Some mistakes during brewing and fermentation processes...

[IHATEBOILEDFISH]

Hello! My first post here and i am going to talk about my first ever beer, which was a try to brew WCIPA. But i made some mistakes and looking for some advice and overall opinion what to expect. But first of all, the recipe. I'll tell most important stuff, because complete recipe will be too big. I'll write what actually happened, because initial recipe was a bit different, especially mash temp and boil time. My kettle is 25L, there's a false bottom at ~8L mark and a heating element to heat everything up.

So, the grains:
86.5% local Pale Ale Malt with (80% yield)
7.7% local Crystal/Caramel 50L Malt (75% yield)
5.8% Cara Clair from Castle Malting (78% yield)
~4.7kg total grain weight.

Water:
Total water - ~25L
Grain retained water - ~1,25L
Sparge water - 4L (~1 gal)
Mash water - 19L (only like ~11L had direct contact with grains)
Pre-boil water - ~21.5L
My brew method is a BIAB, but i took 4L from mash water to sparge my bag.

Water ion profile:
Ca2+ - 123ppm
Mg2+ - 24ppm
Na+ - 6ppm
Cl- - 51ppm
SO4 2- - 124ppm
HCO3- - 217ppm
Added ~8ml of 80% lactic acid to get my water down to 5.3 pH

Hops:
25g Nugget - 30min boil
25g CTZ - 15 min boil
25g Chinook, 25g Centennial - 15 min hopstand at 79C
50g Amarillo and 25g CTZ - dry hop 3 days

Yeast:
2 packs of old US-05 (6 months till expiration)

Well, where everything went south... I didn't know how to handle my heating element, because water under false bottom and above are at different temps (i found out about it at the brew process, unfortunately). Dough-in at 70 to get desired 66C, i got the right temp and covered it. After 10 min i gave it a check and there was 70C, because heating element kept heating after i shut it off AND water below kept heating mash further. I've got no recirculation, so next time i'll recirculate my water with a 1L jug after the mash to even everything out. And, i guess, i'll shut my heating element a bit earlier. I managed to cool it down to 67 after 20 min, i guess. After i sparged the bag and stirred the wort i checked my pre-boil gravity with refractometer. 1.057, i was aiming at ~1.052. I guess, i missed some water measurements.
So i halfed my boil time to 30min (2g whirfloc powder at 10 min mark), at the end i got like 19L of boiled wort at 1.067 FG (i was aiming for ~1.062). Initially i planned to add only 1 pack of yeast, but ended up pitching 2, because of the date and the OG. Pitched at ~20C.
Fermentation started after 8 hours. And i completely f-ed up fermentation temp at first 12 hours, it was like 25-26C, but i manage to get it down to 18-19C with a swamp cooler and kept it the same for the rest of the active fermentation. At day 3 i did a dry hop, fermentation just started to decline, so i added hops and 25g of table sugar. On day 4 i raised temp to 23-24 to give yeast a kick to ferment everything that still's not fermented. Took hydrometer measurement today (day 5) and it's 1.020. Beer is very hazy, the taste is like 50-60 IBU, not pleasant at all, but resembles beer, almost no hop aroma and very yeasty, mouthfeel is watery. I hear bubbling like once per 30 sec.

My concern now is will be 1.020 my FG since fermentation seem to stall AND my mash was at high temp. And what to expect from the mess above that my brew turned to?
Thanks in advance, fellow brewers! I am opened for any suggestions and criticism. Cheers!

P.S. Sorry for mistakes made in the text, english is not my first language, my first language is russian (i am NOT from russia).

 

[stamandster]

Welcome! Many times tasting it with yeast in suspension will make it taste off. Let it ride for another week or two, and if it's no longer fermenting then cold crash it and using finings. Carbonation will help release some aromatics. Sounds like you'll have an "old school" West Coast IPA (which I adore passionately).

 

[fluketamer]

welcome to hbt
your english is very impressive.
for some silly reason (american egotism) i always assume its hard to source stuff outside the states.
great first post.
sounds like you are making beer. it will prolly be good with time once the yeast drops.

uneven mash heating can be a problem. recirc will help.

also use an additional temp probe halfway up the mashtun to get a feel of where the real temps are.

70 is not that high but its possible some of the wort got hotter than that. that might have denatured enzymes irreparably. and resulted in less than ideal fermentables and that could lead you to a high FG.

are you using a hydrometer or refractometer to measure FG?

higher preboil gravcity IMO is better than a lower preboil gravity so i wouldnt worry. as is higher post boil. better to be higher than lower than target if you ask me.
1 pack of yeast prolly would have worked but two better.. depending on how the yeast was stored will prolly affect the best use date. if its was stored hot it might have had lower viabilit and thus resulted in lower FG.

that initial high ferm temp could result in esters that may take a while to condition out if at all.
the day 3 sugar addition with the dry hop i am not familiar with but may result in more biotransformation (a good thing?)
its not done fermenting, needs more time.

the yeasty flavor will drop out and the hop will come out a little after that. the watery mouthfeel i have found improves with carbonation.
soudns like its just green
i dont think it is stalled i think its still going. if it is stalled it may taste a little sweeter than you intended and less boozy. but 1.067 to 1.020 is still 6 percent abv perfectly acceptable for beer. lol
welcome again to the forums

 

[IHATEBOILEDFISH]

@fluketamer @stamandster Thanks for your answers!!! I am very pleased that you read through my post and gave me not just an answer, but very full and informative suggestion.

As for measuring equipment, i use refractometer at 20-25C with my wort at pre-boil and post-boil. For post and mid-fermentation mesurement i use hydrometer, because i don't really wanna bother with refractometer corrections.
Sugar was added to prime yeast a bit, because i opened the lid of my ferm bucket. I didn't really want to have any risk of oxidation, so added sugar here is only to make some CO2 to push out O2.

Also, @fluketamer is right about esters. US-05 gave some peachy esters, which that particular strain of yeast is known for. But i guess it's not a big concern, because i don't really smell them at the moment and they may be suitable for an IPA. If it was some kind of extra juicy, fruity, etc NEIPA, than it would be even desirable.

I forgot to mention that i prefer bottles, because i am not a big drinker, i have like 4 pints a week at best and drink only with friends. So my carbonating and conditioning will be done that way. To share a bottle is easier than a pint from a keg.

 

[stamandster]

@IHATEBOILEDFISH Just something to check for, the refractometer may be off slightly. Mine was HIGH by 5 points and I needed to adjust them. Just something to check.

 

[IHATEBOILEDFISH]

@IHATEBOILEDFISH Just something to check for, the refractometer may be off slightly. Mine was HIGH by 5 points and I needed to adjust them. Just something to check.

I calibrated my refractometer with distilled water to 1.000 SG, before i took my measurements. I guess, 1.067 was about right.

 

[ncbrewer]

Check your refractometer against a hydrometer using a typical wort that you would have. Wort acts different than a sucrose solution.