AtlasMaxx
Active Member
What is the best way to drive down the gravity in an extract beer?
Low final gravity...
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JLeuck64
Well-Known Member
Generally speaking from my experience here...
The best results I've experienced with hitting final gravity with any beer I've brewed (extract or all grain) is too over pitch the yeast up front. I am talking about liquid yeasts when I say this. I've had pretty consistent results with dry yeasts hitting F.G. when I aerate wort, and either sprinkle the dry yeast on top of the foam or re-hydrate the yeast then pour it in the wort. With liquid yeasts I've had the best results building a starter a few days before I brew then pitch it in the wort.
Yeast colony numbers are important but so is temp control! Once you start playing around with temp control your beer will be so much better ( ; It gives you options, for example if the beer stalls you can simply crank up the temperature to help it finish. This is not a simple answer obviously but we're talking about living critters and helping them do the work involves understanding what they need.
The best results I've experienced with hitting final gravity with any beer I've brewed (extract or all grain) is too over pitch the yeast up front. I am talking about liquid yeasts when I say this. I've had pretty consistent results with dry yeasts hitting F.G. when I aerate wort, and either sprinkle the dry yeast on top of the foam or re-hydrate the yeast then pour it in the wort. With liquid yeasts I've had the best results building a starter a few days before I brew then pitch it in the wort.
Yeast colony numbers are important but so is temp control! Once you start playing around with temp control your beer will be so much better ( ; It gives you options, for example if the beer stalls you can simply crank up the temperature to help it finish. This is not a simple answer obviously but we're talking about living critters and helping them do the work involves understanding what they need.
AtlasMaxx
Active Member
My plan is to pitch two packs of wyeast and heavily aerate. Would adding some yeast nutrient be needed?
Pitching a starter should be standard practice, especially with liquid yeast. If you get better attenuation with a starter than you do without, it's because your beer without is underattenuating.
For an extract beer that's PROPERLY ATTENUATED, process changes won't help but recipe changes will. Options are a highly attenuative yeast, or to pick a more fermentable extract (they differ, Laaglander extracts are notoriously unfermentable, where Alexander's extracts are known to be highly fermentable). If that doesn't get you where you want, replace a portion of your extract with a lightly reduced amount of corn sugar. If using DME, you can basically substitute weight for weight, the difference for OG is small. With LME, use 0.8 lbs corn sugar per 1 lb LME.
For an extract beer that's PROPERLY ATTENUATED, process changes won't help but recipe changes will. Options are a highly attenuative yeast, or to pick a more fermentable extract (they differ, Laaglander extracts are notoriously unfermentable, where Alexander's extracts are known to be highly fermentable). If that doesn't get you where you want, replace a portion of your extract with a lightly reduced amount of corn sugar. If using DME, you can basically substitute weight for weight, the difference for OG is small. With LME, use 0.8 lbs corn sugar per 1 lb LME.
Brew a saison and ramp up the heat. Those little buggers will take it way down. 
JLeuck64
Well-Known Member
The short answer is pitching 2 packs of liquid yeast will probably help, but it begs the question of why would you want to spend upwards of $14 on yeast?! Check out building a yeast starter on Youtube (Beer Geek Nation comes to mind). You can literally build a dozen, or more, yeast starters from just one pouch of Wyeast! The process is dirt simple too. Instead of building a 1liter starter build a 1.5liter starter. Sanitize a pint mason jar and lid. When you get ready to pitch in the yeast just swirl up the starter REAL good and fill the mason jar, cap it and put into the fridge for next brew day (this is what I do to harvest yeast over and over again). What's left over in the starter can go directly into the wort. $6-$8 in yeast spread out over multiple brew days really helps to offset the cost of home brewing ( ;
Adding yeast nutrient is cheap, I always do it and honestly can't tell a difference versus not adding it.
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