Beginner blunders - why high final gravity? (extract)

[Veronis]

Recipe: http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/New BB Recipes/1022 Belgian Dark Strong Recipe.pdf

I thought I was very careful - followed all times and temps to the number; I used a 15 gallon kettle and I did steep with 2.5 gallons. The muslim bag wasn't extremely loose, nor was it tightly packed. I poured into the muslim bag and dropped it in at 160 F, then tied it off at the handle - maybe this was my error; should be be extremely loose? Temp stayed at 160 with gas burner on low.

I then added the remaining ~4 gallons prior to the first boil, before adding the malt.

I ended up with just under 5 gallons into the carboy.

Yeast used was Safale 11g dry yeast - S-04 or S-05 (I can't remember which, sorry :/ ). OG was 1.087

Fermented at ~63-64 degrees ambient temp the entire time, with a blowoff tube (thank God I used a blowoff tube for this one, holy crap). It was in the basement on a table, not on the floor.

About 5 days later the reading on SG was 1.031. I took a reading again a few days later and it was 1.030. I racked to secondary after being in primary for 16 days. That was exactly a week ago; the reading is now still 1.030 as of 20 minutes ago.

The beer already tastes great and looks good in the carboy, but the FG is supposed to be far lower than that. I'm still going to prime/bottle it and I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm confused on the readings.

My hydrometer reads 1.000 in water.

(My first kit was an irish dry stout (Midwest's) that ended at 1.021 FG, after having begun at 1.047 OG (1.010 - 1.016 FG expected). Had used Munton's 6g dry yeast in same fermentation conditions.)

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

 

[amandabab]

1/3 of that recipes fermentables are DARK lme. It's going to finish high.

you can get "black" with 6-8oz's of sepecialy grain and ex-light/pilsen extract. Dark LME is just indescribably bad for fermentation.

 

[More_Hops_Please]

Edit: Nevermind...Doh! didn't read the whole post. You already calibrated...

 

[stpug]

Ramblings from a tipsy mind :

Should have been 1.5 sachets yeast for that gravity.

Can't think that it was us05 because that's just too clean for a belgian; assuming s04. With a 75% AA you should end up at about 1.020. 63-64F should be fine for s04 but my understanding is that it's better a little higher (flavor-wise).

I assume all readings are with hydrometer at 60F. If otherwise then please provide details. STRIKE THAT: you already said it was a hydrometer

Overall I would say you're process is good with the exception of needing more yeast for "proper" pitching rates; just had an off-fermentation attenuation. You could always try to finish up with another yeast, or warm it up and cross your fingers . 3711 will bring that bugger down if you give it some time. Since you're low enough it shouldn't impart too much saison character

 

[Calder]

Ambient temperature was 64 F. Where was the beer placed; what was the temperature of the beer? If you ferment in a basement, the beer will be closer to the temperature of the floor than the air temperature.

Both of those yeasts should work fine at that temperature, but if it dropped below 60 F the S-05 could drop out.

A Belgian yeast would have been more to style.

 

[BigFloyd]

Ramblings from a tipsy mind :

Should have been 1.5 sachets yeast for that gravity.

Can't think that it was us05 because that's just too clean for a belgian; assuming s04. With a 75% AA you should end up at about 1.020. 63-64F should be fine for s04 but my understanding is that it's better a little higher (flavor-wise).

I assume all readings are with hydrometer at 60F. If otherwise then please provide details. STRIKE THAT: you already said it was a hydrometer

Overall I would say you're process is good with the exception of needing more yeast for "proper" pitching rates; just had an off-fermentation attenuation. You could always try to finish up with another yeast, or warm it up and cross your fingers . 3711 will bring that bugger down if you give it some time. Since you're low enough it shouldn't impart too much saison character

+1. One 11 gram packet of dry yeast (properly rehydrated of course for best cell survival) is enough cells for a 5.25 gallon batch of wort up to a gravity of 1.059 (using Mr. Malty).

With one packet (even rehydrated), you underpitched. If you sprinkled it dry on the wort, you seriously underpitched since as many as 1/2 the cells didn't survive intro into the wort to later reproduce.

