Stuck (?) fermentation - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone

[amr]

Hullo! Need some troubleshooting / advice. Fermenting a Sierra Nevada clone with US-05 (recipe:https://share.brewfather.app/W7qNWBJf7r7Xk5). After the fiasco of last time (using a grain bill that was improvised and not well thought out), I was able to hot my OG (1.051) and after a lag of about 15ish hours, the yeast took off. There was a mini-fiasco where I had put the blow off (through the SpundIt 2.0) on my liquid line instead of my gas line (amateur hour even after multiple brews!) and lost about a litre of wort. Corrected that swiftly and fermentation was carrying on very nicely until it hit about 1.021 after which it has stalled.

For context - I am using a fermzilla all rounder with a 10 L batch (now 9), a floating dip tube (flotit 2.0) and when it was hovering around 1.022, I cranked up the pressure and it is now holding steady at about 3 psi.

The only thing is that where I live, the ambient is about 28-30c and so, I was not able to cool the wort down to 18c before pitching. I only have a basic immersion chiller and so I ended up pitching at about 25c. The temperature dropped to 18c in about 5-6 hours but I was wondering if this could be a potential reason for this behavior. I have noticed that I am consistently 10 points away from my FG (my prev. proper brew was a Czech lager using Novalager which ended up finishing 10 points above as well).

Any thoughts / comments would be most welcome. Thank you.

 

[VikeMan]

How are you measuring your gravity? Refractometer by any chance?

Pitching at 25C, subsequently falling to 18C, wouldn't cause higher than expected FGs.

 

[amr]

How are you measuring your gravity? Refractometer by any chance?

Pitching at 25C, subsequently falling to 18C, wouldn't cause higher than expected FGs.

I have a RAPT pill in the fermenter. I guess I should also take a hydrometer reading? Though I have seen that the RAPT pill is fairly accurate. So at least has been thus far.

 

[day_trippr]

It wouldn't hurt of course but you probably don't need a hydro reading. Unlike a refractometer, the RAPT Pill should be fairly accurate without requiring the use of a correction algorithm - assuming it doesn't get hung up on krausen or floating hop rafts

Cheers!

 

[amr]

It wouldn't hurt of course but you probably don't need a hydro reading. Unlike a refractometer, the RAPT Pill should be fairly accurate without requiring the use of a correction algorithm - assuming it doesn't get hung up on krausen or floating hop rafts

Cheers!

I don't think there is much krausen and I haven't dry hopped as yet. Thank you. Will prob. take a refractometer reading (and correct for OG).

 

[AlexKay]

You're not stuck at all; you're done.

1.051 -> 1.021 is ~60% attenuation. With a 68 C/155 F mash temperature, that's in the ballpark of what I'd expect. If you'd mashed a few degrees cooler, you'd get more attenuation and more alcohol ... but from a taste perspective the beer would be very, very similar.

Leave it on the yeast for a few more days (up to a week) to make sure it's done cleaning up after itself, but don't expect any significant additional fermentation.

 

[amr]

You're not stuck at all; you're done.

1.051 -> 1.021 is ~60% attenuation. With a 68 C/155 F mash temperature, that's in the ballpark of what I'd expect. If you'd mashed a few degrees cooler, you'd get more attenuation and more alcohol ... but from a taste perspective the beer would be very, very similar.

Leave it on the yeast for a few more days (up to a week) to make sure it's done cleaning up after itself, but don't expect any significant additional fermentation.

Ah! Thank you. I expected that FG because this was (mostly) following the Sierra Nevada recipe that gave 68 as the mash temp.

I am yet to dry hop. Will chuck the hops in for 2-3 days and then rack into a keg.

Thank you again!

 

[VikeMan]

You're not stuck at all; you're done.

1.051 -> 1.021 is ~60% attenuation. With a 68 C/155 F mash temperature, that's in the ballpark of what I'd expect.

Gotta disagree here. 155F is high-ish, but it's only one factor. (I mash some recipes at 155F and get much higher attenuation.) In this case, OP's grain bill is fairly fermentable and US-05 is pretty attenuative. All together, BrewCipher predicts about 75% apparent attenuation, with an FG of ~1.013, which is 8 points lower than what @amr apparently got.

As an aside, Sierra Nevada does specify 60 minutes at 155F for SNPA. I'd bet a paycheck that SNPA's apparent attenuation is higher than 59%.

 

[AlexKay]

Gotta disagree here. 155F is high-ish, but it's only one factor. (I mash some recipes at 155F and get much higher attenuation.) In this case, OP's grain bill is fairly fermentable and US-05 is pretty attenuative. All together, BrewCipher predicts about 75% apparent attenuation, with an FG of ~1.013, which is 8 points lower than what @amr apparently got.

As an aside, Sierra Nevada does specify 60 minutes at 155F for SNPA. I'd bet a paycheck that SNPA's apparent attenuation is higher than 59%.

Temperature could be off by a few degrees, gravity could be off by a few points ... overall, though, I'd say I've had more than a few beers that looked like they were coming in at ~60% attenuation for one reason or another, and they are almost always just fine. If it tastes good, and if you know (because you're on the Pill) that the gravity is steady over many days, then you probably don't need to worry about it.

 

[amr]

Temperature could be off by a few degrees, gravity could be off by a few points ... overall, though, I'd say I've had more than a few beers that looked like they were coming in at ~60% attenuation for one reason or another, and they are almost always just fine. If it tastes good, and if you know (because you're on the Pill) that the gravity is steady over many days, then you probably don't need to worry about it.

Noted. Thank you. It is just that I seem to be consistently missing my FG over the past 2-3 brews (beer tasted fine though) and hence was wondering if there is something systemic that I needed to look into.

 

[VikeMan]

Noted. Thank you. It is just that I seem to be consistently missing my FG over the past 2-3 brews (beer tasted fine though) and hence was wondering if there is something systemic that I needed to look into.

It would be a good idea to verify the calibration of all of your temperature and gravity measuring devices.