(Un)related problems?

Just transferred an APA from primary, and its very sweet, with a relatively high gravity (1.018). I'm hoping for suggestions to improve this and future brews.

Recipe:
11# 2 row
2# Carmel 60

1 oz Cascade 60m
1 oz Cascade 25m
1oz Cascade 10m
1 oz Cascade 3m
1 oz Cascade 0m

60m mash at 156
10m at 170
Sparge for ~30m at 170

OG 1.058 at 70 degrees.

Aerate 30m with aquarium pump in brew kettle after cooling to 70 degrees.

Pitch Wyeast Northwest Ale.

Ferment 15 days at 64-68 degrees.

FG 1.018 at 66 degrees.

This was my first batch using leaf hops, and they were home grown. My first thought was the high FG was the sweetness that I tasted. Can IBUs from hops vary enough that my beer would barely taste bitter at all? Aroma was quite weak from the beer- which obviously I’m not thrilled about.

Should I be concerned about an FG of 1.018? I have never had a batch of yeast "propagate" this well- there was almost a ½” of yeast at the bottom of the 16q kettle that my blow off tube was in, and a thicker than average yeast cake in the carboy. So I was expecting a lower FG.

I have rinsed and harvested some of the yeast (my first attempt at that game), but I assume since I’m not thrilled about the performance of the batch, I shouldn’t plan on using it?

Any thoughts are welcome!

 

Home grown hops for bittering is a problem unless you know the numbers. Most people usually just use them for aroma/flavor/dh.

 

Maybe the mash temp? I believe 156 is getting pretty close to the 158 degree Alpha-amylase area and will produce more unfermentables. Have you mashed at this temp before with good results? I'd lower the mash temp to around 152 next time. You'll get more fermentables, less sweetness.

 

Mash temp could be a factor, I was shooting for 154, my usual temp.

 

Yes. That is why the AAUs (Alpha Acidic Units) are measured in a percentage on hops packages. Every year brings different environments and different stresses to the plants so commercial hops are measured each harvest. I do not know how they measure the amount of AAUs in there but I know the reason the percentages are printed on the packaging is because hops can and will yield different amounts and we as brewers need to know those amounts to design our recipes.

So you might have cascade hops but due to a large number of variables you might not have a comparable strength to store bought ones (or you might have stronger ones but that doesn't sound like the case)

 

Nobody has mentioned it but that is a HUGE amount of areation. Did you really run that thing thirty minutes??

 

Another thing I didn't see on here, was there a yeast starter? ALWAYS make a starter, if you just pitched a smack pack or vial into a ~1.060 beer, your yeast may have pooped out early. Aeration time is fine, 30 mins is what's recommended minimum with an aquarium pump (which is why I bought a William's O2 setup ).

 

That did not occur to me, I'm pretty new at recipe formulation, so I appreciate you bringing it up.

Regarding aeration, I use the cooled brew kettle to not loose wort to foaming, and to give time for trub to settle out before transferring to a carboy. But would aeration via aquarium pump and stone be more effective in a tall, narrow vessel? 30m seems like a standard time, what do the advocates of a longer aeration use?

And yes, I should probably use a starter.

 

I incorrectly figured that it wasn't that much more time needed than pure oxygen, good to know!

 

Cut your Crystal in half. Mash lower. Use a starter.