Need Help! Gravity way off and added sugars to primary

[newtonfb]

Ok so I've got a bad batch of beer going on. First off something defiantly happend with efficiency and not sure what went wrong. We brewed 3 beers at the same time and 2 came out just as they should and now this one is screwed up. My next project is a fermentation chamber to help too.
Heres the rundown....

On Monday, put 6 Gallons of Porter into the primary and it started fermenting at 68 Deg. OG was 1.055 off from the Estimated of 1.071
Throughout the week kept checkking it and the temp was holding steady at 66-67 and was slowly dropping.

On friday it was down to 63 and the bubbles had subsided. Gravity at that time was 1.029. So I added a Quart of Maple Syrup, and vanilla beans. I also added 1lb of Lactose. I boiled it and instead of letting it cool, i threw it in at 200 hoping it would kick-start the fermentation again with the added sugars. The temp rose to 67 and it was bubbling again.

On Saturday it was still bubbling and was still 67

Today on Sunday it had dropped to 66 and wasn't bubbling much. I took a gravity reading with my refractometer and it read 1.034.

So now im not sure how to calculate the ABV at all. Im not even sure how good this will taste since it seems like all the numbers are way off.
Any help?

 

[bransona]

We need more details. What yeast? Starter? Did you use top up water or was it full volume? And as far as the abv, don't sweat it. It'll be alcoholic. That's enough.

 

[McKnuckle]

One pound of lactose (42 ppg) in six gallons of beer will raise your gravity about 7 points (which won't ferment down). So if you were at 1.029 when you added it, gravity then rose to 1.036.

Maple syrup seems to have ppg of 31, so a quart in 6 gallons would have raised the gravity about 1.3 points. Now we're at 1.037 and change.

If you're now at 1.034, then you fermented all the syrup and almost another 2 points of your original fermentables.

You had only 47% attenuation in the first five days of fermentation, which is of course very low indeed. If we factor out all the other stuff you added, you are now at 51% attenuation of your original fermentables. Not sure why - perhaps it's just very slow. Perhaps you stunned/killed some yeast with that 200F addition. Personally, I would leave the fermenter in a warmish place for two more weeks and see what happens. Stop testing gravity every day - do it in a week.

 

[newtonfb]

We need more details. What yeast? Starter? Did you use top up water or was it full volume? And as far as the abv, don't sweat it. It'll be alcoholic. That's enough.

I use Liquid London Ale WLP013. No starter and no top of water.

 

[McKnuckle]

If you used a single White Labs tube with no starter in six gallons of 1.055 beer, then I'd imagine it would be a bit sluggish out of the gate. It probably took 2 days in the lag/growth phase. I think it just needs to be left alone for a while. This may simply be a slow moving one.

 

[newtonfb]

If you used a single White Labs tube with no starter in six gallons of 1.055 beer, then I'd imagine it would be a bit sluggish out of the gate. It probably took 2 days in the lag/growth phase. I think it just needs to be left alone for a while. This may simply be a slow moving one.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[Roland_deschain]

You said you're testing with a refractometer? I'm pretty sure that is where the jacked up readings are coming from. Once fermentation begins the alcohol will give false readings.....or so I was led to believe.

 

[max384]

Ok so I've got a bad batch of beer going on. First off something defiantly happend with efficiency and not sure what went wrong. We brewed 3 beers at the same time and 2 came out just as they should and now this one is screwed up. My next project is a fermentation chamber to help too.
Heres the rundown....

On Monday, put 6 Gallons of Porter into the primary and it started fermenting at 68 Deg. OG was 1.055 off from the Estimated of 1.071
Throughout the week kept checkking it and the temp was holding steady at 66-67 and was slowly dropping.

On friday it was down to 63 and the bubbles had subsided. Gravity at that time was 1.029. So I added a Quart of Maple Syrup, and vanilla beans. I also added 1lb of Lactose. I boiled it and instead of letting it cool, i threw it in at 200 hoping it would kick-start the fermentation again with the added sugars. The temp rose to 67 and it was bubbling again.

On Saturday it was still bubbling and was still 67

Today on Sunday it had dropped to 66 and wasn't bubbling much. I took a gravity reading with my refractometer and it read 1.034.

So now im not sure how to calculate the ABV at all. Im not even sure how good this will taste since it seems like all the numbers are way off.
Any help?

Check it with a hydrometer.

 

[McKnuckle]

Missed that detail! Yeah... You can't check gravity with a refractometer after there is alcohol present. At least not without corrective math applied. Good news: Your gravity is definitely much lower!

 

[newtonfb]

You said you're testing with a refractometer? I'm pretty sure that is where the jacked up readings are coming from. Once fermentation begins the alcohol will give false readings.....or so I was led to believe.

Check it with a hydrometer.

I think you guys may be right. My hydrometer broke a few weeks back. Thats why i got the refractometer. Northern brewer has a converter for gravity after fermentation. As it stands right now its about 1.016 according to the converter on the site. Im going to grab a hydrometer from a buddy and test it to see what it says.