Concerned about FG

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aaronius79

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Hi All,

I'm 2.5 weeks into my plinian legacy double IPA fermentation. I just moved it to the secondary as recommended per the recipe and checked the gravity. It's final gravity is supposed to be 1.010 and it's sitting at 1.020. Will it continue to make progress toward that FG OF 1.010 or is it done at 1.020? I pitched two packs of Safale us-05. What should I expect? My OG WAS 1.085 by the way.

Thank you!
 
It is possible that it will go lower, but you can do a few things to help it along. If you can, raise the temperature, and then rouse the yeast be either rocking your fermenter or swirling it up a bit. You might get a little more fermentation that way.

You can be pretty sure it's done when you get a stable hydrometer reading - like three readings over a week that are all the same.

One of the risks of racking to a secondary vessel is that you may be removing the beer from the yeast before it has finished its job. While there are religious wars started over whether or not to rack to a secondary fermenter at all, most agree that it shouldn't be done before the beer reaches final gravity.

I'd give it another week, take a reading, and if you don't see a change, finish it up and package it.
 
2.5 weeks on primary should under normal circumstances be quite enough time to reach your target FG. That's is a fairly high OG and with two packs of yeast you shouldn't have had any trouble getting fermentation started, your yeast could simply have hit its max potential and gone dormant at this point.

What was the kits intended OG? and what where your temps when you pitched the yeast and through out fermentation? Higher temps during pitching can set things off in a hurry with a potential for unwanted tastes but lower temps can delay things quite substantially with a "cleaner" taste in some situations. Obviously there's been fermentation action going on to get it to where it is so Id very much doubt you have a stuck fermentation at this point. Watch the gravity to stabilize over the next few days if your in a rush to bottle ignore the end results as long as its stable and you'll have a nice brew.

One issue Ive always had with beer kits is they can give the impression that gravity readings are the most important aspect of brewing. That is true you don't want to bottle early and over carbonate or making bottle bombs but the most important acquired lesson is patience. let it ride check it next week, not quite satisfied, let it ride again check it next week, just keep it sealed, the air out and let it do its thing.
 
Hi, the intended OG was 1.070. So I did get higher start with the 1.085. I tasted it and it was pretty darn good. My pitch temp was 70 degrees and fermentation was between 64-67 degrees at all times. I'll definitely make sure to do a few more readings to make sure fermentation is done. Thank you for the advice
 
It's not unusual for extract brews to stop around 1.020. There are lots of threads about it on here. You'll have to read them and decide for yourself why that is.

I'd let it ride a bit longer and as long as it's stable, call it done. You're really not that far from your intended target and it likely is a very good beer. With your gravities (start and finish), you're around 9.3ABV which should not be a problem for US-05. If you're really not satisfied with it you could always send it my way :D
 
Yeah, given your OG was .015 higher than its target, it's not surprising that the gravity is reading what it is at this state. Like others, I'd let it ride for a few more days and if it stays where it's at, it's fine. You still have a strong beer going there! Enjoy.
 
Lol, itchygomey, this one's staying with me. I'll give you a taste when it's done bottle conditioning. Cheers!
 
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