Botched Recipe (added too much Caramunich) Confused by Gravity Readings

[xwass]

I brewed a Belgian amber session ale recently. My first brew in the last 8 months so I was a bit rusty to say the least...

This is the basic recipe (5 gallons packaged):
13lbs pils
.75 Special b
1.75lbs Caramunich II
16oz Maple syrup
WLP 550 yeast (its a beast)
1oz styrian goldings @60min, 1oz @ 5min

Around 64 ambient temp--probably closer to 68 in the fermenter itself

If you noticed the 1.75lbs Caramunich, that was the mistake. It was supposed to be 1lb Dark Munich, .75lbs Caramunich...

OG 1.045
FG 1.01
I took about 4 gravity readings over the course of 2 weeks after fermentation and got 1.01 consistently

The beer is definitely on the sweet/caramel/thick side as I expected, but is not all that bad. Kind of like a New Belgium Fat Tire.

My mash was at 145-150 for 90min BIAB (may have been even lower than that in the grain bed). Got a little lower efficiency than planned but I also identified several mistakes (not mashing out, not sparging, grain bag too tight, temperature probe location not ideal).

I thought that adding this much Caramunich would bump the FG up, as it did with the overall sweetness of the beer, but it didn't. This was pretty much the expected FG of my "original" recipe that called for .75lbs Caramunich.

So am I missing something here, or is it a misconception that caramel/crystal malts raise the FG?

 

[xwass]

Also used Clarity Ferm during fermentation. Not sure that would change anything, but forgot to put in the recipe.

 

[TungstenBeer]

-snip-

So am I missing something here, or is it a misconception that caramel/crystal malts raise the FG?

The only thing you're missing is the attenuation of that yeast is often much higher than what the manufacturer (and brewing software) states. Oddly enough I just posted earlier today a response to someone who had used the wyeast equivalent (WY3522) and had experienced something similar.

Rejoice! You have a beer that shouldn't be too bad despite it not being what you intended.

 

[xwass]

Thanks for the encouragement, I let them carb for 2 weeks and plan on trying one tonight.

I plugged the modified recipe (instead of the original i designed before mishap) it into brewersfriend and see that it estimates 1.006 for final gravity. That seemed a bit low IMO, but I'm not complaining.

The low temperature mash and high attenuating yeast seem to have done a pretty good job of cleaning up my mishap.