Weird Right?

[Russhole]

I've been interested in homebrewing for as long as I can remember. I finally took the plunge and invested in a "Deluxe" starter kit from the local brew shop the day after christmas this year (my wife gave me cash and told me to get what ever I wanted). I also bought two beer kits; a heffeweizen, and a porter.
I brewed the heffeweizen based on the instructions with the kit, and it turned out pretty bad (i've had worse), so I decided to get creative with the porter. I pretty much used what they gave me with the kit, but I threw in a couple extra ingredients:

6 lbs Amber LME (in retrospect ???)
1 lb Dark DME
1/4 Lb Black Patent
1/2 lb Biscuit Malt
1/4 Lb Roast Barley
1 oz. Galena Hops @60 mins
1 oz Tettnang @ 15 mins
1/2 oz Star Anise @ 15 mins
1/2 lb oraganic "Mountain wildflower" honey @ flameout
1 packet safele s-04
O.G. 1.062

I brewed this on new years day this year. On 1/3 I woke up to a lout thud, and there was wort all over my ceiling (11 ft!!!), so I cleaned up and put a blow-off tube in the fermenter, and it bubbled insanely for the next few days. After it quit I checked the gravity and it was at 1.024, where it had remained as of when I checked the gravity a couple weeks ago on 3/2, and it was still at 1.024. I've been in the process of buying my new house lately, so I really didn't think about it, but I figured I might as well dump it today. I thought "Hell I'll check it one more time just to be sure" today and it's at 1.006!! Is it usual for fermentation to stick and then all of the sudden, jump down to a realistic FG. I've brewed three other brews since this one has been stuck, and they all fermented out within a week or so. Anyway, this beer tasted amazing as it sits now, so it's going to bottle in a couple of weeks after I get settled in my new place. I'm just wondering if this is commonplace, both the enormous explosion of beer, and then a seemingly stuck fermentation for a couple months, followed by sudden drop in F.G?

 

[NorthRiverS]

Russ,

Just a suggestion since everything fell into place. I brewed a Porter last year which I split into two different types. On bottling day, I brewed up 16oz. of Espresso coffee. Then I added the priming sugar to the beer, then bottled half of it. After that, I poured in the cooled espresso. Then, I bottled the remaining beer. Thus, I created a regular Porter and an Espresso Porter. They were both awesome.

Good luck

NRS

 

[Rockape66]

Sounds like you might have shocked your yeast. They just got themselves together and finished the job while you weren't paying attention.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Have you calibrated your hydrometer? 1020 isn't un common for extract beers and you hydro could be off. Come that with a possible high temp at reading time could get you the extra 4 points. AKA, the beer could have been fine. 1006 IMO is low for a Porter and I'd worry it was an infection of some type that started the fermentation back up. But since it tastes good, I'd bottle it and drink up once carbed. If you start noticing off flavors in any bottles, drink faster

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

Yeah, normally I'm the last one to scream "infection!" because I think most people on this site jump to that conclusion way too quickly, but if your beer was at 1.024 for months, then all the sudden dropped to 1.006, you've either got an infection or your hydrometer is broken.

As mentioned, 1.024 is not an uncommon FG for an extract beer and 1.006 is too low for a porter but if you like the flavor now, bottle or keg it and drink it quick because I'm thinking it's not going to get any better.

 

[Russhole]

Alright so I bottled this MONTHS after moving into my new place (which has a sweet cellar), and its been in the bottle for about a month now. IT IS REALLY FREAKING GOOD. The flavors are all extremely well blended, the anise seed is a really nice clean finishing flavor. If it was an infection, it was a damn tasty one. I have since started a couple meads, one is a sack mead made with local mountain honey, and one is made with Mangrove honey, both 1 gallon batches. I'm going to let those sit for quite a while, rack, and re-rack, and so on until I feel they're done. 70hrs of work a week dosen't lend itself to brewing beer. I can't wait for October to come so I can get back at it.

 

[Russhole]

Oh, I primed it with maple sugar, and it added a little bit of niceness to the whole thing. I'm going to leave it in the bottles till it cools down a bit. Summer is PBR season.