Unlucky batch #7

Brownherb86 · Feb 5, 2018

I brewed a recipe I wrote for a sweet stout without lactose, my 7th AG batch. Overshot my OG by 11 GU for an OG of 1.067! Up’d the hop addition to account, and pitched a 150mL slurry of US-05 into the 2.75 gallon batch. Lag time was <6 hrs. and fermentation seemed like it was going good until I woke up this morning and Krausen had fallen and all airlock activity stopped (approx. 56 hours after pitching).
Pitch temp. was 62* and wort temp. quickly rose to 68* because I can only heat with my current ferm. setup this is the temp I set the temp controller to instead of the usual 65*.
Grain bill was:
70% 2-row
10% white wheat malt
5% dark roasted
5% black patent
4% chocolate malt
3% crystal 60
3% rolled oats
.6 oz. EK Goldings @ 60 min.
Mashed at 158* for 75 minuets and boiled for 90.
Hopefully this batch doesn’t need to be dumped!

Smellyglove · Feb 5, 2018

You overpitched grossly on this one. You could have done with less than 50ml.

And, short lag time does not equal a good end result.

Brownherb86 · Feb 5, 2018

Ok I was thinking I underpitched. Thought I needed 150 mL for original recipe. Thanks for the response Smellyglove. Gonna take a gravity reading here shortly and see what the damage is.

Brownherb86 · Feb 6, 2018

So I pulled a hydrometer sample and it’s right at 1.030. Pretty sure it’s done after only 3 days but I bumped the temp up to 70*, gave it a swirl, and gonna check again in a week or two. I believe the high mash temp is the issue and not my beloved yeast. Hopefully it’ll drop a few more points for a little more abv but no signs of life left in there. It actually tasted not bad, sweet and sticky, but drinkable.
I guess, you brew and you learn

eadavis80 · Feb 6, 2018

Well, if the FG stays at 1.030, it will be a SWEET stout. Mashing near to 160 is probably the biggest reason why, I'm guessing. Hope the swirl and warm up get our gravity to 1.025 at least.