looking to fix my FG & BU:GU

[O-Ale-Yeah]

I used 3 ounces of Cascade pellet that I thought were 7 AA but I realized the day after brewing they were 5.5. Also my efficiency was much better on yesterday's brew session so I'm realizing today that my FG may end up too sweet and my BU:GU will also be sweet.

How can I get my FG lower than what it usually ends up as and if I dry hop, will that add any bittering?

A Dark German Wheat Munich Ale
12 lb Dark German Wheat 7L
6.5 Dark German Munich 20L
2 dry packs Safale US-05
1.5 oz Cascade AAU of 5.5 at 60 minutes
1.5 oz Cascade AAU of 5.5 at 15 minutes

OG was 1.070
Predicted FG is 1.013 (I would like to get this lower)
BU:GU is 0.36 (Is it too later to get this to 0.75?)
Predicted ABV is 7.3%
Decoction Mashed 132F for 30 minutes, 140F for 20 minutes, 150F for 20 minutes, fly sparged 170F for 30 minutes.
5.25 gallons in the 6.5 carboy & 3.75 gallons in the 5 gallon carboy.

 

[Stand]

What kind of beer is it?

Is that us05?

From the recipe it looks like a pretty balanced beer even where it sits now, but it doesn't look like an aggressively hopped beer.

I would probably go for boiling a liter or so of water with some hops in it and then adding that rather than dry hopping if that is not style appropriate.

It would solve both problems.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

What kind of beer is it?

Is that us05?

From the recipe it looks like a pretty balanced beer even where it sits now, but it doesn't look like an aggressively hopped beer.

I would probably go for boiling a liter or so of water with some hops in it and then adding that rather than dry hopping if that is not style appropriate.

It would solve both problems.

Yup US-05, thanks. I corrected the typo. So is it correct that dry hopping will not raise my BU?

That's a great idea to boil some hops.

Is there anything I can do to get my FG lower?

 

[grampamark]

Is there anything I can do to get my FG lower?

Repitch a yeast that attenuates 110%?

Seriously, 1.013 is a reasonably low FG for a 1.070 beer. Your recipe sounds pretty good the way it is. I'd go with Stand's recommendation to add some hop tea to increase the bitterness and go with what you have. See what you end up with and then decide if you want to tweak this recipe next time.

 

[bracconiere]

what final gravity are you looking to get? like weight lifting, to get much drier, you'd have to use 'gear'....

 

[dmtaylor]

You mashed at low temperatures for 70 minutes. I'd say odds are good that the FG will end up lower than 1.013 on its own based on that.

Otherwise you can always water it down, that will reduce the FG.

And/or, brew a tiny 1/2 gallon batch of 100 IBU wort and add that in to increase your IBUs.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

what final gravity are you looking to get? like weight lifting, to get much drier, you'd have to use 'gear'....

Well the brew before this one ended up 1.011 with a BU:GU of 0.49 and it seemed sweet so u was hoping to avoid that this time.

 

[Smellyglove]

Don't think to much about the BU:GU other than using them as relative numbers in your own system. But since you're saying that the one with 0.49 ended up to sweet, you kind of already are There are lots of factors contributing other than the BUGU, and you don't know what the exact number is in you brew, other than the calculated value.

You can do a hop-tea as someone mentioned, or you can dry out the beer somewhat by adding Caso4, which just gives a dry lingering feeling, which many mistakes for bitterness as it somewhat dampens the sweetness.

 

[O-Ale-Yeah]

Great advice, thanks

 

[bracconiere]

Well the brew before this one ended up 1.011 with a BU:GU of 0.49 and it seemed sweet so u was hoping to avoid that this time.

(i think the 'u' was a typo)

but anyway, if your using basically 6 and a half pounds of what amounts to crystal malt (yes i consider 20L, crystal/carmelized, even though not technically mashed in the kernel first) in your recipe..it's going to be sweet even if you did add gluco and fermented it to 1.000

 

[Stand]

Well the brew before this one ended up 1.011 with a BU:GU of 0.49 and it seemed sweet so u was hoping to avoid that this time.

I wouldn't expect you will taste a difference between 1.011 and 1.013.

Perceived sweetness and sweetness aren't the same thing. I find some hops and malts make the beer taste perceptibly sweeter even though it isn't.

Fruity hops I find I can get away with a much dryer beer. Munich always make me think it is sweeter even when it isn't. You have both.

Might tweak those next time or raise temp at end of fermentation to drive attenuation if you have temp control.