F.G. Hasn't moved.....

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Gizmo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2009
Messages
51
Reaction score
0
Hey. I have an old ale attempt sitting in primary that has been there for 9 days. The original fermentation temp was a bit high, so I think it fermented quicker than usual. My gravity reading hasn't changed in 4 days, but it's still bubbling every 45-60 seconds, and the gravity isn't quite as low as I would like. Will transferring it to secondary help drop the grav further, or should I wait longer in primary?
Thanks
 
The initial fermentation temp for the first 12-24 hrs was 72-74 (optimum is 68), I have kept it at 67-69 since then. Also, I was looking at white labs website and it says this yeast (wlp005) ferments from the "bottom". My current grav is 1.025 (optimal would be around 1.019-22 for this yeast), but my beer thief only goes about 40% in my carboy. would it be a higher gravity toward the top, and lower toward the bottom since it's a bottom fermenting yeast? (maybe that's why it's a bit high, 1st beer though, so I'm not sure)
 
Did you hit your mash temp or were you low? Did you do a conversion test?

Also, what kind of beer is this?
 
Lol...well... See, this is my first beer so it wasn't "perfect", especially with mashing. It was a partial mash, but I overshot some of the temps: Protien rest 130 (overshot), 30 min, extraction (155) 50 min, then raised temp to 172ish trying to halt conversion before boiling. Didn't do a conversion test, also forgot to take my original gravity. I was trying to do an old ale, o.g. 1.075, ibu's 39, final grav 1.020 (predicted). I'm thinking my o.g. was a bit higher because the predicted abv right now is about 6.6 % but it tastes higher for some reason (maybe fusel alcohol, I don't know). And if you're curious about the recipe: (random made up English Old Ale)
5 lb light DME (late extract boil 15 min)
2.5 lb light DME (60 min boil)
1 lb Weyermann Caramunich III (should have used caramel 60, maybe)
1 lb Maris Otter
.5 lb Aromatic Malt
.5 lb Cara-Pils
.75 oz Galena pellets 60 min
.25 Glacier (30 min), .25 Galena (20 min)
.25 Glacier (15 min), .25 Glacier (7 min)
.25 Glacier (0 min, flameout)
White Labs WLP005 (with .6 gallon starter)
Estimated O.G. 1.073, F.G. 1.020, 39.6 ibu's
I also added 20 min to my estimated boil cause it took a while to get the late extract DME in, but it wasn't technically boiling while I did it. And now that I think about it, this looks more like an extract recipe with a bit more "steeping" grains, but I tried to mash them instead of steeping them, still used a grain bag though.
 
A lot of folks on here, myself included, follow the 1-2-3 method.

1 week primary
2 weeks secondary (if you do that, I just do 3 week primary)
3 weeks bottled

6th week - drink and see if you need to wait longer.

I typically don't measure the FG until 3 weeks in the primary has passed. So you might want to give it another week or so and measure again.

I've had some brews come out several points higher than expected and I've bottled them without creating bombs before.

Beersmith tells me that your OG should have been 1.079 if your mash of the grains had an efficiency of 65%, but I don't have enough expertise to know whether you should expect that with those grains or not. Did you measure your OG?

The range for this yeast is 67-74% attenuation. Assuming you go in the middle of that range (about 70-71%), you should expect a final SG of about 1.024.

I'd say bottle it. Although, since it is a heavier beer, you might need to let it sit for a while longer before being able to drink it, so it wouldn't hurt to leave it in the carboy for another week or so.

kcstrom
 
Oh, lol, I forgot to mention something. I did a 5.75 gallon batch instead of a 5 gal batch :) I did a larger batch because I was expecting to lose a bit from primary to bottling (and I have, from blowoff, grav testing, etc). Now I have about 5.45 gallons (including trub and yeast). I might leave it in a bit longer, but the main reason I was wondering if it was ok to go to secondary is because right now I only have 1 primary and 1 secondary fermenter, and I can't make another batch until I rack to secondary.... ;) (maybe I should just buy another primary) Also, will the Carapils and other dextrin products keep my final gravity higher than the yeast predicts? And, no, I didn't measure my O.G. (I forgot). But I did try to um "teabag" the grains (soak, let drain, resoak, let drain) for about 15-20 min to get as much sugar out as I could.
 
The carapils will add some amount. I'm not sure how much at the moment (don't have time to look it up). I didn't see dextrine in your recipe, but it would definitely add. If I remember correctly, I think it is about 43 points/pound/gallon.

I'd go ahead and move it to secondary for several weeks at this point.

kcstrom
 
I have a similar question regarding a chocolate stout I've been brewing.

I had it in plastic for 2.5 weeks where it dropped from 1.085 (target was 1.083) to 1.036. The final should be 1.020. I transferred to a glass secondary racking on top of cold brewed coffee. After two weeks I checked the gravity again and it only dropped to 1.034.

I know most people let it ferment completely before transferring to secondary, but fermentation slowed and I thought it would kick up again with a transfer. I siphoned in some of the yeast as well (hard to tell, but I'd say about 1/8 - 1/4 th of it...)

I used 1 pkg of Danstar Nottingham and fermented at about 65. After not dropping in 2 weeks I moved to a warmer location and swirled the carboy some. It's only been about 4 days since then, but still no change. Think I should pitch some more yeast or hold out. I know I don't want to bottle this high, and I've come to terms with the fact that it won't be ready for St. Patty's (already been 5 weeks and once I finally bottle I'll need about 3 more...) Thoughts?

thanks.
 
