Lower Than Expected FG

[billf2112]

I bottled my Honey Wheat yesterday. To start the entire brew process went perfect, it was my first time off of the electric stove and onto my new propane burner. I did my OG, was a little low. On my final gravity it was below a 1.01, I never had a FG that low before, I did a second reading and came up with the exact same reading. Ended up with a slightly higher abv. My original recipe called for adding a pound if honey with 15 minutes left to the boil, but I did it at flame out, could that have something to do with it? I also let it sit for almost 4 weeks instead of the two tge original recipe I based mine on called for.

Thanks for the input.

 

[TheHomebrewNerd]

What was your OG? How much below 1.010 was your reading?

I've done a few smaller beers with honey that end up around 1.007 or 1.008, so this is certainly nothing to be overly concerned with in my opinion. Using honey in place of malt will tend to drive down your FG as it will ferment out more completely than malt sugars will.

The extra aging time would not typically drive down your FG. Once all the sugars have been consumed by the yeast, the gravity should stop changing no matter how long you let it sit

The Homebrew Nerd
thehomebrewnerd.com

 

[billf2112]

OG was 1.068 FG was 1.007

 

[TheHomebrewNerd]

OG was 1.068 FG was 1.007

That does seem like a farily big drop, but the last batch I did with honey started at 1.053 and ended at 1.008. It used only 0.5 lb of honey though.

Did you taste any of the beer while you bottled it? As long as everything tastes fine, I wouldn't worry much about it.

The Homebrew Nerd
thehomebrewnerd.com

 

[CastleHollow]

A 90% apparent attenuation seems high, although honey does ferment out almost completely. What was your mash temp? Lower provides more fermentable sugars, so that could play a role.

 

[billf2112]

I did taste it, it was flat and warm . Taste to me was strong. I was not going that big. Got much more out if my mash (kudos on my new mash tun), I even increased the boil volumne by half a gallon by increasing my sparge. I guess I will wait until it carbs up and see how I did. I am just used to hitting abv lower than expected. May have to adjust recipes to new equipment, or take keys away from from those drinking my beer faster.

 

[hepkat701]

IMO, more alcohol = a good thing...just sayin'

 

[billf2112]

Mashed at 152 it only dropped to 148.

 

[thisoneguy]

Did you mash out or get the first runnings on the burner while you sparged? I used to skip a mashout step and leave my first runnings just sitting out (off the heat) during the sparge, and my beers always dried out more than intended. I still skip the mashout , but start heating the first runnings right away.... since i started doing things this way, my FG is usually within a point of what I expected. YMMV.