High Attenuation

[jro238]

Hi all,

I made a belgian tripel (she devil recipe on beersmith) about 4 weeks ago and just transferred it over to the keg this afternoon (pitched 68F and held there for 1 week then allowed to do whatever it wanted at room temp which meant slowly swinging in the area of 67-71 over the next 3 weeks). I was expecting a ~1.01 beer all said and done but it definitely dried out more than that.
O.G. 1.073
F.G. 1.005 (both gravities were adjusted for temp)

Recipe was:
14lb belgian 2 row pils
2lb Caravienne Malt
2lb beet sugar
Fermented with wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes Yeast
Mashed for 75 min @ constant temp of 152 then batch sparged @ 170
Crappy efficiency (58.8%). Probably due to a bad crush from the store--my efficiency has gone up to mid 70's in brews I have done since this one and after buying a grain mill.

Has anyone used this yeast before and did it attenuate this much? If not, any thoughts on why it might have gone so low?

This is more out of curiosity since the hydrometer sample tasted pretty good today so can't really complain about the beer. :rockin:

 

[chickypad]

With your lower efficiency the sugar makes up about 25% of your fermentables, so I assume that is why it went so low. I have had similar numbers with 3522 in this type of recipe before.

 

[jro238]

Thanks for the answer. Batch came out a little larger than expected at 6 gallons so I guess that would make the sugar about 21% of fermentables. Certainly a good reason why it might have finished so low.

 

[Bsquared]

Did you let the beer de-gas sufficiently? I find there is about a .002-.003 difference lower in my reading when I pull a sample right out of the fermenter vs. if I let it sit for 30min to an hr before taking the reading.

 

[jro238]

I actually didn't. I pulled it out of the keg right after I had racked it over from the primary. Batch was too big to fit in the keg so I'm going to have to bottle a few today or tomorrow. I'll let another sample de-gas when I bottle.

 

[jro238]

Did you let the beer de-gas sufficiently? I find there is about a .002-.003 difference lower in my reading when I pull a sample right out of the fermenter vs. if I let it sit for 30min to an hr before taking the reading.

Gave this a try and it didn't end up making a difference for me. Perhaps it plays a bigger role in beers that have sat in the fermenter for less time.