So we all know final gravity is a result of primarily two factors:
1) Fermentability of the wort
2) Attenuation of the yeast and its fermenation program
Fermentability is largely a factor of mash temp, grain selection and an the inclusion or absence of fermentable or unfermentable sugars like Dextrose or lactose
Attenuation is a factor of yeast selection, health, pitch rate, aeration and temp regime.
FG is a measure of specific gravity (density) of the resulting beer and is directly related to the ratio of unfermented dextrins, to alcohol and water present.
Therefore beers of different OG's but with a same FG will compositionally be different in regard to this ratio, since a higher gravity beer with produce more ethanol and therefore must contain more unfermented dextrins to achieve the same FG providing volume of the batch is equal.
Therefore its reasonable to assume that FG does not necessarily present a direct indicator of dryness or mouthfeel. But rather how this FG is achieved.
Lets consider a beer with a target FG of 1.012 with three different scenarios of achieving it.
a) A simple 2 row grain bill mashed at 152F and fermented with US-05
b)A grain bill of 2 row mashed at 148F with a kettle addition of 1.5lb of dextrose fermented with WLP002
c)A grain bill of 2 row mashed at 156F and fermented with WYeast 3711
Now ester profiles aside (and yeast specifc qualities aside), what do you think the resulting differences would be in terms of perceived body, mouthfeel, dryness/sweatness, perceived viscosity?
In each instance the FG is derived by compositionally different means.
I am getting to the point in recipe formulation where the choice is do I mash high and choose a very attenuative yeast and dry the beer if necessary with Dextrose in the hope to get more mouthfeel or do I mash low and use a less attenuative yeast to avoid sweetness/cloying?
1) Fermentability of the wort
2) Attenuation of the yeast and its fermenation program
Fermentability is largely a factor of mash temp, grain selection and an the inclusion or absence of fermentable or unfermentable sugars like Dextrose or lactose
Attenuation is a factor of yeast selection, health, pitch rate, aeration and temp regime.
FG is a measure of specific gravity (density) of the resulting beer and is directly related to the ratio of unfermented dextrins, to alcohol and water present.
Therefore beers of different OG's but with a same FG will compositionally be different in regard to this ratio, since a higher gravity beer with produce more ethanol and therefore must contain more unfermented dextrins to achieve the same FG providing volume of the batch is equal.
Therefore its reasonable to assume that FG does not necessarily present a direct indicator of dryness or mouthfeel. But rather how this FG is achieved.
Lets consider a beer with a target FG of 1.012 with three different scenarios of achieving it.
a) A simple 2 row grain bill mashed at 152F and fermented with US-05
b)A grain bill of 2 row mashed at 148F with a kettle addition of 1.5lb of dextrose fermented with WLP002
c)A grain bill of 2 row mashed at 156F and fermented with WYeast 3711
Now ester profiles aside (and yeast specifc qualities aside), what do you think the resulting differences would be in terms of perceived body, mouthfeel, dryness/sweatness, perceived viscosity?
In each instance the FG is derived by compositionally different means.
I am getting to the point in recipe formulation where the choice is do I mash high and choose a very attenuative yeast and dry the beer if necessary with Dextrose in the hope to get more mouthfeel or do I mash low and use a less attenuative yeast to avoid sweetness/cloying?
