Unfermentable sugars

[butterblum]

I ended up with a pretty high FG on the 2.5 gallon Session IPA I just brewed.
5oz Carapils
6oz Honey Malt
8oz Quaker Oats
1lb Munich
3lb Maris Otter
Mash~156deg
OG 1.048
FG ~1.019

Should I just mash lower, like at 152?
How can I account for this when formulating the recipe? BeerSmith told me my FG would be 5 points lower than what it is, even with a 156deg mash temp.

 

[madscientist451]

You were trying for a session IPA, so it looks like you were successful with about 4% ABV.
If you reduce your mash temp you should see a lower FG. But before you do that, how did the beer come out, how does it taste?

 

[butterblum]

I have only had an uncarbonated room temp sample, but I did not notice it being overly sweet. I was trying to give the beer some more malt character and make it less dry than some of the session IPAs I have had - I guess I accomplished that.
I will have to wait a week for it carb up and try it then.

 

[RM-MN]

All the formulas for finding the final gravity depend on the average attenuation for the yeast. Remember that it is an average and sometimes the yeast will quit a bit early and sometimes the yeast will be extra hungry and eat more of the sugars. Your 5 points higher than expected could be attributed to the yeast rather than the calculation of Beersmith. Once you pitch the yeast, they have control and all you can do is provide them with the environment that tends to improve their attenuation.

 

[ESBrewer]

You could mash lower/longer (even reduce specialty grains). But you want to check that the grains are carefully crushed (Otter and Munich especially) so that enzymes are released early in the mash. Make sure that the actual mash pH is inside the optimum range for mash enzymes to work. Also check that the temperature stays constant for the entire mash period and is equally distributed in different parts of the mash and the mash is homogenous. The programs need to make a lot of assumptions and the reality could be somewhat different.

 

[Comfort_Zone]

Wait till it's carbed. My guess is it'll be fine. There's a LOT more to flavor and mouthfeel than just a few gravity points.

 

[Duffman870727]

Keep notes on everything you did, evaluate the beer when it is ready and see how you like it, and what you might want to change. Could be you like the F.G, high as it is, for this recipe, and just want to get the ABV back up to your plan. Increase the malt bill for higher OG next time. To dry it out a little more, go 154 and maybe 15 min longer, also bump up the malt bill for a couple points OG (idea is knock a few off the FG, and add a few to the OG to hit your ABV target).

The thing with recipe development is that there usually is some fine tuning required after brewing something for the first time. Beersmith is great and gives you a guideline for what to expect, but you never really know until you run it through your system. I practically never hit the numbers Beersmith gives the first time around, and just adjust as needed to get the beer the way I like. I ignore the FG calcs, and go with what the actual first ferment was as a baseline for what to expect in future batches.

 

[butterblum]

Unfortunately, BeerSmith lost its mind and deleted my recipe with all of my notes......
I will probably start by mashing for 75 minutes - I haven't done an iodine test before, I just go with visual observation. I had a hard time discerning with this particular brew whether the haze present in the mash liquid was due to a still-in-progress mash or proteins from the oats.