FG came in pretty high - what to do?

[LarryC]

So I just racked my Pliny Clone into the keg and the hydro sample I pulled off says I only got down to 1.020 for the FG. The OG was 1.078 and although the recipe that came with the kit doesn't give an FG, doing the math it would need to be around 1.013 to have been at their ABV.

I followed my normal fermenting process with the Better Bottle in my fermentation chamber to control the temp. Went with the recommended 68° until fermentation started to slow (after the 4th day) then ramped it up to 70° and left it there for a total of 4 weeks. Normally that gets me into the 10.012 range with previous beers but this one is a higher gravity beer and it was from a LME kit.

I am thinking of dropping a bit of fresh yeast into the keg and raising my keezer temp up to a fermentation temp for a while but I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Any thoughts?

 

[Yooper]

So I just racked my Pliny Clone into the keg and the hydro sample I pulled off says I only got down to 1.020 for the FG. The OG was 1.078 and although the recipe that came with the kit doesn't give an FG, doing the math it would need to be around 1.013 to have been at their ABV.

I followed my normal fermenting process with the Better Bottle in my fermentation chamber to control the temp. Went with the recommended 68° until fermentation started to slow (after the 4th day) then ramped it up to 70° and left it there for a total of 4 weeks. Normally that gets me into the 10.012 range with previous beers but this one is a higher gravity beer and it was from a LME kit.

I am thinking of dropping a bit of fresh yeast into the keg and raising my keezer temp up to a fermentation temp for a while but I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Any thoughts?

Sometimes beers make with lots of extract just don't attenuate that well, at least not as well as their AG counterparts. It just has to do with the lack of fermentability of the brand of extract and the amount. I assume there was a lot of extract in this batch to get an OG of 1.078, although I believe Pliny does have a pound of corn sugar in most versions of the recipe (which helps it attenuate better).

I've had plenty of extract beers stop permanently at 1.020, and they were just done. They still were fine, and Pliny has enough bitterness to it that you may not even notice much of a difference in flavor at all between 1.014 and 1.020 in the end.

 

[LarryC]

Thanks Yooper!
Yes, there was a lot of LME in the recipe and a pound of sugar - a first for me. I drank the hydro sample and it was very tasty and not all that sweet. I guess I'll stick the CO2 hose on the keg and see what it tastes like in a week.

If it comes out decent, I'll give the all grain version a shot and compare (my brother in law sent me the extract kit so how can I complain!)

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yooper!
Yes, there was a lot of LME in the recipe and a pound of sugar - a first for me. I drank the hydro sample and it was very tasty and not all that sweet. I guess I'll stick the CO2 hose on the keg and see what it tastes like in a week.

If it comes out decent, I'll give the all grain version a shot and compare (my brother in law sent me the extract kit so how can I complain!)

If it doesn't taste sweet, it be fine once it's carbed up! I promise.

 

[flars]

So I just racked my Pliny Clone into the keg and the hydro sample I pulled off says I only got down to 1.020 for the FG. The OG was 1.078 and although the recipe that came with the kit doesn't give an FG, doing the math it would need to be around 1.013 to have been at their ABV.

I followed my normal fermenting process with the Better Bottle in my fermentation chamber to control the temp. Went with the recommended 68° until fermentation started to slow (after the 4th day) then ramped it up to 70° and left it there for a total of 4 weeks. Normally that gets me into the 10.012 range with previous beers but this one is a higher gravity beer and it was from a LME kit.

I am thinking of dropping a bit of fresh yeast into the keg and raising my keezer temp up to a fermentation temp for a while but I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Any thoughts?

What yeast did you use and what was your cell count?

 

[LarryC]

The yeast was WLP001 and I made a 2.7L starter which I decanted down to about .5L before pitching.

 

[mjohnson]

I can't remember where I got this info, but I've heard that if you take your extract and "mash" it with a pound of 2 row, the enzymes can convert a bit more of the extract. The extract manufacturers are shooting for a middle of the road fermentability, so you can use this technique to tweak it a bit to suit your needs.

That said, I've never done it, so I can't tell you how well it works. But, it might be something to try if you're going to do the recipe again. But as you say, if it tastes good/balanced, RDWHAHB! That balance is what you're after anyway!