Another FG Question.

[NaymzJaymz]

I realize that there are a lot of posts concerning FG on this forum, and that there are a universe of issues that can affect the way a beer finishes. My beer is a big IPA that started out at 1.098. After one month in the primary at 68 degrees I transferred to a secondary for dry hopping and now have a SG of 1.022. The yeast I used was a healthy starter cultured from Heady Topper. Any comments would be appreciated. Wrong yeast? Is my current gravity okay for my situation? What did I do right/wrong? Hopefully I gave enough info to get some responses. Thank you all!

 

[TheMadKing]

Can you post your recipe and brewing method please?

 

[m00ps]

Thats just (IMO) way too high of an OG that youd want for anything remotely hoppy. Yeast can only do so much, even a super attenuating yeast (which Conan isnt). You got 76% attenuation which seems about right since im guessing ti was very stressed at that high an OG

For double IPAs, I would shoot for 1.080 and aim to get the FG to 1.010 or so in order for a dry finish. Definitely need to get it below 1.020 or you are in barleywine territory

you could try adding another yeast (WLP090 WLP099 or a saison yeast) to drop it down, but at this point youve already got the dry hops in and dont want it sitting on those too much. The unnecessary secondary didnt help either im guessing since you took it off the yeast cake

In the future, for IPAs, they should definitely be bottled before 1 month from brew day. That hop goodness fades quick

 

[NewJersey]

What temp did you mash at?
Lots of crystal malt?

 

[NaymzJaymz]

Thanks for the responses and I will try to answer. The recipe is 15lbs of base malt, 1lb. of crystal, and 5lbs. of honey. Mash temp was 150 degrees. The remark about the OG being way too high is a bit of a surprise to me in that there are many big IPA's out there, some of them in bottle distribution. I've bought IPA's at 12% before. Sounds like my yeast choice was wrong.

 

[NewJersey]

5lbs of honey or honey malt?
How long did you mash?

 

[NaymzJaymz]

It was 5lbs of actual (not honey malt)honey to provide the adjunct sugars associated with this style. I mashed for 75 minutes per Beersmith.