Ok, cool. Sorry, I thought Cara-pils 'was' dextrine, or malt with a high dextrine (unfermentable sugar?) content. What was listed was what I put in it, but that may be why my F.G. isn't as low as it should be. I may have used more "cara" malts than I should have: 1lb Caramunich, .5lb Cara-pils. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I probably am, but; if cara-pils adds mouthfeel by having less fermentable sugars, sugar weighs a lot more than water, so maybe that's why the FG is higher? Also, I'm using beersmith, but I'm not sure if their gravity calculator takes in to account "unfermentables" (cara-pils, lactose, etc).
Beersmith says my FG should be 1.020, but this is my first batch, and I probably under-aerated (just shook the carboy) and used a fairly low attenuating yeast (67-74%). So I think I'll rack to secondary, and wait a while and see what happens.. It tastes decent now, and is definately drinkable, so even though I didn't do it perfectly, I'm pretty happy with it so far :)
Thanks
(next time I'm planning a more simple batch; lower grav, better attenuating yeast, better temp control....)
 
I have a similar question regarding a chocolate stout I've been brewing.

I had it in plastic for 2.5 weeks where it dropped from 1.085 (target was 1.083) to 1.036. The final should be 1.020. I transferred to a glass secondary racking on top of cold brewed coffee. After two weeks I checked the gravity again and it only dropped to 1.034.

I know most people let it ferment completely before transferring to secondary, but fermentation slowed and I thought it would kick up again with a transfer. I siphoned in some of the yeast as well (hard to tell, but I'd say about 1/8 - 1/4 th of it...)

I used 1 pkg of Danstar Nottingham and fermented at about 65. After not dropping in 2 weeks I moved to a warmer location and swirled the carboy some. It's only been about 4 days since then, but still no change. Think I should pitch some more yeast or hold out. I know I don't want to bottle this high, and I've come to terms with the fact that it won't be ready for St. Patty's (already been 5 weeks and once I finally bottle I'll need about 3 more...) Thoughts?

thanks.

Can you post your recipe? Folks here may be better able to answer your questions if you have the recipe.

I'm pretty much a noob myself having only brewed 7 batches so far, but judging by the literature and other threads around here that I read, most folks pitch 2 packages of yeast for most beers over 1.060. I don't know if that's why you're stuck at 1.034, but that could be part of it. I made a basic stout a couple of months ago that I thought was stuck at 1.030 (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/stuck-1-030-a-98079/) (it's original gravity was only 1.057). I even bought another activator pack of the same yeast and made a starter and re-pitched it. It turns out that I had taken into account the malto-dextrin (unfermentable sugar) that I put in and that was what was causing it to read so high.

I also don't know how the coffee is affecting the gravity - probably not much at all, but you might take a SG reading of the next pot you brew and figure up its points/pound/gallon so you can figure out how much it has added to the FG for your brew.

kcstrom
 
Ok, cool. Sorry, I thought Cara-pils 'was' dextrine, or malt with a high dextrine (unfermentable sugar?) content.

Okay. I for some reason was thinking of malto-dextrine when I saw dextrine. I think you are right, the cara-pils are essentially dextrine - unfermentable sugar.

I noticed that Beersmith doesn't take malto-dextrine into account. My wife if using our computer with Beersmith on it, so I can't play with it right now. ;)

Either way, I think you're pretty close to what the expected FG was. If this was your first beer, I think you should be pretty happy with where it wound up!

I think it's definitely safe to transfer to secondary so you can get your pipeline full!

:mug:

kcstrom
 
Cool deal!!! Yeah, I was a little worried that the F.G. was only 1.025 and has been there for 4 days now, but I did use quite a bit of "unfermentables". The 1.020 FG estimate is beersmith, I don't think it accounts for unfermentables either. I tried an experiment, and made a recipe with 1.060 OG, normal looking, then added about 3 lbs of Cara-pils, and the final gravity only went up by about .003. I think the carapils is preventing it from dropping much more (also I used a low attenuating yeast). Next time I'll try either not using carapils, or only with either low grav beers, or really high attenuating yeasts. Getting ready to rack right now, thanks for the help! (thinking about 2nd beer recipe as I type......) :)
 
recipe:

6# Pale LME
3# Dark LME

1# black barley
1# chocolate malt
1# coffee malt

1# Lactose
1# Brown Sugar
10 oz chocolate powder

1 oz Challenger pellets (30 minutes)
1 oz Northern Brewer pellets (30 minutes)

1 pkg Nottingham

24 oz cold brew coffee in secondary


I doubt that the coffee added gravity points (or at least not many...) but I will check my next cup.

Thanks.
 
I realize that that's most likely too much sugar and the unfermentables in the lactose could be messing things up. Since beersmith (I think) considers lactose fermentable the FG is probably off. But if it claims it should be 1.02 - isn't 1.034 still too high to be just from the lactose?
 
recipe:

6# Pale LME
3# Dark LME

1# black barley
1# chocolate malt
1# coffee malt

1# Lactose
1# Brown Sugar
10 oz chocolate powder

1 oz Challenger pellets (30 minutes)
1 oz Northern Brewer pellets (30 minutes)

1 pkg Nottingham

24 oz cold brew coffee in secondary


I doubt that the coffee added gravity points (or at least not many...) but I will check my next cup.

Thanks.

I'm not sure how some of these items affect the gravity and attenuation (like powdered chocolate), but I think that a lot of the points you got from the darker specialty grains won't be fermentable in addition to the lactose.

I doubt that you are too far off from where it won't ferment anymore. If you wanted to be safe, you could always pitch another packet of yeast, but I'm guessing you won't see it drop much more.

I found a similar problem someone had here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/stout-fg-not-dropping-44373/

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

kcstrom
 
Thanks. I'll wait a few more days to see if it drops any more points before bottling. I'm ok with slightly off flavors due to unfermentables but I deff don't want bottle bombs.
 
Back
Top