Help Required

[DavidSquire]

Hi,

I need some advice. My problem is that I was attempting to do an extract recipe with steeped grains a foreign extra stout. I missed my OG by ten points and couldnt dilute any further. The OG was 1.086, I pitched a 1 litre starter of Whitelabs WLP001. It fermented OK for a week and started to slow with krausen dropping back into the brew, I checked the gravity and it was 1040. I shook the **** out of it and the fermentation continued slowly with krausen increasing for another week. The fermentation stopped last week and has been stable at 1030 since. I racked into a secondary on Saturday. Temperature has been stable for the fermentation 20-22C. If I do my maths on the attenuation for this yeast worst case should be 1.020. As you can see I am still along way from that one. What are my options to achieve a gravity that wont give my bottle bombs?

Can I repitch a conditioning yeast of the same type 3 days before bottling as per Beer Captured to help with carbonation and reduction?

 

[GMK]

OK....

Leave in the secondary for 2 weeks - could dry hop with an ounce of cascade or EKG.
Take sg reading - if it is still high around 1025-1030 then bottle without priming sugar.
It will take longer to bottle condition but the sg will eventually drop in the bottles and produce gas.
I have done this with RIS before.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Well, bottle bombs are not wanted. I wonder what your aeration regime was?
It might be well to rack to secondary and pitch 11g champagne yeast (Nottingham would do nearly as well)

What was the recipe?

Jovial Monk

 

[DavidSquire]

The recipe was out of Beer Captured. It is listed below.

155g Flaked oats- toasted for 1hr @ 150C
584g Roasted Barley
350g Chocolate
311g Amber Malt
77g Black Malt


233g maltodextrin
5kg light dme

40g Super Alpha 60min
25g Cascade 15min
25g Willamette 15min
25g Cascade 5min
25g Willamette 5min

WLP001 Whitelabs California Ale Yeast

Steep Speciality grains @66C for 30minutes in 5L water.
Strain and sparge with 5L water @ 75C.
Bring to boil, add maltodextrin, Light DME and 60min hops, bring volume of boil upto 13.5L. Continue the hopping schedule. Cool in laundry sink changing water every 10minutes for 40 minutes. Strain into fermenter with lotsa splashing. Add water to 27L with lotsa splashing. Pour between 2 fermenters to aerate twice. Foam reached the top of fermenter. Added 1L yeast starter @ 23C. Racked to secondary after 3 weeks of primary fermentation.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Hmmm Amber malt must be mashed, as must the flaked oats. Your beer is full of unfermentable starch and the yucky dried corn syrup is only 1/3 fermentable. I have no way of calculating a FG from that recipe because of all that. Rouse and let ferment another week is my suggestion.

Some of these recipe collections suck! They have you steeping ingredients that should be mashed and suggest ingredients like the md that most brewers would stop using after even only 2-3 brews. Please any recipe containing flaked this or that or a malt that has no enzymes like Amber please buy twice as much crushed pale malt and do a little stovetop mash for 75 mins!

Jovial Monk

 

[DavidSquire]

Hi Jovial,

Thanks for your reply. OOPPPPPPS :blink: The amber malt was a recommended substitute for 55L Crystal from a HBS. So this needs to be mashed. OK no problem. I just graduated to a partial mash. At least I know where I ****ed up. Should I just throw this brew and put it down to a lesson?

 

[GMK]

David

Never throw Beer unless you have to....

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Hear hear!

JM

 

[Guest Lurker]

Never throw a beer unless you are throwing it at the guy who told you amber malt and 55l crystal are the same thing.