IPA final gravity 1.001?

[Miran]

Two weeks in frementer. Morgan IPA. Air lock still active. Used washed yeast (mangroove jacks 41) from previous brew. I guess two much yeast Air lock still bubbling.
Initial gravity 1.044 and gravity now stay at 1.001. Going to bottle it tomorrow. Checked the taste it is ok but some how lean but not sure why gravity is such a low?
Single hopped (galaxy) three time, 30 minute boiling. two weeks in frementer and one week in frementer.

 

[kadmium]

Two weeks in frementer. Morgan IPA. Air lock still active. Used washed yeast (mangroove jacks 41) from previous brew. I guess two much yeast Air lock still bubbling.
Initial gravity 1.044 and gravity now stay at 1.001. Going to bottle it tomorrow. Checked the taste it is ok but some how lean but not sure why gravity is such a low?
Single hopped (galaxy) three time, 30 minute boiling. two weeks in frementer and one week in frementer.

You say washed yeast? Is it possible you picked up an infection? It's unusual to get it so dry using standard yeast, even pitching straight onto a yeast cake.

Did you add much sugar / dextrose? Or was it all extract?

You say 2 weeks fermenter and one week fermenter. Not sure what that means? Did you transfer to a new fermenter? You could have picked up an infection which has driven the gravity so low.

 

[shacked]

The Belgian ale yeast from MJ is a bit of a beast so your reading might be correct. Here are my thoughts:

1. Check the accuracy of your hydrometer. What does it read in plain water for example (3 or 4 points off and you'd be at the 90% attenuation level which is not too crazy for the yeast strain)
2. What is the temp of your sample?
3. Three weeks isn't a lot of time for an infection to take hold (although not impossible) - I think the transfers and the yeast reuse may be worth considering. If there is no noticeable off flavor then I'd bottle and keep an eye on it.

 

[kadmium]

The Belgian ale yeast from MJ is a bit of a beast so your reading might be correct. Here are my thoughts:

1. Check the accuracy of your hydrometer. What does it read in plain water for example (3 or 4 points off and you'd be at the 90% attenuation level which is not too crazy for the yeast strain)
2. What is the temp of your sample?
3. Three weeks isn't a lot of time for an infection to take hold (although not impossible) - I think the transfers and the yeast reuse may be worth considering. If there is no noticeable off flavor then I'd bottle and keep an eye on it.

Yeah you're right. The most likely infection to cause low FG is pediococcus but that gives a solvent off taste usually.

Sometimes extracts do go low in FG which is why they sometimes substitute DME in for LME.

Yeast could have gone to 90% but if the hydrometer is accurate, then it could just be the extract? Not sure

 

[shacked]

Yeah you're right. The most likely infection to cause low FG is pediococcus but that gives a solvent off taste usually.

I'd suggest that there are all kinda of yeasts and bacteria that could cause an infection and over attenuation - pediococcus, sure but it's only one of many. Could also be a wild saccharomyces (probably more likely given the timeframe) or a brett strain, alcohol tolerant lacto or even something more exotic: Nonconventional Yeasts and Bacteria

Extract is usually mashed at a relatively high temp to get max efficiency / yield. This typically results in beers that under attenuate due to more complex sugars in the extract.

If I had to guess, it's probably the hydrometer / sample temp. Adjustment calculator for sample temp here: Hydrometer Temperature Adjustment Calculator - Brewer's Friend

 

[butisitart]

Two weeks in frementer. Morgan IPA. Air lock still active. Used washed yeast (mangroove jacks 41) from previous brew. I guess two much yeast Air lock still bubbling.
Initial gravity 1.044 and gravity now stay at 1.001. Going to bottle it tomorrow. Checked the taste it is ok but some how lean but not sure why gravity is such a low?
Single hopped (galaxy) three time, 30 minute boiling. two weeks in frementer and one week in frementer.

happy to get shouted down here, but my (unscientific) observations are;
airlock @ 2 weeks bubbling does not equal too much pitched yeast.
if you pitched too much yeast, it would be just more crazy frenetic in the early ferment period, but the activity period of time should be still about normal.
so it should go crazy days 2-3 then settle down as normal

 

[Miran]

You say washed yeast? Is it possible you picked up an infection? It's unusual to get it so dry using standard yeast, even pitching straight onto a yeast cake.

