Gravity didn't quite reach it's final

[njharlen]

Hi all,

I've been fermenting a milk stout over the last week and the gravity has been stable the last three days at 1.024 and the recipe gives a final gravity of 1.018 (1.015-1.019). The original gravity was 1.062 (on the high side as the recipe suggested 1.059 with a range of 1.053-1.062, but I'd already filled to the 5 gallon mark).

Is there anything I could do to get it to drop that last .05 into the range?

 

[spark_plug]

You could try to give it a good stir and leave it for another week, that has occasionally given me good results. But sounds like you are going to hit the target abv by what you described. Either way, you will probably have a great beer. Are you using a hydrometer or a refractometer to check you gravity?

 

[sfgoat]

Just call it good. Could be any number of reasons for it but its not that far off and if its stable there isn't much you can do to get it any lower. Could have mashed slightly high or something.

 

[BanginBanjo]

It really depends based on the yeast used, the amount of lactose used and the mash temperature. If your using software to predict the final gravity, make sure it accounts for the fact that lactose is not fermentable. I believe beersmith does not account for that, so the numbers are misleading. Depending on the yeast used, you might already be in the correct attenuation range since you started with a higher gravity. If the mash temp was on the higher side, you might have enough additional unfermentable sugars in there to keep the FG on the high side.

You could try shaking up your carboy a bit or even pitching a yeast with a higher attenuation to get the FG down a little more, assuming there are fermentable sugars left. If you used a yeast like WLP002 (~70% attenuation), you could try pitching a yeast with 80% attenuation like a WLP001 to cut down a few gravity points.

 

[njharlen]

Thanks for the responses!

I've been using a hydrometer to check my readings.
I considered just calling it good, but I was worried about ending up with too sweet a beer. I guess there's no harm in leaving it another week and seeing what happens.

 

[beergolf]

The estimated FG is just that, an estimation. I find that milk stouts often end up higher than the predicted FG. Depending on the amount of lactose in the recipe it is quite possibly done.

It has only been a week. Give it another couple of weeks and see where it finishes. It may tick off a few more points, but it may not.