Atenuation

[Ramfire87]

I'm new to brewing and have brewed 5 extract beers. Right now I just placed a batch of Red Ale into secondary. My problem is the Attenuation is only about 60%. How can I increase the Attenuation?

 

[dxbq48]

You can always re-pitch some yeast to make sure that they are happy and healthy. You could also add some dextrose to help bring down the FG.

 

[RM-MN]

First is the choice of yeast. Some yeasts attenuate better than others. The second is pitching rate. Pitch the appropriate amount of yeast for your beer. Third is aeration of the wort. Your yeast need to multiply and to do that they need oxygen and we boil the wort which drives out most of the oxygen. Fourth is temperature control. To keep your yeast from throwing off flavors you need to start the ferment at the cool end of that variety of yeast's preferred range but about 4 to 6 day from pitching the yeast when the ferment slows down it helps to let your beer warm up.

 

[flars]

I'm new to brewing and have brewed 5 extract beers. Right now I just placed a batch of Red Ale into secondary. My problem is the Attenuation is only about 60%. How can I increase the Attenuation?

Tell us some more about your Red Ale.
Original Gravity?
Yeast ( starter if liquid and how many yeast cells pitched)?
Temperature of wort when yeast pitched?
Fermentation temperature of wort?
Length of time in primary fermentor?
Final Gravity reached before racking to secondary vessel?

 

[Calder]

What yeast; some are low attenuators.
What temperature; if too low, the yeast may drop out before completing their work.
How much aeration; you need a lot of air in the wort at the start of fermentation for the yeast to reproduce, otherwise the yeast will struggle and will probably not complete their work.

Those are probably the three main items to get the yeast to complete their work.

 

[dannysk]

All of the above

 

[Ramfire87]

Sorry for the delay in repost, Work. First off this was a partial mash kit from NB. I steeped the grains for 1 hr at 152*, did A 5 gal boil for 60 min and had a OG of 148. I pitch a Wyeast smack pack of 1056. Placed in secondary after 2 wks and fermenting at 68*. Yeast pitched at 80*.

 

[SEABrewer]

Sorry for the delay in repost, Work. First off this was a partial mash kit from NB. I steeped the grains for 1 hr at 152*, did A 5 gal boil for 60 min and had a OG of 148. I pitch a Wyeast smack pack of 1056. Placed in secondary after 2 wks and fermenting at 68*. Yeast pitched at 80*.

Did you aerate the wort before pitching the yeast? What was your final gravity?

The 80 degree pitching temp seems a little high, especially since 1056 likes to ferment between 60 and 72 degrees.

 

[Ramfire87]

I did aerate, the shake and roll method and the FG is 1.017 which gives it a 4% ABV. I guess it's a trial and error thing, but a tasty one. We all cant be brew masters, but we all can be home brewers.

 

[flars]

I did aerate, the shake and roll method and the FG is 1.017 which gives it a 4% ABV. I guess it's a trial and error thing, but a tasty one. We all cant be brew masters, but we all can be home brewers.

Is the 1.017 hydrometer reading now or before you racked to the secondary. If the reading is now and FG was not reached before you racked, the racking may have stalled the fermentation.
Some instructions say to rack to a secondary when fermentation slows down. I don't use a secondary at all unless I will be dry hopping. When I do use a secondary I don't rack until FG has been reached.

I'm still wondering if I will ever consider myself to be beyond a beginner.

 

[Ramfire87]

That was the reading I took during the racking.

 

[flars]

I think your problem could have mainly been due to underpitching the yeast. Some other more minor variables could have figured into the high FG also. According to Yeastcalc a 1.048 beer needs 169 billion yeast cells. If your smack pack was produced yesterday, 11/26, it would have had only 96 billion viable cells.
Wyeast does say a starter is not necessary for a fresh smack pack for beers less than 1.060. I have gotten away with that advice for a while, but had much better fermentations and predictable FGs after I began using starters.

Another contributing factor is fermentable sugars were less than expected because mash temperature was higher than 152° in part of the bagged grain. I could not find a partial mash red ale at NB to look up the exact recipe.

Your beer should come out of conditioning a little sweeter and more body, but still tasting good.