Did you add much sugar / dextrose? Or was it all extract?

You say 2 weeks fermenter and one week fermenter. Not sure what that means? Did you transfer to a new fermenter? You could have picked up an infection which has driven the gravity so low.

My apology! It was two weeks in one frementer. Dry hopped in second week with all precautions.
Added 100 grams dextrose and 500 grams DME to extract (900 grams) during boil. Total brew volume was 9 liters.
There was not any off flavour taste after two weeks. Seems over attenuation and I am trying to figure it out?!
Temperature was around 24 to 28 degree C.Hydrometer (kegland one) checked and is ok.
Still I think it is because of too much yeast. I used MGJ yeast 41 which was washed off from previous brew. Added some sugar to it after sperating sediments and kept it in fridge for a week. left it outside five to six hours before pitching. checked the smell before using it. It was damn nice and fruity.
I already bottled it.
What do you think has been wrong? Should I stop using washed yeast? What else can cause such a high over attenuation? How can I stop it?

 

[Miran]

I'd suggest that there are all kinda of yeasts and bacteria that could cause an infection and over attenuation - pediococcus, sure but it's only one of many. Could also be a wild saccharomyces (probably more likely given the timeframe) or a brett strain, alcohol tolerant lacto or even something more exotic: Nonconventional Yeasts and Bacteria

Extract is usually mashed at a relatively high temp to get max efficiency / yield. This typically results in beers that under attenuate due to more complex sugars in the extract.

If I had to guess, it's probably the hydrometer / sample temp. Adjustment calculator for sample temp here: Hydrometer Temperature Adjustment Calculator - Brewer's Friend

Is there any way to check the healthiness of yeast other than its smell? Is it possible for washed yeast to smell ok but still infected?

 

[butisitart]

Is there any way to check the healthiness of yeast other than its smell? Is it possible for washed yeast to smell ok but still infected?

depends on what you mean by infected.
for mine, any change will be an infection, so you've got harmless infection (mutates but not in a bad way), or bad infection (smells off, bad mutation). so even on first pitch, you've possibly got some infection / mutation going on. hence the 'no more than 5 recycles' yardstick.
moreso with my liquid yeasts, but when they start to smell 'generic', that is, missing the complexities of the first time round, then i figure there's mutation, but not necessarily bad.
so (may get shouted down here), if your yeast smells ok, then good to pitch

 

[shacked]

Is there any way to check the healthiness of yeast other than its smell? Is it possible for washed yeast to smell ok but still infected?

Are you washing your yeast or repitching slurry?

If you are washing, I'd suggest the risk of infection, cell damage and/or mutation is not worth it. Repitching from one batch to another is less risky but still not without risk. Having said all that, I'll generally go 2 or 3 generations with the same yeast but I pitch slurry from one fermenter to the other and don't cold crash to maintain cell counts.

I'd suggest that your yeast is healthy given the attenuation; it's just whether it has picked up a few mates along the way.

Here is the whitelabs guide on re-using yeast: Yeast Storage and Maintenance | White Labs

 

[shacked]

Still I think it is because of too much yeast. I used MGJ yeast 41 which was washed off from previous brew. Added some sugar to it after sperating sediments and kept it in fridge for a week. left it outside five to six hours before pitching. checked the smell before using it. It was damn nice and fruity.

With respect, this is unlikely. Underpitching can cause underattenuation but overpitching doesn't cause overattenuation.

 

[Grmblz]

Two additions of Galaxy, hop creep? Although it seems a bit quick for that effect.

 

[Miran]

Two additions of Galaxy, hop creep? Although it seems a bit quick for that effect.

Adding hops is another story for me! I am new in home brewery and trying to understand difference between hops. To be frank most of them smell the same for me and I cannot understand how to choose/recognize them. So I decided to brew ten liters batches with single hops. Now I am using mostly Cooper IPA with different hops one at a time. 15 grams 30 minutes boil, another 15 grams end of boil and 10 grams one week later dry hopping. Fuggles, goldings, Citra, Hallertau and galaxy till now done. Any better idea to improve my senses of hops? I don't want to mix them till get more familiar with them.

