To Bottle Or Not To Bottle.

[kyleg]

Hey, I've started this as a new topic since it really isn't relevant in the transferring fermenters thread, also I wanted to grab some attention with a different title.

Short story: American stout, BIAB, OG: 1.061 target FG 1.013. Current gravity is 1.021 and has been for a 2 weeks

46L batch, initially pitched 2 wyeast 1056 packets to each fermenter (one has about 23l and the other about 20l). So I actually got about 43 L I reckon. Pitched half a sachet of rehydrated saf us-05 about a week ago then checked gravity after uu4 days and it was still 1.021

Should I just bottle it and be done with it? Will this highish FG affect the Taste of the beer to a great extent. Maybe taste a bit too sweet?

Just don't want this double batch to taste bad!

Thanks for any help!

 

[gunbrew]

More info on what you have done so far will help, like:
What was your recipie?
What was your mash temprature?
How does it taste now?
What was the fermentation temprature?
What temp is it sitting at now?
Just trying to get an idea of weather you have a stuck ferment or if your beer has reached final gravity.

Ages ago I had a stuck ferment.
I got it going again by opening the lid to let some air in, shook the fermenter lots to airiate and added some malt.

Or if 1021 is the final gravity it may be ok and drinkable.

If 1021 is not the final gravity and you bottle the brew you could be risking bottle bombs.

 

[kyleg]

Hey there, thanks for the reply.

Um my recipe was as follows

Grain:

10kg pale
1.6kg choc
1.6kg crystal dark
1.5kg flamed oats
220g roasted barley

Mash
Single infusion biab at 64degrees, for 90mins, had a bit of fluctuation in temp, 2-3degrees either way. Target OG was 1.068 but ended up with 1.061 and about 43L instead of 46.

No chilled the pitched as above.

Tasted alright when I took the last gravity reading last weekend, lacked depth and complexity I thought but tasted ok, I thought a little bit sweet but maybe that was because I had it in my head that it would be.

Pitched at about 18degrees and it fermented at around 18 maybe dropping down 16 at the lowest. It was fermenting at my mums place as I had moved out since brew day, so I didn't have that close an eye on the fermentation.

Currently sitting at 18/19.

Also before I pitched the us05 I raised the ambient temp in the room to about 24, not sure what the temp was in the fermenter, probably a few degrees below. And gave it a bit of a stir but no vigorous shaking.

 

[gunbrew]

Sounds like you have done everything right including warming it up to see if it goes a bit lower.
Sounds like it has reached final gravity even though I would expect it to go lower than 1021.
The thing is if you bottle it and it has not reached final gravity you could end up with exploding bottles.

Anyone else out there have some advice?

If no one I say fill one pet plastic bottle, keep it at 20-22 degrees so it has every chance of fermenting and wait a week to see how much co2 it produces also read its gravity.
If that does not change then you have to be at final gravity and would be ok to bottle without risk of bottle bombs.
Good Luck.

Hey there, thanks for the reply.

Um my recipe was as follows

Grain:

10kg pale
1.6kg choc
1.6kg crystal dark
1.5kg flamed oats
220g roasted barley

Mash
Single infusion biab at 64degrees, for 90mins, had a bit of fluctuation in temp, 2-3degrees either way. Target OG was 1.068 but ended up with 1.061 and about 43L instead of 46.

No chilled the pitched as above.

Tasted alright when I took the last gravity reading last weekend, lacked depth and complexity I thought but tasted ok, I thought a little bit sweet but maybe that was because I had it in my head that it would be.

Pitched at about 18degrees and it fermented at around 18 maybe dropping down 16 at the lowest. It was fermenting at my mums place as I had moved out since brew day, so I didn't have that close an eye on the fermentation.

Currently sitting at 18/19.

Also before I pitched the us05 I raised the ambient temp in the room to about 24, not sure what the temp was in the fermenter, probably a few degrees below. And gave it a bit of a stir but no vigorous shaking.

 

[hbnath]

I second gunbrew's idea....put one in a PET and see how it goes. I had the same problem with my first AG sitting at 1020, so put less carb drops in to see how it goes.
I still managed to under-carb it in the end by still thinking that the FG was too high and playing it safe. If it's going into PETs anyway you're pretty safe.

I'm just experimenting with a couple of the under-carbed bottles....opened them, threw in a couple more carb drops and threw lid straight back on. Will be interesting to see how it goes....after all this hobby is all about experimentation

 

[kyleg]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, what I ended up Doug last night before I saw these replies was take roughly a 250 ml sample put it in a plastic jug and added a heap of bakers yeast to it, then I will check the gravity over the weekend and if it drops then i know there are still fermentables available, if it hasn't dropped then I'll assume all fermentables have ben used. Read this on another forum, and I think it seems like a good idea. I think the person who wrote it suggested a poor mash could have been the problem..