My og and fg were way off!

[wojjow]

Just finished my 4th extract brew and for the first time my OG and FG were pretty far off. I used a NB Jamils evil twin with specialty grains. Boil went accordingly, except for the OG. They it have listed as 1.064, my came out at 1.054. After a couple hours, had great fermentation going on. Was bubbling nicely through the blow off tube. (ambient temp 70*). Took measurements throughout the process and it seemed to get "stuck" around 1.030. Bottling day came still 1.030. They have FG listed around 1.016. . Any insight on what the hell happened would be greatly appreciated

 

[Dunerunner]

What was your post boil volume? What was your fermentation temperature in the fermenter? It can be as high as 15 degrees higher than ambient. Buy a cheap digital kitchen thermometer and tape the sensor to the FV bucket or Carboy. What yeast and how was it prepared and pitched?

 

[wojjow]

What was your post boil volume? What was your fermentation temperature in the fermenter? It can be as high as 15 degrees higher than ambient. Buy a cheap digital kitchen thermometer and tape the sensor to the FV bucket or Carboy. What yeast and how was it prepared and pitched?

To be honest I never measured. I start with a 2.5 gallon boil then top off to 5 gallons
I actually have one of those sticker thermometers on my carboy which read 70*. I keep them wrapped up in sleeping bags
Wyeast 1056 American ale smack pack. ( which after reading a few others I wish I did a starter on)

 

[Revvy]

Your OG wasn't off, it appeared off it's common when folks top off with water, Read this- Attention new brewers, yes your original gravity reading is wrong. Don't panic.


The reason it finished (if it is finished and not just slowed down or stuck) for ENTIRELY different reasons, That's what is known as the 1.020 curse( Although we call it the 1.020 curse, it seems that extract beers that get stuck AT EITHER 1.020 OR 1.030, seen both numbers myself, and on here quite often), where a lot of extract batches tend to peter out at that point. Making sure you have put in plenty of oxygen and yeast on brew day helps. But some beer seem to stick regardless. A lot of that I think has to do with wort caramelization, where both the process of making and boiling the extract produces or converts some of the sugars into unfermentable ones.

Making sure you pitch enough yeast and giving the wort plenty of oxygen usually help prevent that.

 

[wojjow]

Thanks for the tip. Not sure if i should be happy that it might not have been me or sad that this beer will not come out as intended.
Yea I'll definitely be doing a yeast starter from now on. Seems more yeast won't hurt the batches anyway.

 

[wojjow]

Finally came time to crack a bottle open and have to say I'm extremely surprised. Granted I have no clue how a real "jamils evil twin" should taste but this is one tasty beer. Hopefully it will come out the same because I am most definitely making this again!

 

[jonnyp1980]

Awesome I have a porter I'm worried about due to it tasting very green after a week. I know it will take a month or more but one thing I've learned on here is patience and time goes a long way.