Recipe Gurus - What went Wrong

[birvine]

I thought I knew how to adjust recipes. I thought wrong. Please show me why this special-to-me in my grandfather's memory ale flopped so badly:

3.85 # LME at T60
3.85 # LME at T5

Grains steeped for 30 min prior to addition of LME:
1/2 oz choc malt steeped for 30 min
4 oz munich malt 30 min
3 oz C80 for 30 min
4 oz carafoam for 30 min
4 oz C10 for 30 min
1/2 oz roasted barley for 30 min

8 oz honey added at T15

1 oz casc at T90
1/2 oz casc at T60
1 oz casc at T15
1 oz casc at T5
1 oz casc at T1

1 Irish moss at T15
1 tsp yeast energizer at T10

1 tsp S04 dry yeast

20 litre batch

I put the ingredients into Brewtarget and everything seemed good for an Am IPA.

Fermentation was vigorous.

When I went to bottle tonight there was a strong flavour of cookie dough (maybe?!) and it was REALLY sweet.

What the heck went wrong??

B

 

[Revvy]

You won't really know if anything is wrong until it's carbed an conditioned in a few weeks. You can't really gauge a beer that that stage of it's journey. It's still green, flat and not even carbed.

 

[birvine]

You won't really know if anything is wrong until it's carbed an conditioned in a few weeks. You can't really gauge a beer that that stage of it's journey. It's still green, flat and not even carbed.

I suppose that's the thing. I am only concerned because it is REALLY sweet. That being said, it is a first foray into modifying a recipe with software. Possibly all carbed up there will be a change. In previous overly-sweet batches they got better but were still way too sweet and I ended up dumping them months and months down the road. I have no patience in the short-term but then am like Job waiting for things to improve.... I guess I'd best put on my best Job-ish hat for the time being!

Thanks Revvy.

B

 

[michaeltrego]

What were the OG and FG? I suspect it is sweet because your FG is higher than you expected, and that may be due to the amount of yeast you pitched. A full packet of dry yeast would have been appropriate for your batch, and it seems like you pitched much less than that...

 

[Yooper]

What's the current SG?

 

[birvine]

What's the current SG?

First off, I have learned a valuable lesson. After almost two decades since my first batch I come with tail between my legs - I was of the 'I don't really need sg readings.' Lesson learned - I now am one of those take-sg guys.

According to BT the FG is 1016. With the addition of my priming sugar it is 1018 - I think not bad considering.

So, I am hoping it is a patience problem and I will be rewarded with a great Black Watch/Canadian Highland Regiment Pale Ale once it is carbed up and chilled.

I guess I'll find out on Xmas Eve.

B

EDIT: And I'll report back once it's conditioned a few weeks down the road if anyone is curious.

 

[scottland]

What temp did you ferment at? And was the temperature consistent?

 

[birvine]

What temp did you ferment at? And was the temperature consistent?

The room is at about 60-62°F. I have the carboy in a swamp cooler into which is running cool tap water.

B

 

[Calder]

According to BT the FG is 1016. With the addition of my priming sugar it is 1018 - I think not bad considering.

How does BrewTarget know what your FG is? It only provides an estimate based on certain assumptions which are often flawed.

The room is at about 60-62°F. I have the carboy in a swamp cooler into which is running cool tap water.

What was the temperature of the running water? If it was below 60 F, the yeast likely stalled leaving a high FG. If that's the case, you may have potential bombs.

Always take a gravity reading, even if it is just the sample you take when siphoning to the bottling bucket.

 

[birvine]

How does BrewTarget know what your FG is? It only provides an estimate based on certain assumptions which are often flawed.
I'M NOT SURE HOW IT CALCULATES IT. I WAS THINKING ITS ESTIMATE FOR FG WOULD GIVE ME AN IDEA WHERE FG SHOULD BE.

What was the temperature of the running water? If it was below 60 F, the yeast likely stalled leaving a high FG. If that's the case, you may have potential bombs.
AND THERE IS WHAT I WAS WONDERING IN THE LAST LITTLE WHILE. OUR GROUND WATER IS QUITE COLD IN THE WINTER SO I WAS THINKING I'D STALLED MY FERM. I JUST RELEASED THE PRESSURE FROM THE BOTTLES A FEW MINUTES AGO AND FOUND THERE WAS ALREADY SUBSTANTIAL CO2. AT THIS POINT, I'M OK TO RELEASE EVERY DAY. OTHER OPTIONS AVAILABLE?

Always take a gravity reading, even if it is just the sample you take when siphoning to the bottling bucket.
AND THERE IS MY HUGE LESSON LEARNED. OG AND FG FROM THIS POINT FORWARD.

Thanks for the guidance. It's not like I don't have LOTS of good beer here so I can afford to be patient and sort this thing out.

As I have asked above - is my best bet to keep relieving the pressure in the bottles manually? I use screw-on caps like on PET bottles except that my bottles are glass.

B

 

[Calder]

Open one of the bottles and take a gravity sample from it (drink it too). It will tell you if you are in the right region for the beer or if you need to monitor them closely.

 

[birvine]

What was the temperature of the running water? If it was below 60 F, the yeast likely stalled leaving a high FG.

HBT and notes to the rescue again. In going over a previous batch that was slightly on the sweet side I see that I used the same cold water drip technique for the swamp cooler. Now that I check the tap water it is in the 50's out of the tap. Bingo!

So, with half the batch bottled and half racked into gallon jugs I'll see if warmer temps re-boot the fermentation. If not, I'll pitch some yeast into the jugs and if the bottles get nowhere, what the heck, I'd pour them into jugs, too, and re-pitch some yeast - what's to lose? If so, I'll let the jugs settle into a stable FG and wait for the bottles to arrive as I monitor them for co2 buildup.

Thanks all for the help. There is always more to learn and some humbling to be done!

B

 

[djfriesen]

Ya, I always start my ferm cool for the first 4-5 days, then bring it up to 68-70° to finish up. On my first temp-controlled fermentation, I kept it around 62° and it wouldn't finish until I let it warm up some.

 

[birvine]

A few days later...

The gallon jars are bubbling away so it would seem that the yeast got back to work once they were out of the 'cold zone'. I'll give them a few more weeks then bottle it.

I have been checking the bottles every few days and the co2 is building but does not seem too high. No gushers yet.

Thanks for the help.

B

 

[kh54s10]

My guess is that the bottles are a very high risk of being bombs. Also I would not have high hopes for this beer. You have added bottling sugar to an unfinished beer and will now have to add more for bottling the gallon jugs.
With the really cold temperatures I would say there was little to no fermentation prior to bottling.