FG possibly 1.016 - too high?

[makislav]

Brewing my fourth batch with the following recipe:

1kg Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner (3-4 EBC) grains
1 can of Cooper's Canadian Blonde LME
1 can of Munton's Pilsner LME
0.5kg of Munton's Brew Enhancer which consists of 50% of dextrose and 50% of DME
0.5kg of Extra Light Munton's DME
Hops: East Kent Golding and Fuggles, boiled around 15 min (I am thinking to dry hop with Saaz after the fermentation is complete).

Yeast (by starter): one 6g pack of Munton's and one 7g pack of Cooper's ale yeasts

OG: 1.052

It has been fermenting now for six days, racked to secondary on day three (did this according to Munton's instructions, perhaps not the best thing to do). I would like to get around 1.010 as my target gravity, but now the beer is at 1.016 (on day six).

What do you think - will it ferment till 1.010'ish or will it be stucked at 1.016? Should I pitch more yeast or just RDWHHB? The temperature is now 19c (66F). It has dropped about three degrees from the temperature of the wort when I pitched.

 

[shtoive87]

Yeah, racking to secondary after 2 days is a really bad idea... It takes away a lot of the yeast that is still working near the bottom of the fermenter and can cause lags/incomplete fermentations. Also, having the temperature drop can cause yeast to stop working. I would give it another week. If it's still not where you want it, do a 1-liter starter and when the starter reaches high-krausen, dump the whole thing in the beer. This gives the new yeast a kick-start to eat up the rest of the sugars that the previous yeast didn't have a chance to get to.

The final gravity points are the least appealing sugars for the yeast, so if you just dump another packet of yeast into the beer, they might just flocculate out and not even try to consume those last sugars. By pouring fermenting beer in there, there is a better chance that they'll clean up those last few points.

 

[flars]

Move your secondary to a warm location. A week at 22°C - 24°C may get the remaining yeast to drop the wort a couple more points. The simplest measures may work. If not then other methods are still available.

Did you replace the sugar in the Muntons kit with DME? If you did 1.012 to 1.014 may be a more realistic FG.

 

[makislav]

Yeah, racking to secondary after 2 days is a really bad idea... It takes away a lot of the yeast that is still working near the bottom of the fermenter and can cause lags/incomplete fermentations.

I guess thats pretty much true. I have not racked to secondary before. Next time, I will do it after a week or two.

 

[makislav]

Move your secondary to a warm location. A week at 22°C - 24°C may get the remaining yeast to drop the wort a couple more points.

Jep, I will turn on the heat. Hope that will work. If not then I will do as shtoive87 suggests.

Did you replace the sugar in the Muntons kit with DME? If you did 1.012 to 1.014 may be a more realistic FG.

The brew contains (in addition to two LME cans) 750g DME and 250g of dextrose. Last time I used two cans and did not add any sugar whatsoever - FG turned out to be 1.010 in just a few days (on the other hand, OG was 0.007 smaller)

 

[flars]

I guess thats pretty much true. I have not racked to secondary before. Next time, I will do it after a week or two.

For your next brew try taking your first hydrometer reading two weeks after active fermentation had begun. Do another reading three days later. If the readings are the same FG has been reached. Then give the yeast at least another three to five days to clean up.
After this amount of time reevaluate the need to rack to a secondary vessel based on the clarity of your beer in the primary.

 

[makislav]

Thanks for this informative tip!