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HoppyShawn

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I recently brewed my 4th all grain one gallon batch. I used my own recipe ( don't like using other people's recipes, what's the point of making beer if not experimenting.) I used an app called wort, you plug in your ingredients & it gives you everything else, strike water volume & temp, of, fg, ect. I was way off on my readings due to horrible equipment, single kettle & electric stove. Which was a real problem keeping a constant temp during mash. Ended up with an OG of 1.052 & FG of 1.028, which is in the ballpark of 3.4% abv. I left in primary for 10 days, used S04 yeast, & had a very flocculant fermentation. I force carbonated it using a pet bottle. While releasing pressure some got on my hands & was VERY sticky. My dumb question is, is this normal for fermented beer to still be so sticky? Is this a sign that fermentation was not complete? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks & happy brewing!!
 
With an FG of 28 points it's definitely going to be a thick and sticky finish.
But at 10 days from pitching, unless you ran that S04 pretty darned chill it was finished fermenting around the 5th day in.

As well, S04 is a beast. If it left 28 points behind after 10 days it's likely what's left is heavily biased towards dextrins, which suggests you ran the mash quite warm.

Short of whacking it with Beano you may have to chalk this up to a learning exercise on mash temperature management...
 
How many times did you check your FG? I don't care what yeast I use I let my biers ferment for 4 weeks just to be sure.
 
With an FG of 28 points it's definitely going to be a thick and sticky finish.
But at 10 days from pitching, unless you ran that S04 pretty darned chill it was finished fermenting around the 5th day in.

As well, S04 is a beast. If it left 28 points behind after 10 days it's likely what's left is heavily biased towards dextrins, which suggests you ran the mash quite warm.

Short of whacking it with Beano you may have to chalk this up to a learning exercise on mash temperature management...

It stayed @ a steady 68° throughout the 10 days of fermentation. I was just curious because I have never had beer feel so sticky before. It doesn't taste bad @ all, quite good. Any reason for the left over sugars? Like I said, the mash was horrible. Went as low as 148° to as high as 174°.
 
How many times did you check your FG? I don't care what yeast I use I let my biers ferment for 4 weeks just to be sure.

Only once before I bottled. With a one gallon batch I didn't want to waste a bottle or two with testing.
 
Your high mash temperature created a lot of unfermentable sugars. Change your set up to hold your mash at 148°F to 152°F. When you get the temp to the right point try using your oven to hold it at an even temp even if it is for only the first 20 minutes before dropping below 148°F.
 
Your high mash temperature created a lot of unfermentable sugars. Change your set up to hold your mash at 148°F to 152°F. When you get the temp to the right point try using your oven to hold it at an even temp even if it is for only the first 20 minutes before dropping below 148°F.

I now have my equipment set up for 5 gal batches. Turkey fryer for boil kettle w brewmometer. A 10 gal round cooler w false bottom for mash tun, & 10 gal round cooler for HLT. So that's not an issue anymore. I'm going to use aforementioned equipment to brew my first 5 gal batch tomorrow. I assumed my shotty mash as the reason for not hitting my numbers & most likely the reason for unfermentable sugars. Thanks!
 
[...]Any reason for the left over sugars? Like I said, the mash was horrible. Went as low as 148° to as high as 174°.

As I said, the poor attenuation - especially with S04 - strongly suggested the mash ran quite warm, which shifts the enzyme function towards dextrins - unfermentable sugars.

152°F is generally accepted as a balance point between the optimal temperature ranges for Beta (131-150°F) and Alpha (154-162°F) Amylases; temperature below that shift towards greater fermentable sugars and thus a drier beer; above that and the output starts shifting to higher dextrin production, so greater body.

Your mash apparently ran much higher than that. And the coup de gras is it takes very little time at 174°F for both Alpha and Beta Amylase to be rendered inert, meaning everything comes to a stop.

So, lots of reasons, but assuming there isn't measurement errors involved (which given the heavy/sticky thing seems unlikely) they're all related to the mash temperature...

Cheers!
 
Only once before I bottled. With a one gallon batch I didn't want to waste a bottle or two with testing.

How can you be sure it was done? Short fementation and only one reading could mean your yeast was not done. If you use sanitized equipment you can pour it back into the fermenter.

I always wait 4 weeks to be sure...and because I only make 2 gallon batches my hydrometer sample goes into the bottling bucket.
 
If the mash was too warm that'll create more body (unfermentables). However, I'd agree with the comment above about allowing four weeks. That's the minimum I leave any beer before taking a reading!
 
Were you measuring FG with a refractometer?

I get great beer from kettle to keg in around two weeks, with half of that time spent dry hopping and cold crashing.
 
If the mash was too warm that'll create more body (unfermentables). However, I'd agree with the comment above about allowing four weeks. That's the minimum I leave any beer before taking a reading!

