LanigansBall
Member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2020
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 4
I'm driving myself insane trying to figure this out alone, so I figured it was time to try out the forums. The basic situation is every ale of every style I've made with safale US-05 and S-04 have stalled fermentation somewhere around the 1.025 gravity range. One of the only times I've cracked 4% was when my OG was so high that 1.025 was actually a decent drop.
For general context, I routinely mash between 155 and 165 Fahrenheit (though closest to 160). I generally do long boils because fly sparging pushes my pre-boil volumes pretty high and I add my hop pellets directly to the wort. I cool the wort to between 65 and 70 with an ice bath and aerate with a sanitized whisk and a plastic insert in the tubing I attach to my kettle's valve spout. Finally, I ferment in my basement where the temperature never goes below 60 or above 70 (US-05 and S-04's supposed sweet spot) with the beer in plastic buckets with grometted lids for the airlocks. I've kept myself to Safale US-05 and S-04 because I'm just starting out and don't want to mess around with crazy yeasts yet, plus the low cost is attractive. I keep my dry yeast packets in the fridge, which isn't supposed to hurt them, then take them out and bring them up to room temperature on brew days. I get about a 24 hour lag time, then pretty vigorous fermentation for three or four days. I've left the beer to ferment for anywhere between one week and a full month, even though Safale says these strains should only take a week at most.
I clean and sanitize just like I should and nothing's tasted bad, wrong, or infected, so I've ruled out outside contamination. I even got the compliment from a much more experienced homebrewer that my tastes were on the mark, I just needed to improve my attenuation.
To combat it, I've tried pitching two packets, changing my mash temperature, increasing my aeration, making yeast starters, cooling my wort to exactly fermentation temperature during the ice bath, and repitching packets a few days after vigorous fermentation stops. I even bought an electric thermometer, just in case my kettle's built-in dial was reading wrong. It was, but not so drastically that I was accidentally denaturing enzymes or anything. The only thing I haven't tried is artificially increasing my fermentation temperature, which other threads have recommended, mainly because with the cold weather the main part of my house is actually colder than the basement and I don't currently have the means to wrap my fermenters with any of those special warmers or anything.
I can't believe I'm the only person to have experienced this, being that these yeast strains are so common and get such high and consistent reviews, which means I must be doing something wrong. But if I am, I just can't see it.
For general context, I routinely mash between 155 and 165 Fahrenheit (though closest to 160). I generally do long boils because fly sparging pushes my pre-boil volumes pretty high and I add my hop pellets directly to the wort. I cool the wort to between 65 and 70 with an ice bath and aerate with a sanitized whisk and a plastic insert in the tubing I attach to my kettle's valve spout. Finally, I ferment in my basement where the temperature never goes below 60 or above 70 (US-05 and S-04's supposed sweet spot) with the beer in plastic buckets with grometted lids for the airlocks. I've kept myself to Safale US-05 and S-04 because I'm just starting out and don't want to mess around with crazy yeasts yet, plus the low cost is attractive. I keep my dry yeast packets in the fridge, which isn't supposed to hurt them, then take them out and bring them up to room temperature on brew days. I get about a 24 hour lag time, then pretty vigorous fermentation for three or four days. I've left the beer to ferment for anywhere between one week and a full month, even though Safale says these strains should only take a week at most.
I clean and sanitize just like I should and nothing's tasted bad, wrong, or infected, so I've ruled out outside contamination. I even got the compliment from a much more experienced homebrewer that my tastes were on the mark, I just needed to improve my attenuation.
To combat it, I've tried pitching two packets, changing my mash temperature, increasing my aeration, making yeast starters, cooling my wort to exactly fermentation temperature during the ice bath, and repitching packets a few days after vigorous fermentation stops. I even bought an electric thermometer, just in case my kettle's built-in dial was reading wrong. It was, but not so drastically that I was accidentally denaturing enzymes or anything. The only thing I haven't tried is artificially increasing my fermentation temperature, which other threads have recommended, mainly because with the cold weather the main part of my house is actually colder than the basement and I don't currently have the means to wrap my fermenters with any of those special warmers or anything.
I can't believe I'm the only person to have experienced this, being that these yeast strains are so common and get such high and consistent reviews, which means I must be doing something wrong. But if I am, I just can't see it.