Not Fermenting

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Black Devil Dog said:
Maybe your hydrometer is not reading right.

What does water at 20deg read?

Is there/was there a krausen?
Hydrometer reads 1.000 at 20deg

No there wasn't/didn't see any.
There is a bit of muck around the sides though at the top.

manticle said:
700g of dextrinous malt mashed in a region that favours alpha amylase which breaks starches down into dextrins.

Follow the tips in that link but there is a fair chance your brew is done.

Why are you adding that much carapils and then mashing that high?
The recipe was 0.45kg of carapils and 0.25kg of crystal but the supplier didn't have crystal and they said both were very similar and it should be ok to use the carapils as a sub.

That is what beer smith told me to do...I'm a bit of a noob at this atm.



manticle said:
What yeast?
Safale US-05

Pratty1 said:
6kg of malt and only 1044 gravity....that to me says it didn't mash right, even at 68c.
yer... It was meant to be a target SG of 1060
 
700g of cara anything is a lot in 20-25 L.

If you heard the HB shop guy right then his advice is not great. Carapils is not a good replacement for crystal or other cara malts. It is light in colour and used mainly to add body and mouthfeel. Other crystals do this to an extent but also add more in the way of flavour - caramel, toffee, raisin etc - depending on variety.

Mashing in the high 60s and lower 70s will also provide the dextrins that add body and mouthfeel so essentially you have doubled up.

When you mash, there are 2 main sets of enzymes that cut starch chains up into sugars. One of these is favoured by higher temperatures (say 66-72). It is called alpha-amylase and takes a short while to cut starches up into dextrins. Dextrins are not as fermentable by brewer's yeast as some other sugars like maltose and the unfermentability will lead to a higher FG and a more full bodied beer, quite possibly with good head formation and retention.

The other enzyme is beta amylase and is favoured by temps around 59-65. This takes longer to convert starch to simpler sugars like maltose which yeast is more easily able to ferment. An abundance of these sugars in the wort will lead to a beer that finishes with a lower FG and is drier, possibly thinner and less full bodied.

Depending on style, you can deliberately manipulate your mash to favour one more than the other - either by selecting low temps for a drier beer or high temps for a more full bodied beer. Alternatively you can mash in the middle of the range to get a balance of both. You can also target one and then the other and manipulate times to get the final profile you prefer - this requires the ability to step mash and is a little more complicated (not that complicated but you should know why you are doing it before trying it out).

For now, I would suggest that you do a single rest at around 65 and add no more than 250g of cara total to a simple US pale type beer.
Next beer either mash lower or higher depending on personal preference. Read about what enzymes do and what sugars are what, then manipulate your beer according to style and preference based on that middle point. More cara/less cara, higher mash/lower mash, etc.

I hope that makes sense.
 
Nothing to do with the fermentation but the t-number refers to the pellet processing. There should still be a specific hop type like cascade, fuggles, hallertau, glacier, etc. Different hop varieties have very different qualities in what they add to bittering, flavour and aroma.

Try a stone and wood pacific, a sierra nevada pale and note that one has passionfruit, the other grapefruit/citrus. These flavours are hop variety related.

So what were the hops (besides t-90) and what kind of beer were you trying to make?
 
Allowing for grain absorption and assuming no sparge biab, water volume numbers could be right.

Shouldn't account for high fg but worth checking.
 
manticle said:
Nothing to do with the fermentation but the t-number refers to the pellet processing. There should still be a specific hop type like cascade, fuggles, hallertau, glacier, etc. Different hop varieties have very different qualities in what they add to bittering, flavour and aroma.

Try a stone and wood pacific, a sierra nevada pale and note that one has passionfruit, the other grapefruit/citrus. These flavours are hop variety related.

So what were the hops (besides t-90) and what kind of beer were you trying to make?
20g Centennial @ 60 min
20g Cascade @ 30 min

Was trying for a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale Clone

Prob could of done with some Chinook instead of Centennial @ 60min then move the other two down to 30min & 15min
 
Centennial is fine. Chinook would also be fine - slightly more piney and resinous.

Definitely mash lower and use less cara for this kind of beer next time.

bottling or kegging?

Some later hop additions will also work as suggested.
Chilling or no chilling?
 
kegging and no chill.
Would you recommend doing no chill for a less bitter beer or just reduce the hops?
 
I recommend brewing as is and adjusting next time if the beer is too bitter for your palate.

Keg is less of an issue for high/unfinished beer than bottles but finishing conditioning a beer is a worthwhile exercise regardless.
 
One final question I cannot see answered so far in this thread, and that is what was your volume into the fermenter?
 
warra48 said:
One final question I cannot see answered so far in this thread, and that is what was your volume into the fermenter?
18.5L
 
18.5 litres into the fermenter from close to 6 kg of grains at 1.044 OG does really tend to indicate your problem originated with your mash regime.
Advice above about mashing temperatures and quantity of crystal type malts should help set you on the right path.
 
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