HELP! TOO MUCH ATTENUATION!

[Dave Sarber]

Ok. I did a long, slow step mash on a tripel I'm brewing. OG was 1.080. Pitched one smack pack of WY1214 on 1-6. Fermented at 68°, fermentation appeared to stop on 1-9. Put in my temp controlled freezer, and dropped temp to 48°. Went to check it early this morning (1-13), and there were bubbles on the surface, like it was still fermenting. Checked gravity, and it is 1.000! Plugged that into a ABV calculator, and it is showing 100% attenuation, and 0 calories per 12 oz bottle. Tasted the sample, and it actually tasted decent, but definitely no sweetness. I'm cool with that, I like dry beers anyway.
But, what is going on? I was planning on fining with gelatin this morning and cold crashing. Should I wait?

 

[mongoose33]

Gravity of 1.000? That's what water is. Not likely if you have any alcohol at all in your beer, seems to me, to say nothing of unfermented sugars.

Sounds like a measurement error to me.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Tried with 3 different hydrometers, getting measurements between 1.000 and 1.006 maybe?

Alcohol is lighter than water, sugar is heavier. You can have an FG lower than 1.000, but it's never happened to me.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Fine and crash? Wait? Add lactose?

 

[mrdauber64]

Alcohol has a lower gravity than water, which is why wine finishes around .990. So it is possible to get below 1.000. I say let it go as long as it has good flavor! Belgians are supposed to be dry and well attenuated.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Yah, flavor is good, hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo. Dry, with an alcohol bite. I'm going to go ahead with fining and crashing, hopefully it will mellow out in the bottle.

 

[IslandLizard]

That looks like good beer! Cloudy but good.
If it tastes good, who cares about gravity? The lower the gravity the more alcohol it contains. Woohoo!

Tripels are meant to be high ABV and dry as a cork.

Calibrate those hydrometers at their cal. temp, it's usually printed on the bottom of the paper scale. But the correction on their respective storage tube.

Most, if not all, Belgian yeast contain diastaticus. They can ferment down to single digits. The low slow mash makes it extra fermentable. There's almost nothing left to hold it back.

 

[Dave Sarber]

Well, I'm cold crashing now. Will give it 2 days at 36°, then fine with gelatin, should clear it up. I've gone back several times and tasted, and it's good. Just kind of freaked me out, I've never had one drop that low.

 

[CodeSection]

Ok. I did a long, slow step mash on a tripel I'm brewing. OG was 1.080. Pitched one smack pack of WY1214 on 1-6. Fermented at 68°, fermentation appeared to stop on 1-9. Put in my temp controlled freezer, and dropped temp to 48°. Went to check it early this morning (1-13), and there were bubbles on the surface, like it was still fermenting. Checked gravity, and it is 1.000! Plugged that into a ABV calculator, and it is showing 100% attenuation, and 0 calories per 12 oz bottle. Tasted the sample, and it actually tasted decent, but definitely no sweetness. I'm cool with that, I like dry beers anyway.
But, what is going on? I was planning on fining with gelatin this morning and cold crashing. Should I wait?

Granted, we have a different fermentation schedule, but here is a screen shot of my Blue Chimay with Wyeast 1214 that is still fermenting...

 

[Dave Sarber]

That was what was freaking me out. Looked at it this morning, and it looked like it was still trying to ferment, gravity checked at 1.000. I was expecting more in the 1.010 range. I split into two 3+ gallon batches this morning for a faster chill.

 

[RPh_Guy]

What steps/times did you use?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Gravity of 1.000? That's what water is. Not likely if you have any alcohol at all in your beer, seems to me, to say nothing of unfermented sugars.

Sounds like a measurement error to me.

Alcohol is less dense than water.
A fermentation from 1.080 to 1.000 still has about 15 gravity points (= 3.7 brix = 37g/L) of solids that are "masked" by the lower density of ethanol in the hydrometer reading.

 

[Dave Sarber]

131° for 15
138° for 15
145° for 45
157° for 15
168° for 10
Drain, sparge at 170° to collect 8.5 gallons. (slow sparge, approx 45 mins)
90 minute boil.

 

[brownni5]

131° for 15
138° for 15
145° for 45
157° for 15
168° for 10
Drain, sparge at 170° to collect 8.5 gallons. (slow sparge, approx 45 mins)
90 minute boil.

And you likely added sugar somewhere? Looks like it should dry out pretty good to me. I always aim for a low FG, so I fail to see the problem.

And 0 calories? Yay!

 

[RPh_Guy]

It's not 0 calories.

 

[Jayjay1976]

My tripels never come out as dry as I want them. I suppose you could say I have Attenuation Deficit Disorder.

I recently learned that my thermal probe was reading 3 degrees lower than actual, leading to higher than intended mash temps. I fixed it so now things should improve.

 

[bleme]

Everything looks fine to me except your ABV calculator. If it had fermented out completely, it would be .990 or less so it isn't quite 100% or 0 calories.

 

[RPh_Guy]

If it had fermented out completely, it would be .990 or less so it isn't quite 100% or 0 calories.

ABV calculators always report "apparent attenuation", which is indeed 100% in this case.

Actual attenuation is lower as I explained above, 81% in this case.

 

[Dave Sarber]

This is Gordon Strong's recipe from Brewing Better Beer. He uses it as an example of a long slow step mash. His reported FG was 1.010. I've never had one go this low, and was thinking I did something wrong.
Either that, or I just figured out distilling without heat!

 

[brownni5]

It's not 0 calories.

Yes, I think we all realize that.

 

[myndflyte]

As you've already concluded, sounds like everything is fine. A few saisons that I've brewed have ended up finishing at 1.000. My guess is with that slow step mash, you were destined to end up with something bone dry, which isn't a bad thing if that's what you're going for.