High FG on Wheat IPA

[sarandos25]

Hi,

I keep landing somewhere between 1.020 and 1.025 on this beer which I have brewed about 4 times

Fermenter Size 10 gallons
4kg Pale Wheat
0.2kg Dark Wheat
4.2kg Pale ale
0.6KG Carahell
0.6KG Spelt

37 gr of S-05

According to brewersfriend I should be somewhere around 1.068 OG, 1.014FG.

I can never seem to get below the 1.020 mark. Single mash at 65 C (149 f) for 1 hour.

Should I be doing something else with the wheat? I make other beers with S-05 and they don’t have this problem. I use the same mill adjustment I use for pale, but I pass the wheat and the spelt through it two times.

Thank you in advance!
C

 

[hotbeer]

Everything you list are malt?

If you are making the OG that you want, adjusting the mill isn't going to change anything about the FG. Not sure what the impact of all that wheat and spelt is on the conversion during mash at that particular temperature. Maybe some other will enlighten us as to whether that's a good temp to get the right ratio of fermentable and unfermentable sugars. Though I'd probably have mashed at 152° to 154°F (≈ 66° to 67° C)

You are mashing for a hour. So all your starches should have been converted. But do you ever check to be certain?

What are the other beers that don't give you a issue. Are they just regular ales with out any wheat?

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

What are you using to measure your gravities with?

 

[doug293cz]

A 60 minute mash at 65°C (149°F) may not be adequate to completely gelatinize the starch. Starch cannot be hydrolyzed (the reaction the breaks down starch into sugar) until it has been gelatinized. A mash that is too short for the specific temp and crush conditions may not produce as much fermentable sugar as it would if given more time for gelatinization and hydrolysis to complete, and this would result in a higher than expected FG.

You can measure the completeness of a mash quantitatively (compared to iodine testing which is qualitative) if you measure the wort SG at the end of the mash, after thorough homogenization (aggressive stirring or recirculation) , and prior to sparging. Do you record this measurement?

Brew on

 

[sarandos25]

Thank you for the responses. Addressing most of them but starting with what appeared to be the smoking gun…

SG at the end of the mash, after thorough homogenization (aggressive stirring or recirculation) , and prior to sparging. Do you record this measurement?

Because of the issues I started prolonging the mash a bit recently, last brew, with a 3lt/kg mash thickness at 60’ I was at 1.069, then at minute 75 I was at 1.073. Based on the table in the braukaiser page, I should be at 1.085?! Ugh - do I just keep going with the mash? How much longer is “acceptable”?

Everything you list are malt?

Yes, weyermann.

What are the other beers that don't give you an issue. Are they just regular ales with out any wheat?

Pale ales with no wheat

What are you using to measure your gravities with?

Hydrometer for OG, tilt for FG, delta between the 2 at OG is usually only +/- 0.001

 

[RM-MN]

There is no set time for a mash, you mash until it is done. I do a really short mash because my grains are like cornmeal and they convert very quickly. Some people do an overnight mash. Try a 90 minute mash and see what you get.

 

[doug293cz]

Hydrometer for OG, tilt for FG, delta between the 2 at OG is usually only +/- 0.001

Tilts, and similar devices, can be affected by krausen, bubbles, and other stuff stuck to the body or floating on the surface of the beer. IMO they are not reliable for FG measurements. I always cold crash the fermenter dregs, then do a hydro test on the clear beer after the cold crash to get my FG.

Brew on