MisterClean
Well-Known Member
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.
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.