Is beano a bad idea?

[vamo]

So I have batch of beer that has been stuck at a FG above 1.020 a little googling seems to suggest a possible solution is adding beano. There seems to be a lot of people who have had bad experiences with this, and a few that have been able to save their batches. Sampling the warm flat product it does not seem to be undrinkable in its current state, but I still want to get the gravity down to atleast the mid teens.

If I do add beano how much should go into a 5 gallon batch?

PS asked a question a few days ago about my stuck fermentation and it seems to most likely culprit was insufficient initial aeration, and I plan to do a much better job with that next time, but I am trying to save my current batch.

 

[mpride1911]

What was the OG and what is the recipe? What ingredients are we dealing with here?

 

[dboone]

I haven't used beano, but I have used amylase enzyme. It does get the gravity down, but it can be difficult to control. I would use only a little bit to begin with, maybe about 1/8th to 1/4th teaspoon to begin with.

 

[bleme]

The problem with beano/amylase is that it can just keep on chugging along until it can't find any sugars. It is not uncommon at all for people to end up below 1.000 and have no malt character or residual sweetness at all.

 

[vamo]

original gravity was 1.064, it was the malty brown ale kit from more beer. http://morebeer.com/products/malty-brown-ale-extract-beer-kit.html I do not believe my kit included to maltodextrin that is now part of the kit.

edit: abridged no click version - 8lbs munich malt extract, 8 oz caravienne, 8oz abbey, 8oz carapilis, 8 oz crystal 60L, 4oz chocolate. 5 gallon batch.

 

[Bobby_M]

I think it will probably be a better beer as is than if you add amylase. What kind of yeast did you use? You can grab a pack of US-05, rehydrate it and repitch. The new yeast won't care that you didn't aerate enough initially.

 

[vamo]

I used safale s-04

 

[mpride1911]

What is the temp that it's sitting at right now? i've had a few stall short of the FG, that raising the temp JUST SLIGHTLY, fixed.

 

[vamo]

My basement stays about 68F, if I bring it upstairs the temp should be around 70F and I could always bump the temp up a degree or 2 on the thermostat. Is that enough of an increase?

 

[Bobby_M]

It may help, but I'd also give the fermenter a bit of a swirl to resuspend the yeast. US-04 likes to floc out hard. You're really not all that far away anyway, what did the recipe suggest would be the FG? 1.016 or so?

 

[2bluewagons]

I'd say follow some of the advice here and see what you can do to drop a few more points. But I wouldn't shy away from bottling a 1.020+ beer. It might not be what you were looking for, nor what the kit intended, but it still might be pretty darn good. Like Bobby said, you're pretty close. Unless by above 1.020 you mean 1.040...:cross:

 

[Shooter]

I would only use amylase if the gravity is high by a fair margin, and I have. If it's close, I wouldn't bother. I would never use Beano.