Why are my brews coming out sweet?

[brokemxer]

So I am curious about where my final gravity readings should be landing.

I tend to think I am having a reoccurring issue with stuck fermentation, but in all honesty I'm not too sure. I've made 10+ batches of different types of beer, all ales, and all extract with specialty grains. It seems like the darker style beers I make reach between 1.020 and 1.035 and most of the time end up tasting sweeter than what I'm hoping for. I've tried tinkering with my fermentation lengths, with and without a secondary, and I keep hitting right in this same area. I always ferment for at least a week and then start checking for a consistent gravity reading for three days straight so I'm pretty sure my fermentation is complete...

What do you guys think?

 

[eltorrente]

What are your typical OG's and what type of yeast do you use?

Do you make starters? What do you do for aeration?

 

[Jaybird]

Aeration is the key to good ferments. There are a boatload of things that can contribute to a high FG. Ferment temps, aeration, recipe, yeast selection, yeast age and population, you name it. Tell us a little about your process.

Cheers
Jay

 

[Hopper5000]

I would look into pitching rates and yeast starters. Also oxygenation of the wort before pitching is important.

 

[RachmaelBenApplebaum]

need more info, but can be due to the aforementioned causes. Also if you're doing extract I found most of my extract batches came out sweeter than their AG counterparts. Let us know how you do your home brew and more help will flow

 

[unionrdr]

Fermenting for a week could be part of it. The yeasties have their own timetable that doesn't coincide with ours. you may not be allowing them the time they need to finish,over & above ferment temps,healthy yeast pitch,etc.
Also,some grains like crystal/caramel grains contribute sweetness that doesn't ferment out. So you have to be careful how much you use.

 

[spark_plug]

Something else that may make a difference is how long you are steeping your specialty grains, and the temps you are steeping at. When I went all grain brewing, I was having similar issues with poor attenuation. So I started playing with different extended mash times, and greatly improved my brewhouse efficiency and was able to get my beers to dry up much better. So you could try steeping for an extra 15-30 minutes to see if that helps.

 

[unionrdr]

It's not so much the length of steeping time as the temperature in regard to efficiency. Time & water amount effect how much is soaked out of the grains in this regard.

 

[spark_plug]

It's not so much the length of steeping time as the temperature in regard to efficiency. Time & water amount effect how much is soaked out of the grains in this regard.

Well length plays a pretty huge part as well. As stated the temp is also a huge part as well due to how soluble your starches become at different temps and the variety of sugars created at the higher temps. But too short a mash length is not going to give adequate time to break down the more complex sugar chains during the mash.

Although he is not doing all grain, BierMuncher's post here points to this as being a potential problem as well. So this is very much worth trying. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/controlling-attenuation-through-mash-times-60576/

 

[unionrdr]

He's steeping rather than mashing...even partial mashing. Temp is mportant to steep the sugars out,but not convert them from simple sugars to long chain ones that are for color & flavor. That'd give a higher FG as well.

 

[MuddyCreek]

I had some of the same problems about 6 months ago... Came down to ultimately to insufficient pitch rates.

If you are using dry yeast, aeration isn't as important as long as you pitch sufficient amounts of yeast. (There's alot more yeast-monsters in a packet of dry yeast than a smack-pack.)

If you do use a smack-pack and starter or washed-yeast and starter you should look into aeration. One of the easiest ways in the world to do this in the home-brew world is go down and pick up a good old-fashioned fish tank aerator with some extra aeration stones. Soak the hoses and stones in sanitizer after you clean them up well and then put them into your wort for 10 minutes or so before you pitch your yeast. (It helps to weigh down the aeration stones so they sink. Make sure you consider that, otherwise they kind of float and it's a pain in the ass.)

The key with aeration (regardless of the rig you get to do it) is cleanliness and sanitation. You're leaving your wort exposed to oxygen and air for a bit longer so the entire area as well as the aeration delivery components need to be as clean and sanitized as you can make them.

However, when you do aerate, regardless of the yeast you pitch, you can expect a pretty impressive fermentation show! Bubble bubble, toil and trouble...

 

[brokemxer]

Interesting. Thanks for the help everyone!

It looks like I may have to work on aeration and I'm going to have to start making starters instead of just pitching straight out of the tube...

For those of you who asked, my process is still very basic. I tend to follow the basic instructions the guys at my brewery supply place give me. They haven't mentioned anything to me about starters, or aeration... Anything I know about either of those comes from the helpful people around these forums. Anyways, basically my process is along these lines:

-Sanitize everything
-steep the specialty grains according to directions on whatever recipe I'm using
-boil/mix in extract and boil for 60 minutes or so with hop additions when necessary
-after boil, add water to get to desired volume
-cool wort to proper pitching temp
-transfer wort from brewpot to fermenter (this is where what little aeration I've done happens, I intentionally hold my siphon tube at the top of the carboy and splash the wort around)
-pitch the room temperature yeast straight from the tube
-stick in back room at room temp and check gravity until it stays consistent over three days.


Again, thanks for the help everyone! Advice/criticisms are more than welcome (I'm sure there will be a few...)

 

[unionrdr]

Look into late extract additions for lighter color & cleaner flavor. Top off with water that's been in the fridge a day or two to get wort temps down to mid-60's. I use a dual layer fine mesh strainer to get the gunk out of my wort. But it also aerates nicely.