Four weeks is a very long time in a fermenter. I allow 7 days or so to finish up, and then dryhop (if it's an IPA or APA), and then package.

Once a beer is done, it doesn't get "doner". Usually, a beer will be fermented out in 3-5 days for the most part, and then once it's been at FG for a day or two or three, it can be packaged. I like to let it clear a little and then package it.

It probably won't hurt a bit to go a month, especially if you like the yeast character that results, but it's not necessary either.
 
Four weeks is a very long time in a fermenter. I allow 7 days or so to finish up, and then dryhop (if it's an IPA or APA), and then package.

Once a beer is done, it doesn't get "doner". Usually, a beer will be fermented out in 3-5 days for the most part, and then once it's been at FG for a day or two or three, it can be packaged. I like to let it clear a little and then package it.

It probably won't hurt a bit to go a month, especially if you like the yeast character that results, but it's not necessary either.

I don't know that four weeks is a long time; it's more common than I at first thought!

The interesting thing is that if you take the general issues that many new brewers have, they seem to be based around similar issues: off tastes in the background, haze or cloudiness, minor infections (often actually off flavours or gunk that's still in suspension rather than infections), gushing bottles, etc.. Back when I first started brewing some 40 years ago, I experienced all these problems.

In fact, to a certain extent, they became the 'hallmark' of home brew for most as there wasn't as much information or support as there is today. Homebrew had a 'twang' that most people good notice. Even a great brew had it in the background.

Today I often encounter that same 'twang' in many beers I try. However, through very simple changes I finally got to the point where my own beer is consistently clean tasting, clear, well attenuated and pretty much free from problems or infections. The latter point is specifically interesting as I don't bother with half the faff that some others do.

In my experience, the single most important changes I made were in regard to fermentation. I keep notes about everything because I can be disorganised at best, and looking back the two which transformed my beers were control of fermentation temperatures and fermentation time.

Once I've made a brew it goes into the FV, yeast is pitched and then I walk away. I check for external signs of fermentation starting and once I see those I won't go near it for at least 4 weeks. I never open it or move it. I just leave it well alone.

Fermentation is so much more than yeast metabolising sugar into alcohol, and those extra days or weeks allow the process to finish. That simply does not happen after 5 days or even 10 days. I don't try to force anything; I don't cold crash, I don't secondary, I don't filter or use finings. I just let the yeast do it's thing with the wort.

After the four weeks I'll carefully check the FV. If the OG is right and the sample tastes good, I'll either dry hop into the primary or package. If it tastes a bit raw I'll leave it be for another week or two. I've never had one go beyond that.

The beer is clear, clean tasting and well balanced. That's every batch, not nine out of ten. If there are issues I usually know because it'll be a mash error or an ingredient problem.

I also tend not to have batches go bad, because I don't touch anything until the fermentation is well and truly over. The hops and alcohol are sufficient to fight infections.

It's very true that a beer might be drinkable if packaged after 5-7 days, but in my experience (and that's all I have to go on) the four week period has turned my average homebrew into spectacular beer that has stopped me drinking commerical offerings purely based on taste.

You're right that once a beer is done it doesn't get 'doner'. My argument would be that whilst nearly done is acceptable (and common) for many homebrewers, letting it get properly done is one thing that totally changed my beer.
 
I used my own recipe ( don't like using other people's recipes, what's the point of making beer if not experimenting.)

To each his own, and if you're happy, well, you're the only person you have to please.

There are several reasons to use established recipes. One, especially early in the process of learning all-grain (or extract for that matter), is that if the recipe doesn't turn out, and you did it correctly, that signals a problem with the process. If an experimental beer doesn't turn out, again early in the learning curve, is it the process or the recipe? There may be no way to tell.

I make beer I want to drink; using an established recipe makes it certain that if I do my part w/ the process, I'll get something good. I hate the idea of brewing a 5-gallon batch only to dump it. Never happened yet (knocking on wood), but using established recipes ensures that's unlikely to happen.

Using established recipes can also eliminate a lot of futzing around. Tweaking a known good recipe is faster than starting from scratch, unless you're incredibly lucky. I brewed a California Common using an HBTer's recipe, as a place to start, and it was stunningly good. I brewed it again, same recipe, no changes, still stunningly good. I have a 3rd one in fermenter right now, and I'm anxious for it to finish. It would have been dumb luck to hit on something this good on my own, the first time.

That said, I have my own experimental recipes. I've been working on a clone of a beer no longer produced trying to hit that flavor profile. I have a Rye beer that is my own recipe, came out of an adjustment to some other recipes I did.

None of this takes away from a major advantage of home brewing, which is that you get to brew what you want how you want, and try new things. But the idea that there's no point in making beer if you use established recipes? Doesn't make sense to me.
 
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