 

[kadmium]

Those hops are all quite different.

Fuggles is a classic English hop that imparts woody / earthy notes however some perceive it as mouldy / dirt

Hallertau is a noble German hop, which is spicy, floral and even hay like (I don't get hay from it)

Galaxy and Citra are the most alike. Citra being more of a citrus bomb, and galaxy being more of a grapefruit / citrus fruit / stone fruit explosion.

They should also be used differently, with some being more for bittering, and some only for aroma or flavour.

Galaxy for instance shouldn't be boiled, and only steeped or "whirlpooled" and if boiled, at most 10 minutes.

Citra can be used both as a bittering (boiled) and steeped/ whirlpooled.

Both citra and galaxy are great dry hopped (added to the fermenting beer)

The fuggles and hallertau can be dual purpose, but probably not ideal for dry hopping, and the styles they go into generally aren't dry hopped.


Also, I get a similar smell on hops, they don't really smell (or taste) like what they will in the final product. Once they have been boiled, steeped or dry hopped their oils change (through isomerization or bio transformation and other things) which brings out the flavours and aromas as they are described.

In essence, raw hops don't smell or taste like their descriptions. That's a description of their final form in the finished beer.

The most important thing with fresh hops (or pellets) is to make sure they don't look off, strange colours and importantly don't smell "cheesy". I get a parmesan cheese type smell from bad hops, which does come through in the beer.

In short, SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers are great at trying out their nuances, but some hops don't do well in a smash style beer. Noble German, English and some others are more reserved for their styles. Lagers, porters, stouts, dark ales etc.

If you want to read up on all the hops, brulosophy do a "hop chronicals" series which is an interesting read.

 

[Grmblz]

Adding hops is another story for me! I am new in home brewery and trying to understand difference between hops. To be frank most of them smell the same for me and I cannot understand how to choose/recognize them. So I decided to brew ten liters batches with single hops. Now I am using mostly Cooper IPA with different hops one at a time. 15 grams 30 minutes boil, another 15 grams end of boil and 10 grams one week later dry hopping. Fuggles, goldings, Citra, Hallertau and galaxy till now done. Any better idea to improve my senses of hops? I don't want to mix them till get more familiar with them.

Hi Miran, that's a really good way of going about it, change one thing at a time and evaluate the result, but you can save yourself some time, as Kadmium points out, some hops are for bittering (boiling) some are for aroma/flavour and not to be used for boiling/bittering, others are multi purpose and can be used for both so look at the descriptions on the web sites, they usually tell you what the expected use of that particular hop is.
Read and re-read Kadmiums post ^ it's a very good starting point.

 

[butisitart]

Adding hops is another story for me! I am new in home brewery and trying to understand difference between hops. To be frank most of them smell the same for me and I cannot understand how to choose/recognize them. So I decided to brew ten liters batches with single hops. Now I am using mostly Cooper IPA with different hops one at a time. 15 grams 30 minutes boil, another 15 grams end of boil and 10 grams one week later dry hopping. Fuggles, goldings, Citra, Hallertau and galaxy till now done. Any better idea to improve my senses of hops? I don't want to mix them till get more familiar with them.

your other balancing act with bittering hops vs aroma is pretty simple.
most bittering hops (dr rudi, pride of ringwood etc) have high ibu's. so that's the engine room for bittering up your beer (which is necessary)
your aromas (hallertau etc) will usually have way lower ibu's, so they are not as potent per volume.
loosely, and just to point you in the general direction, if your germanic brew needs an ibu of 30, and your dr rudi runs at 12% while your hallertau runs at 2% ibu, then you would need 6 times as much hallertau to achieve your bittering level. which gets pretty expensive.
so, (this is hypothetical, just to give you an idea), you might load up 20-24 ibu of your 30 with dr rudi at the start of the boil, then add the other 6-8 ibu of hallertau much later, so you get the hallertau flavour piggybacking on the dr rudi diesel.
this is a generic post, so i'm giving more a loose philosophy rather than instructions on how to. agree with above, see kadmium above. hope it gives you a sense of why you might go long on a high ibu hops and shorter on the 'style' hops that suits your beer.

