After 5 weeks, FG still high.

Hey all, first post but longtime lurker.

Ive been brewing for about 3 years, usually with good results but this time i can't seem to nail the FG.

Brewing Northern's Caribou Slobber extract kit with danstar nottingham yeast. Basically a medium brown ale. Re-hydrated and pitched at 72F. Started within a day, everything was normal. Racked to the secondary after two weeks holding steady at 68F. SG was 1.016 at that time, it's supposed to finish out between 1.007-1.012. I figured it would drop a few points in the secondary, but I was wrong. It's been sitting for three weeks at 1.016 and 68f. Last weekend I gave it a good swirl to rouse them up.....that of course made the airlock bubble but it quickly settled back out. Looks like there are a few pond colonies floating on top, but no krausen or anything. Healthy looking cake on the bottom.

I can't decide if I should just bottle it anyway, let it sit for another week(ugh), or throw in a packet of US-04 that I have in the fridge and see what happens. I'm already down to about 4.25 gallons in the carboy.....I should really get a refractometer.

 

I say bottle it. It's done. That's not that high. I think you'd want it around there for a brown ale.

 

Also figure if your down to 4.25 gal and it's a five gal batch that will up the fg.


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I disagree with less volume = higher fg. I've removed equal parts water and sugar with sampling. Shouldnt make a difference. Now, If i said I only added 4.25gals of water to a 5gal batch, then yes....you would be correct. But hey, Ive been wrong before

I'm leaning towards just bottle it, but patience isn't my strongsuit

 

I was thinking maybe it was boil off that wasn't adjusted for.


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Yeast nutrient maybe?


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Was 1.016 the confirmed final gravity in the primary?

 

Hmm, I hadn't thought about some nutrient. What are you thinking, a teaspoon of diammoniun phosphate or something?

Yes, 1.016 was the final in the primary.

 

I'd recommend Servomyces.

And 1.016 isn't too far off from 1.012. Ideally you would want a medium bodied brown ale around 1.014-1.016 so you are definitely in range. Less than 1.012 is way too low for a medium bodied beer and a brown ale IMO. No idea why they would recommend lower than that as a finishing gravity for a med bodied brown but that's just me.

That being said. Good job for questioning why you couldn't get your FG to their range. Fermentation is the most important part of beer making, and learning how to control fermentation is key. Learn how to control pitch rates, temperature, and yeast health and you shouldn't have a problem manipulating your terminal gravity.


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