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Hello all, I've been noticing something and need some feedback. I routinely get attenuation over 80%, with many batches coming in over 85% and blowing way past my predicted FG. The beers have seemed alright enough, but I'd like to better be able to predict FG and ABV. I'm trying to brew great...

A big and sweet porter.

Good stout flavored with a hint of whiskey at bottling.

A tasty dark IPA featuring 100% Chinook hops, which worked really well with the darker malts.

I think it's just the temperature of the fermentation. It's amazing what an extra 10 degrees will do for those yeast to kick into high gear. You're in good shape. I've also read recently that if you let the beer sit on the yeast for a full three weeks, the yeast will do a good job cleaning up...

Your first-time anxiety will be an asset, as evidenced by your already proactive maneuver to seek some advice and flesh out the details. Seems to me like you'll pay close attention to what you're doing and knock it out of the park. Enjoy!

Adding them together sounds way too simple. I'm sure a chemist could tell you exactly how to transfer this information into the information you need, but they are in short supply around here. If you have a minute, you might try calling them directly. Perhaps someone at the water department can...

I've been having some similar problems, and I've explored many options. Right now, I'm checking some of my expected yield numbers for my ingredients in BeerSmith with a friend of mine who gets better efficiency. It's hard to compare across different systems and methods, but if BeerSmith has high...

Congrats, man. You've got my well wishes, for what it's worth : )

Not surprised to see this thread so high up on the "New Posts" on a late Saturday night (at least for you East coasters)...

All makes sense in my head. You mashed about as low as most do to get really fermentable wort and the sugars were 20% cane sugar. That, added with letting the yeast get warm, and those buggers are in a nearly perfect environment for attenuation. On top of that you used a high-gravity yeast which...

If it were me, I'd say a beer that finished at 1.040 was undrinkable (but that's just me). Thus, adding another vial of yeast to see if it'll help get that gravity down is worth it, because I can't imagine another way to accomplish that. I still have to wonder why two vials didn't do it in the...

Thanks for the responses, everyone. So I went with adding salts just to the mash water. I've been reading up on chemistry, but some of it is not well described even in the beginners' write-ups. The one thing that confuses me is that they're never totally clear with which of the brewing steps the...

The pH seems to be in a good range either way. I guess another way of asking the question is, if I want to hit certain ion concentrations to accentuate certain styles (i.e. higher sulfates for hoppy beers, higher chloride for malty beers, etc.) should I target specific ranges in just the strike...

Hey all, I'm getting into using Kai's water calculator for improving my beer by improving the chemistry of the mash, but I have a big question before I brew later today. I've got some guidelines for ranges of the various ions, but, as a single infusion batch sparger, should I target those...

Please!

It's really no problem. Lots of people don't worry about straining, because it's said that some hop particles actually aid the yeast in doing their thing, in some peculiar scientific way. The one thing you might lose out on is a bit of beer in the end, since the extra trub will soak up some that...

Maybe it's the other way around? The ease of removing the labels has contributed to you buying them more often and enjoying them more?

Check out this thread, which covers a nice way of making a big starter with the intent of saving some for next time.

I've heard all the same contradicting stuff, and I recently brewed a couple small batches with first-wort hops, so perhaps I can let you know in a little while when I can taste the results.