Will A Dry Enzyme Help

[thesunsettree]

hi all,

i have fermenting an aussie style ale which has been going well but seems to have stopped at 1014. 1010 i would be ok with but i would prefer 1008-1010 for this style. after 12 days fermenting at 20deg (and having given it a swirl 4 days ago and raisng the temp 2degs) i am confident it wont go down any further. i did mash at 65.5deg, a few deg higher than i intended, and is prob the reason it wont go lower. i used recultered coopers yeast and it may have been a bit lazy, who knows?? my quandry is, if i add a dry enzyme to the fermenter now will it bash the long chains and lower the gravity or should i just go with what i have? i have no issues at all with higher gravity beers as i am very fond of pom ales etc, but an aussie ale at 1014 is prob not exaclty relevant to the style. anyway, thoughts?? will a dry enzyme knock it down???

TIA
matt

recipe -
3.9kg trad ale
300g carapils
300g wheat
25g choc (for colour)
250g dextrose
20g por @ 60
20g ekg @ cube (no chill)
OG 1052

 

[Pennywise]

What volume? & 65.5 isn't all that high at all, a few degrees lower I would consider a bit too low

 

[thesunsettree]

What volume? & 65.5 isn't all that high at all, a few degrees lower I would consider a bit too low

21lt, i wanted it thin, so had in mind 63/64
i know what you mean about the temp tho as i often mash at 65/66 for my brit ales and struggle to keep them over 1010, but i'm thinking its the combination of grains that are making the dif

 

[Pennywise]

Personally I don't like the dry enzymes, I've always found that it thins the beer out too much and leaves a strange aftertaste. I'd be happy with those figures also but hey, your beer. Expect an FG nearer to 1.000 than the 1.008 your after, unless you use something like Sod Met to kill off the yeast. I've no experience in this though

 

[thesunsettree]

Personally I don't like the dry enzymes, I've always found that it thins the beer out too much and leaves a strange aftertaste. I'd be happy with those figures also but hey, your beer. Expect an FG nearer to 1.000 than the 1.008 your after, unless you use something like Sod Met to kill off the yeast. I've no experience in this though

yea, true. i guess it will just end up going too far in the other direction. i'll just go with what i have and maybe pull back a touch on the malt and add a little more dex next time to thin it some more.

cheers
matt

 

[MHB]

Well you have 73% apparent attenuation, Im not exactly sure what you were expecting from the yeast but I would have thought 75-8 more like it.
Things to look at: -
Are you really mashing at 65.5oC (assuming your malt is in good nick) and you mashed for 60 minutes or longer I would expect better attenuation. Have you calibrated your thermometer?
Is your malt fresh and well stored? If not that can lead to a reduction in enzyme power.
Is the heat throughout the mash even, is it possible you have hot and cools spots.
Do you have enough Calcium in your mash liquor (think about Zn to).

One way to tell if the yeast is underperforming would be to run a small sample of beer (say 500 mL) into a beer bottle and add a packet of dry generic yeast, they will attenuate to around 80% apparent, if the new yeast drops the gravity, have a good look at your yeast health, if not you have mashing problems.
Good luck
MHB

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

Well you have 73% apparent attenuation, Im not exactly sure what you were expecting from the yeast but I would have thought 75-8 more like it.
Things to look at: -
Are you really mashing at 65.5oC (assuming your malt is in good nick) and you mashed for 60 minutes or longer I would expect better attenuation. Have you calibrated your thermometer?
Is your malt fresh and well stored? If not that can lead to a reduction in enzyme power.
Is the heat throughout the mash even, is it possible you have hot and cools spots.
Do you have enough Calcium in your mash liquor (think about Zn to).

One way to tell if the yeast is underperforming would be to run a small sample of beer (say 500 mL) into a beer bottle and add a packet of dry generic yeast, they will attenuate to around 80% apparent, if the new yeast drops the gravity, have a good look at your yeast health, if not you have mashing problems.
Good luck
MHB

MHB that is some absolute gold advice. I've added to my favourites.

Cheers

 

[SJW]

I would not bother with the dry enz. Just keg it and drink it and masha bit cooler next time. I used to get all hung up and FG's but like Mark said, you got enough attenuation for that to be a fine drop anyway.

 

[bullfrog]

I actually don't mind the use of dry enzyme, provided you've planned it as an ingredient from the outset. At this stage, you'd end up dropping the FG far too below what you're looking for, if you were to add it now so wouldn't be using that as the solution, if it were me.

As for the aftertaste that Pennywise mentioned, I've found that that gets cleaned up if you leave the brew in primary for long enough. I'm assuming that that comes down to the yeasties cleaning up the poorer bi-products which would then lead on to not being able to kill off the yeast with Sodium Metabisulphate as they'd be dead before they could do their clean-up job and you'd be left with that chemical-ish taste in the finished product.

 

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I used a dry enzyme at the stage you are talking about a few months back. However trouble was the brew was at 1030. I realised the thermometer I did the mash with was way ot of whack.

I think it ended up around 1010. Really saved the brew, however I wouldn't suggest it here. Too few points of gravity to drop. You'll probably get too low and wreck it.