will raise the original gravity by about 0.8 points (1.0008). Not really that significant.

 

[rmedved]

It looks like you calculated alcohol by weight, not by volume, which would be 3.5%. I've never done a Guinness clone but 1.038 seems pretty low. I put your recipe in and assuming you mashed the grains it should have put you at an OG of somewhere around 1.048, which would give you an abv of 4.8%, which seems appropriate. If the SG has stayed the same for a few days I would assume it's done fermenting.

 

[montanafos]

I hadn't used a calculator before...very cool. Anyway, thanks for the responses and I put the recipe in to the calculator and the OG stated 43 and the FG stated 11...I'm at 12 and feeling better! Alcohol I believe was 4.3%. Once again, really appreciate the help...

 

[Frodo]

An important note, when using a calculator to determine your OG you have to make sure your volume is really accurate.

 

[montanafos]

It's now in the secondary and I'm glad I backed off on the hops slightly. Looking forward to getting it bottled and ready to drink.