Patience is tough.

So my ale has been sitting in the primary for a week now. I took a gravity reading today, and it's down from 1.081 to 1.018. And the sample tastes fantastic. I mean, so good I can't believe I made this. I was a little worried after hearing some people report peach esters with fermenting US-05 at the lower end, but I couldn't detect any.

I'm not very good at describing tastes very well yet, but here goes anyway:The sample had a good strong hops aroma, and a strong but laid back bitterness at the front, followed by a good malty backbone. The finish was slightly citrus sweet that was cut a little by a slight hint of alcohol dryness.

I fermented around 58-60F. The yeast took off after 12 hours. High krausen was reached around the 2 day mark, and fell off somewhere around the 4 day mark. I have been slowly raising the temp a few degrees each day since the krausen fell, and It's currently at 67F where it will stay while the yeast clean up some more.

According to the calculator I used, .81 to .018 is about 78% apparent attenuation, which, with US-05, should be finished or very nearly so. I figure I'll leave it on the yeast another week, then cold crash it and keg it. It's going to be tough considering how tasty this beer is already.

Only thing I regret not doing is adding whirlfloc or some other finings during the boil. It's still very cloudy. Hopefully the cold crash will take care of some of that. I could always try gelatin, but I've never used it before and I'm not really sure what to expect.

Starting at 1.081 you'll find that it will benefit from some age. I've noticed with some of my heavy batches, that they have a period right after fermenting that they seem to taste really good, then go into a stage where they take on some weird harsh flavors (even after the yeast was finished cleaning up) and then finally those go away with age and the beer is better than what I experienced at the first. If your kegging, I'd consider letting it age a while in the keg--it is very hard to do and I can only do it by having three other kegs serving. I have a Wee Heavy (1.092) that is kegged and I plant to let it sit at ambient for a few months before chilling and carbonating.

there is only one cure for the waiting.

get another fermentor, spend some of the waiting the waiting time concentrating on the new batch.

amandabab said:

there is only one cure for the waiting.

get another fermentor, spend some of the waiting the waiting time concentrating on the new batch.

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And then another batch.....and another......soon the waiting is over!

hah, well that's the plan. I have a hefe I'll be brewing on saturday, then a milk stout clone the next week. I'm also getting ready to start a batch of apfelwein. So, plenty on my plate

I currently have a stout that's aging right now in a keg. Patience really paid off with it. it was practically undrinkable after 2 weeks. it's going on 4 weeks now and is much much improved. I figure another week or 2 and it will be good to go.

Starting at 1.081 you'll find that it will benefit from some age. I've noticed with some of my heavy batches, that they have a period right after fermenting that they seem to taste really good, then go into a stage where they take on some weird harsh flavors (even after the yeast was finished cleaning up) and then finally those go away with age and the beer is better than what I experienced at the first. If your kegging, I'd consider letting it age a while in the keg--it is very hard to do and I can only do it by having three other kegs serving. I have a Wee Heavy (1.092) that is kegged and I plant to let it sit at ambient for a few months before chilling and carbonating.

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That's interesting to hear. What yeast did you use? I double pitched the US05. How long did you leave yours in primary before moving it to a keg? And did you temperature control your primary after the yeast dropped off, or did you just let it settle to room temperature?

Since I ferment in a temperature controlled fridge, I'm debating moving my ale to the closet and letting the yeast finish up there. I keep my house at a steady 69F, so the temp really isn't far off from where the ferm chamber is right now. That would free up the fridge to allow me to ferm the hefe around 65F without slowing down the yeast cleaning up in the ale.

MisterClean said:

hah, well that's the plan. I have a hefe I'll be brewing on saturday, then a milk stout clone the next week. I'm also getting ready to start a batch of apfelwein. So, plenty on my plate

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The disease is strong in this one

S05 is a great yeast, but it's been slow to clear for me. I keg most of the beers I make at day 10 or so, but s05 stays a bit cloudy for a bit longer. That's the only complaint I have with that yeast strain (besides the peachy esters I do get at under 64 degrees ).