S-05 FG is 1.034

[IJesusChrist]

I followed this recipe:

Extract
9.5 lbs. Extra light DME

Grain
12 oz. flaked oats
12 oz. pale two-row
5 oz. C60L
5 oz. C80L
5 oz. roasted barley
5 oz. debittered black
You'll need to use a mini-mash because of the flaked oats. Quick oats will give easier results - plain rolled oats have to be cereal mashed. The crystal malts are at a lower level than you would expect since extract has crystal in it.

Hops
1.0 oz. Brewer's Gold, FWH
1.0 oz. Brewer's Gold, 20 minutes
1.0 oz. Brewer's Gold, 10 minutes
1.0 oz. Brewer's Gold, 5 minutes
I don't know anything about how it smells or tastes, so I used Brewer's Gold as a good, flavorful hop for stouts. Incidentally, I would expect an RIS to be closer to 50 IBU than to 25.

OG 1087, FG 1022, IBU 26, SRM 32.

My OG came to around 1.090, but my FG is fairly high... (and very sweet!).

It's been sitting for 6 weeks in primary. I'm moving to secondary today and will be adding cacao and coffee beans.

Here are my questions
1.Would pitching more yeast be a good idea to drive the FG down?

2. Will I have to pitch more yeast anyway (since its been 6 weeks) to prime?

3. How much coffee and cacao - the recipe calls for equal weights of both, but I'm not sure how much to put in. I want a delicate chocolate finish, but nothing harsh.

 

[RonPopeil]

If you're actually using US-05 from safale and only use one packet in a 1.087 wort then your high FG makes sense. A single packet will only properly attenuate up to 1.060 OG wort.

 

[RonPopeil]

I followed this recipe:



My OG came to around 1.090, but my FG is fairly high... (and very sweet!).

It's been sitting for 6 weeks in primary. I'm moving to secondary today and will be adding cacao and coffee beans.

Here are my questions
1.Would pitching more yeast be a good idea to drive the FG down?

2. Will I have to pitch more yeast anyway (since its been 6 weeks) to prime?

3. How much coffee and cacao - the recipe calls for equal weights of both, but I'm not sure how much to put in. I want a delicate chocolate finish, but nothing harsh.

1. Yes it would but you would want to pitch 2 packs rather than relying on what's already in there to contribute anything.

2. I would think you would be ok if you repitch to correct your gravity.

3. If the recipe claims a pronounced flavor and you'd like less half the chocolate. Realistically, it's one of those things you won't really know until you brew it since one person's "pronounced" is another's "delicate".

 

[QuercusMax]

You got 73% attenuation, which is about what I would expect from extract. I don't think pitching more yeast will help. In the future, replace some extract with simple sugar, which is much more fermentable.

You shouldn't need to add yeast, 6 weeks isn't that long.

 

[Homercidal]

Extract beers often end around 1.020 for a few reasons. For a beer this heavy a LOT of yeast is recommended. It's possible that you didn't have enough yeast. I would have added at least 2 packets, or built up a starter for that OG. The yeast try hard, but the high alcohol and their exhaustion combine to limit the amount they can process. With more yeast they have a better chance of eating up all of the sugars before they get spent.

6 Weeks is plenty of time to ferment this batch. What is done is what is going to be done. You may try adding some more yeast and basically extending the primary into a new container, but I'm not sure that's going to be effective now.

I'd like to know if you actually performed a mini-mash or just steeped the grains. If you used flaked oats, they need to have a cereal mash in addition to the main mash for the rest of the grain. A cereal mash is about 120-140F and will help convert the oats. The main mash would be 148-160F depending on your desires. For this much grain I doubt the exact temperature would make much difference.

With out these mashes, the oats and grain will contribute a fair amount of UNFERMENTABLE sugars, keeping FG high and adding some sweetness.

In this case I am unsure what you can do to drop the gravity. I've heard of amylase enzyme helping do this, but I have little experience using it, so I hesitate to do more than suggest you look into it further.

Worst case you can brew a very dry, bitter beer and blend the two.

 

[IJesusChrist]

I'm going to try adding a bit more yeast and keeping the temperature warmer. I just checked my ferment chamber... It was set at 60 and reads 54. I had set it to 70 for about one week, but I'm guessing this may have sat at 64 or something close, so a bit of warmth may wake up the yeasties.

 

[Homercidal]

That's a bit cool. I think you might get a few more points by raising the temp.

 

[cjgenever]

Boil and cool 2 oz sugar. Add it with yeast energizer. Bump the temp a bit and swirl (don't slash) the bucket every few hours for an evening. You want a very gentle swirl to kick up the less flocculant yeast...that's the stuff that will attenuate the most.

That will get them going and help them ferment anything else, although I doubt you'll get much more. That high a gravity with extract, etc. Isn't going to go much lower. You needed some simple sugar in that recipe.

Adding more yeast is prob useless. You've reached about9.5%abv. The new yeast will be shocked if pitched directly into that.

You could add some hop extract for a strange hybrid black ipa beer creature? The bitterness would balance the sweet to make it less coying.

 

[youreanimpulse]

I think you have to boil hop extract to get the bitterness. Still could do that, maybe with some simple sugar? Seems like it's done, though.

 

[Callacave]

Hill farmstead's Everett finishes around 1.030 and I think it starts at roughly the same sg as your beer. That beer is amazing. I just brewed up a clone of it and it finished a little higher around your fg. I say bottle or keg, let it age for 3 months or so, and enjoy some awesomeness

 

[Yooper]

Boil and cool 2 oz sugar. Add it with yeast energizer. Bump the temp a bit and swirl (don't slash) the bucket every few hours for an evening. You want a very gentle swirl to kick up the less flocculant yeast...that's the stuff that will attenuate the most.

That will get them going and help them ferment anything else, although I doubt you'll get much more. That high a gravity with extract, etc. Isn't going to go much lower. You needed some simple sugar in that recipe.

Adding more yeast is prob useless. You've reached about9.5%abv. The new yeast will be shocked if pitched directly into that.

You could add some hop extract for a strange hybrid black ipa beer creature? The bitterness would balance the sweet to make it less coying.

I would not do this. This is no reason that adding more sugars, even simple sugars, would help a yeast that was already at or near its alcohol tolerance.

But warming a bit may help, and can't hurt.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

What do you use to measure gravity? Refractometer, hydrometer or other?

 

[IJesusChrist]

I would not do this. This is no reason that adding more sugars, even simple sugars, would help a yeast that was already at or near its alcohol tolerance.

But warming a bit may help, and can't hurt.

What about priming?

I use a hydrometer

 

[Yooper]

What about priming?

I use a hydrometer

Yes, of course you would prime the beer at bottling. The discussion I was referring to was adding more simple sugars in the fermenter.

 

[cjgenever]

I would not do this. This is no reason that adding more sugars, even simple sugars, would help a yeast that was already at or near its alcohol tolerance.

But warming a bit may help, and can't hurt.

It has helped me rouse the yeast in a stuck ferment when I didn't have energizer handy. It's easy food for the yeast to wake up to and they will continue on to the maltose once the simpler sugars are consumed. I do realize the abv threshold is near on this one for us-05. That is why I suggested only 2oz for a five gallon batch. Just enough to get them going, not enough to change FG or abv.

This method worked well for me the one time I used it. That doesn't mean it was the sugar that did it, but it didn't hurt either.:beer: