Some questions about my porter?

[jbug440]

Brewed a chocolate hazelnut porter. My OG was 1.061 it's been 21 days in primary. Took a gravity reading and it's at 1.022 my expected final gravity according to beer smith is supposed to be 1.017. I'm a little worried it won't finish that low. I plan to leave it for another week and see if it drops more.

I was planning on washing the yeast, so if I have to add yeast I was going to rack to secondary and sprinkle in some notty. Is this a bad idea? I'm also trying to figure out why I didn't hit my FG. My mash got a little screwy due to thermometer issues and I ended up mashing high between 160-162 degrees. Could this have caused my under attenuation? Thanks for any help.

Cheers
Mike

 

[scinerd3000]

What yeast did you use initially for the fermentation? 1.022 is slightly on the high side but not unheard of for a porter especially one with hazelnuts. They tend to add in some unfermentables which may prove top heighten the gravity a bit. That plus with the high mash temp could deffinitly mess with the numbers....I also dont know that adding notty will do much for you but it cant really hurt to try....

 

[badmajon]

I'm pretty sure that's all you're going to get, I wouldn't worry about it. 1.022 isn't undrinkable. If it were 1.030 then I'd say repitch but now you're just going to have a sweet porter/stout which isn't bad given the style. Mashing at 162 would definately have some effect. What did you use for aeration?

 

[jbug440]

I used wyeast 1338 European ale yeast. I havent added the hazelnut extract yet, I do that at kegging. I did add 8 ounces of cocoa though with 5 minutes left in the boil. Sorry for not clarifying this earlier. Would the cocoa affect this?

 

[jbug440]

I'm pretty sure that's all you're going to get, I wouldn't worry about it. 1.022 isn't undrinkable. If it were 1.030 then I'd say repitch but now you're just going to have a sweet porter/stout which isn't bad given the style. Mashing at 162 would definately have some effect. What did you use for aeration?

This makes me sad. I wanted this to turn out near perfect. First time I've brewed for a party. Hopefully it's not too sweet.

 

[cyclonite]

This makes me sad. I wanted this to turn out near perfect. First time I've brewed for a party. Hopefully it's not too sweet.

Don't worry, 1.022 will be nice for a chocolate hazelnut porter. A little sweetness and extra body will complement that beer very well.

 

[day_trippr]

I used wyeast 1338 European ale yeast. I havent added the hazelnut extract yet, I do that at kegging. I did add 8 ounces of cocoa though with 5 minutes left in the boil. Sorry for not clarifying this earlier. Would the cocoa affect this?

Cocoa will definitely raise the gravity reading without providing any fermentables. When I do my chocolate stout the 8 ounces of cocoa powder I dump in at flame out jacks the OG by a good 10 points over the calculation (software doesn't know how to handle cocoa powder). And if any of that makes it into your sample flask at any point later it'll bump your SG up there, too...

Cheers!