Another gravity question

[jkendrick]

I noticed there was another recent thread on this subject, but I didn't want to hijack from that OP. Please merge if appropriate.

I am making a stout and I just bottled it. The targets are OG: 1.055; FG: 1.014. I came pretty close with an OG of 1.050. I kept it in primary for three weeks and then transferred to secondary for two more weeks. I stupidly didn't take a reading at transfer to secondary. I did however augment the recipe by adding coffee. I used the cold extract method from this site:

http://briancendrowski.hoppress.com/2010/01/14/how-to-put-the-coffee-in-a-coffee-stout/

The final amount of liquid added to the secondary was minimal. But I missed my final gravity pretty badly (I think) with a reading of 1.022. My question is do you think the coffee could have caused this? If so, how do you think this will affect my final product? If not, what might be responsible? I used a Wyeast smack pack that definitely seemed good. The first few days in primary were very active.

This is only my second home brew.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[jonmohno]

Maybe underpitching,maybe poorer yeast health,if your temps were out of wack.But really it seems typical.3 wks-its most likely good and done.Did you use extract,did you mash and what temp,did you use a kit or recipe?What yeast ?If you got a low-medium attuating yeast-there you go. A medium high attenuating yeast may even get you that depending on the extract or grains used. Get some yeast energizer if it becomes a pattern,but you may learn how to make a starter which is usually recommended with the smack packs. I never had issues using dry yeast.It seems stuck ferments happen more often with liquid,probably why starters are recommended.

 

[jkendrick]

It was an extract recipe from my local Homebrew shop. I got all the ingredients from them as well. My temps seemed good, especially for the primary. It's been a bit warmer for the secondary but I don't think the brew got over 75. As I said, I augmented the recipe with the coffee extract. The yeast seemed good as well. The pack swelled up nicely and there was a lot of activity those first few days.

 

[Frodo]

Another thing, sometimes extract batches seem to conk out at around 1.020; quality of the extract is a big factor in that I think, but the other things mentioned above like yeast probably factors in as well.

EDIT: coffee shouldn't affect anything as far as gravity goes

 

[jonmohno]

Pretty shure it was your extract,some can have more unfermentables than others from what i read from peoples testimonies often.Its not going to drop anymore saying from a 99.9% point of view. What exact wyeast? they all have differnet ranges of attenuation and even the same strain may not attenuate exactly the same.Alot of it has to do with the water/grain nutrition that gives the yeast while the yeast feast on the sugar. Things like pitch temps and other conditons that stress yeast can kill alot off before they even begin.That being said you will still have beer and its up to the yeast to decide what they will give you.

 

[jkendrick]

It was Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale. Again, it was just part of the recipe so I went with it. It sounds like this may be typical of extract brewing? The recipe is an extract recipe so I would think it would account for that. Either way, how drinkable/good do you think this beer will be? Anything I should take away from this experience that will help me next time? I'm starting to think I should always use a starter.

 

[jonmohno]

I would plug that into a recipe calc. you should have gotten 71-74 attenuation. You can find out your attenuation if you want.If you had choranated water that is a cause of poor attenuability even too much minerals in water.I think its the extract really.Im not shure if freshness accounts for fermentabilty but certain extracts do account for fermentability. If all else fails,try conditioning them longer till they taste incredible,time can do that often.