I'm not sure that you'd do yourself much good pitching another packet at this point since the ABV is currently 7.5%. That's a pretty unfriendly environment for any new yeast cells. If you let it ride for a couple more weeks, it may still come down a little.

 

[Veronis]

Thanks all. I'm new, so I just pitched whatever yeast the kit gave me. I had no way of knowing it wasn't enough. :-/

Is there no point in even priming if that's the case? Am I just doomed to a flat beer now?

The fermenter was not on the basement floor. It was up on a table with ambient temp 63-64 steady day/night.

Actual fermentation temp for the first few days was 68-70 degrees, then the fermenter dropped down to tmatch the ambient temp after 2-3 days. It was a wild ferment and the blowoff tube saved my ass.

I do have a Safale US-05 11g in the fridge just to keep on-hand. I could either bottle next week or do something else.

What's the best practice here? Not sure what to do next.

 

[jmh286]

For future reference, most single packs of yeast are only good up to 1.060 without a starter. Extract usually does finish a little high and with the low yeast pitch, 1.030 isn't terrible. Another way to look at it, you were 10 points high on your OG so you're 10 points high on your FG. You could pitch another packet of yeast, but you're sitting over 7.5% ABV now already. Taste a sample. If it tastes too sweet, add more yeast

 

[BigFloyd]

Thanks all. I'm new, so I just pitched whatever yeast the kit gave me. I had no way of knowing it wasn't enough. :-/

Is there no point in even priming if that's the case? Am I just doomed to a flat beer now?

The fermenter was not on the basement floor. It was up on a table with ambient temp 63-64 steady day/night.

Actual fermentation temp for the first few days was 68-70 degrees, then the fermenter dropped down to tmatch the ambient temp after 2-3 days. It was a wild ferment and the blowoff tube saved my ass.

I do have a Safale US-05 11g in the fridge just to keep on-hand. I could either bottle next week or do something else.

What's the best practice here? Not sure what to do next.

Don't get frustrated mi amigo, it's a learning process.

I sense that you're nervous about bottling it at a 1.030 FG. I would be too.

If it were a batch in my fermenter, I'd leave it alone undisturbed for 2-3 weeks and check the gravity again. If it remains stuck at 1.030, I'd probably be willing at that point to rehydrate that pack of US-05 you've got, pitch it, keep it in the mid-60's, and see what happens over the next week or so.

If you didn't rehydrate the US-05 the first time, do you know how to do that?

 

[Ogri]

Not sure why no one has mentioned this already, maybe my thinking isn't correct on this, but if I were in your shoes now I'd be looking to pitch a packet of champagne yeast. There's a decent chance of it dropping a few gravity points from the present reading and it'll ensure your brew gets sufficiently carbonated as it's suited to higher level alcohol environments.

 

[Calder]

I do have a Safale US-05 11g in the fridge just to keep on-hand. I could either bottle next week or do something else.

What's the best practice here? Not sure what to do next.

If you have the capacity, I'd suggest you brew a regular Pale Ale with the S-05 yeast and then move this one onto the cake of the new beer when you either rack or bottle it.

Your current beer should keep fine if you keep it sealed.

Not sure why no one has mentioned this already, maybe my thinking isn't correct on this, but if I were in your shoes now I'd be looking to pitch a packet of champagne yeast. There's a decent chance of it dropping a few gravity points from the present reading and it'll ensure your brew gets sufficiently carbonated as it's suited to higher level alcohol environments.

I would not recommend champagne yeast to anyone to fix a stalled ferment:

1) Champagne doesn't ferment the complex sugars, and most of the simple sugars are already gone. If you get any movement with champagne yeast, it will not be much. Agreed, it will be there to carbonate in the bottle.
2) Most Champagne yeast will kill regular sacc yeast. If it doesn't bring down the gravity, you can no longer use a different sacc yeast to fix the problem.

If he wants to try pitching a new yeast, I would recommend 3711. It will eat anything, and might give it some Belgian notes (it is a Belgian beer after all).