1.050 to only 1.024!

[boochuckles]

I've never had this happen to me before. This is my second time making this recipe.

8# 2 row
1.5# crystal 40
1# brown
0.5# chocolate
1oz Northern Brewer @ 60
0.5oz NB @ 20
2 star anise @ 10
Wyeast London Ale Yeast

I just transferred to secondary, 14 days later. My OG was 1.050 and now it's only 1.024! The last batch ended up at around 5%, overall. Today this is only at about 3.7%. I was only going to secondary till about Sunday because I want to have it ready for the Brew Club meeting Tuesday.

I've had it in the mini fridge sitting in the mid 70s.

Now the only thing I did different was I ground the anise in a pestal and mortar. Last batch I thew them in whole and had a GREAT Porter.... with ZERO anise flavor in there. Idk if grinding them could have affected it?

Only other thought was the smack pack might not have mixed as well as it should have to start. It was inflated and sat for a solid 3 hours like it said. I pretty much use US-05 for everything else so this is only the second time I've used a smack pack.

I'm just trying to get all the info and thoughts I have out there. Idk where my brew sheet are because I just moved... So I can't say if this happened last time or not.

So what now? Thanks for any input

 

[cshamilton]

How are you measuring gravity?

 

[Morrey]

I've never had this happen to me before. This is my second time making this recipe.

8# 2 row
1.5# crystal 40
1# brown
0.5# chocolate
1oz Northern Brewer @ 60
0.5oz NB @ 20
2 star anise @ 10
Wyeast London Ale Yeast

I just transferred to secondary, 14 days later. My OG was 1.050 and now it's only 1.024! The last batch ended up at around 5%, overall. Today this is only at about 3.7%. I was only going to secondary till about Sunday because I want to have it ready for the Brew Club meeting Tuesday.

I've had it in the mini fridge sitting in the mid 70s.

Now the only thing I did different was I ground the anise in a pestal and mortar. Last batch I thew them in whole and had a GREAT Porter.... with ZERO anise flavor in there. Idk if grinding them could have affected it?

Only other thought was the smack pack might not have mixed as well as it should have to start. It was inflated and sat for a solid 3 hours like it said. I pretty much use US-05 for everything else so this is only the second time I've used a smack pack.

I'm just trying to get all the info and thoughts I have out there. Idk where my brew sheet are because I just moved... So I can't say if this happened last time or not.

So what now? Thanks for any input

With the grain bill you listed, I am surprised you only hit 1.050 OG...that seems low to me. Did you plug these values into a calc program like BeerSmith?

Anyway, how did your primary fermentation look? Was it sluggish?

I can't see the star anise retarding fermentation, but I could be wrong. Typically I give a beer with this much complexity a 6 or more (like 8) week grain to glass timeframe. Seems you may be rushing things to take it to a meeting as young as this will be then. Will it be carbed?

 

[tgolanos]

Are you sure the yeast didn't floc out? Give the fermenter a gentle swirl to rouse the yeast. You might just wake it up.

 

[cshamilton]

How are you measuring gravity?

I asked this because many people use a refractometer and don't correct it. If you used a hydrometer then it is something else.

You have a lot of Crystal in this recipe, which would leave a higher gravity - so that could explain at least part of it. What was your mash temp? The OG doesn't seem too bad if you did a 5.5 gal batch.

 

[boochuckles]

OMG! I just typed out a long reply and it didn't post!!!

Glass hydrometer that I temp compensate

I have bad brew house efficiency, that why a larger grain bill. I ended up with a little more then 4.5 gallons in primary.

Primary fermentation did seem sluggish.

Air lock was moving good last night after transfer. Today it was slowed/stopped (not sure which)

Flavor was great, but I'm going to give it a couple more weeks and then keg.

 

[Tribe Fan]

OMG! I just typed out a long reply and it didn't post!!!

Glass hydrometer that I temp compensate

I have bad brew house efficiency, that why a larger grain bill. I ended up with a little more then 4.5 gallons in primary.

Primary fermentation did seem sluggish.

Air lock was moving good last night after transfer. Today it was slowed/stopped (not sure which)

Flavor was great, but I'm going to give it a couple more weeks and then keg.

I just had a pale ale that was really slllowwww. After 12 days only at 1.022. Transferred to secondary and it chugged away for another 10 days before it got to 1.012. It's dry hopping now and it tastes great.

I pitched an IPA on the secondary yeast cake and it fired up within hours and fermented quickly. Ya just never know when then odd lot will hit, but usually when you want a fast batch.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Once you transfered it off the yeast cake you mostly shut down any additional fermentation. You could try pitching some US05. What was your mash temp? With a higher amount of dark grains and higher mash temp you'll get higher FG. Could be a combination of all of the above.