 

[Miran]

your other balancing act with bittering hops vs aroma is pretty simple.
most bittering hops (dr rudi, pride of ringwood etc) have high ibu's. so that's the engine room for bittering up your beer (which is necessary)
your aromas (hallertau etc) will usually have way lower ibu's, so they are not as potent per volume.
loosely, and just to point you in the general direction, if your germanic brew needs an ibu of 30, and your dr rudi runs at 12% while your hallertau runs at 2% ibu, then you would need 6 times as much hallertau to achieve your bittering level. which gets pretty expensive.
so, (this is hypothetical, just to give you an idea), you might load up 20-24 ibu of your 30 with dr rudi at the start of the boil, then add the other 6-8 ibu of hallertau much later, so you get the hallertau flavour piggybacking on the dr rudi diesel.
this is a generic post, so i'm giving more a loose philosophy rather than instructions on how to. agree with above, see kadmium above. hope it gives you a sense of why you might go long on a high ibu hops and shorter on the 'style' hops that suits your beer.

too many likes ! I got the answer of my next question which was how to go for hops combination. Let me ask you about maltiness of beer. Is there any way to have some balance ( ok some times biased) hoppiness and maltiness of beer. Still alot of beer lovers wants to taste alittle bit malts beside hops?

 

[Miran]

Those hops are all quite different.

Fuggles is a classic English hop that imparts woody / earthy notes however some perceive it as mouldy / dirt

Hallertau is a noble German hop, which is spicy, floral and even hay like (I don't get hay from it)

Galaxy and Citra are the most alike. Citra being more of a citrus bomb, and galaxy being more of a grapefruit / citrus fruit / stone fruit explosion.

They should also be used differently, with some being more for bittering, and some only for aroma or flavour.

Galaxy for instance shouldn't be boiled, and only steeped or "whirlpooled" and if boiled, at most 10 minutes.

Citra can be used both as a bittering (boiled) and steeped/ whirlpooled.

Both citra and galaxy are great dry hopped (added to the fermenting beer)

The fuggles and hallertau can be dual purpose, but probably not ideal for dry hopping, and the styles they go into generally aren't dry hopped.


Also, I get a similar smell on hops, they don't really smell (or taste) like what they will in the final product. Once they have been boiled, steeped or dry hopped their oils change (through isomerization or bio transformation and other things) which brings out the flavours and aromas as they are described.

In essence, raw hops don't smell or taste like their descriptions. That's a description of their final form in the finished beer.

The most important thing with fresh hops (or pellets) is to make sure they don't look off, strange colours and importantly don't smell "cheesy". I get a parmesan cheese type smell from bad hops, which does come through in the beer.

In short, SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) beers are great at trying out their nuances, but some hops don't do well in a smash style beer. Noble German, English and some others are more reserved for their styles. Lagers, porters, stouts, dark ales etc.

If you want to read up on all the hops, brulosophy do a "hop chronicals" series which is an interesting read.

Let me ask this... Does Fuggle or Willamette (I hope spelling is ok) in Stout do any magic if you want to add some coffee and cocoa beans to frementer? Do we need to add them or we just add it becasue we have been told? I understand now that citra change (alot) the taste of IPA but regarding fuggles/Willamette in Stout.. I can not understand difference in taste if there are any other added stuff into frementer ( my case.. coffee or cardamom) ? Is adding hops to beer a "MUST"?

 

[kadmium]

I would say hops are an essential ingredient in beer, if not for anything other than to balance out the sweetness.

If you had no hops, you would have no bitterness and would need to find another way to balance it out.

Hops do help with preserving the beer and keeping other bacteria in check (not sure how much hops is actually needed) and they do act as a foam stabiliser and preserver.

Hopeless beer is called a grooit and I don't particularly like it.

 

[Grmblz]

I would say hops are an essential ingredient in beer, if not for anything other than to balance out the sweetness.

If you had no hops, you would have no bitterness and would need to find another way to balance it out.

Hops do help with preserving the beer and keeping other bacteria in check (not sure how much hops is actually needed) and they do act as a foam stabiliser and preserver.

Hopeless beer is called a grooit and I don't particularly like it.

"HOPELESS!" Weeelll without hops I guess it would be.