Stuck Bitter with London Ale 1028

[marchio-93]

Hello everyone! I have a Bitter in fermentation (OG 1.043, 30 IBU) with London Ale 1028, after a week it is stopped at 1.015-16. The mash was done 20 minutes at 66 C ° and 40 minutes between 67 C ° and 70 C ° because I had problems controlling the temperature.

The problem is that I was looking for a 1.011 FG, and the beer is too sweet. What can I do? Add US-05? Add sugar? Do dry hopping to mask the malt a little? All three? : D

Thanks for your suggestions!

 

[IslandLizard]

Is that a hydrometer reading?

The 66C (151F) should have made it quite fermentable, but the upper side of your temp range of 70C (158F) not so. That could be the issue, creating more unfermentables, such as maltotriose and dextrins.

WY1028, being a British Ale yeast probably won't be able to ferment maltotriose, a more complex sugar than maltose. US-05 can handle it much better.

Most of the flavor profile is set already, so sure, you could add US-05 to help drop it. I would rehydrate it before pitching.

If you want to save your 1028 yeast cake for another batch, carefully transfer the beer to another fermenter or keg before adding the new yeast.

 

[schmurf]

Did you actually try the beer and found it too sweet or do you just assume it to be sweet? Personally, in many cases, I don't feel much difference between beers having a FG like those.

 

[marchio-93]

I tested the gravity with both hydrometer and refractometer. I actually tasted the beer with the picnic tap! i felt like ther are a lot of sugar unfermented, not the typical "caramel" sweetness of crystal malts! Maybe with 05!

 

[IslandLizard]

I tested the gravity with both hydrometer and refractometer.

Those readings were different, right?
So which one gave you 1.015/16?

 

[marchio-93]

Those readings were different, right?
So which one gave you 1.015/16?

Refractometer 1.016, hydro 1.015

 

[IslandLizard]

Refractometer 1.016, hydro 1.015

Is the refractometer reading a raw reading, or a corrected reading?

Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

 

[marchio-93]

Is the refractometer reading a raw reading, or a corrected reading?

Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

Yes corrected reading, and calibrated hydrometer

 

[IslandLizard]

Yes corrected reading, and calibrated hydrometer

If you don't like the beer as is, you got nothing to lose by adding US-05 to see if it will knaw it down. Just referment it where it is, in the keg at 68-72F. May take a while. It may help to first degas it a bit. Easy to take samples to check on progress.
When it's done, let it crash out and transfer/jump into a new serving keg.

 

[jrgtr42]

Those are close enough for government work, presuming that's a corrected refract reading (it would be reading somewhere high 1.020s or 30s if it was raw.)
One thing is, that uncarbed beer may taste sweeter than it actually is, the carbonation gives a bit more bite to it. HOnestly a difference of .004 or 5 isn't really going to make a huge difference - maybe if it stalled at 1.020 or above there may be something. It won't hurt to toss in the extra yeast though - it may drop another couple points.

 

[IslandLizard]

One thing is, that uncarbed beer may taste sweeter than it actually is, the carbonation gives a bit more bite to it.

Exactly, and it's unchilled to boot.

 

[marchio-93]

Those are close enough for government work, presuming that's a corrected refract reading (it would be reading somewhere high 1.020s or 30s if it was raw.)
One thing is, that uncarbed beer may taste sweeter than it actually is, the carbonation gives a bit more bite to it. HOnestly a difference of .004 or 5 isn't really going to make a huge difference - maybe if it stalled at 1.020 or above there may be something. It won't hurt to toss in the extra yeast though - it may drop another couple points.

Exactly, and it's unchilled to boot.

And so what about a dry hop or a hop tea to increase bitterness?

 

[IslandLizard]

And so what about a dry hop or a hop tea to increase bitterness?

You can dry hop, that will increase hop flavor and hop aroma. Just add them to your fermenter, 3-5 days before you bottle or keg the batch. Although it depends on the potency of the hops used, 1-2 oz per 20-25 liters will create a definite increase in hoppiness. That's easy

To increase bitterness is not that easy. Hops need to be boiled, best for 60'.
So if you have 20 liters of beer and you want to increase its bitterness with 10 IBU, you'll need to add 20 * 10 = 200 IBU units to it.

[Edits]
Rereading this I'm not sure if this is actually correct. It's been a while since I did those calcs. Proceed carefully if you choose this route.
For example, if your beer is 30 IBUs now, and you want to raise it to 40 IBU (an increase of 10 IBU) you can achieve that by boiling/simmering 2-3 liters of water with enough high AA% hops (e.g., Magnum, Warrior, Apollo) for 1 hour, so you end up with 1 liter of water at 200 + 40 = 240 IBU.

Or probably more realistically, boil/simmer 3-4 liters of water with enough high AA% hops (e.g., Magnum, Warrior, Apollo) for an hour (or longer) so you end up with 2 liters of water at 100 + 40 = 140 IBU.

Then chill and add to your beer, without splashing.

 

[jrgtr42]

And so what about a dry hop or a hop tea to increase bitterness?

I don't know that more bitterness is what you need. Every Bitter I've had does have some residual sweetness - the name isn't really referring to the taste of the beer.
What I would do in this case is have the notes of what happenned during brew day, let it ride, try it once carbonated and see what your impressions are - tying it right out of the fermenter doesn't really give you a true idea of what the finished product will be. LIke I said, you were looking for a 1.011 FG, and got 1.015 - that's really not a big difference, you shouldn't taste a dramatic increase of sweetness in that difference.
For next time, look into what was going on that you were having trouble controlling the temp, and get it to where you want it. |Likely those high temps created a slightly less fermentable wort than you were origionally looking for.

 

[marchio-93]

Thank you guys, thank you very much!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

WY1028, being a British Ale yeast probably won't be able to ferment maltotriose, a more complex sugar than maltose. US-05 can handle it much better.

Plenty of British yeasts can handle maltotriose - it's a bit of a myth that all British beers are underattenuated sugary messes, although the ones prevalent in tourist areas come closer to that than in most other areas of the country, particularly if poor cellarmanship means they are served before the priming sugars have fermented.

Wyeast quote 73-77% attenuation for 1028, so it should be fine handling some maltotriose. Marchio's 65% AA does sound low - it's certainly possible that the problems with the mash account for some of that.

Is there anything in the recipe that's out of the ordinary? How much crystal - if you're using a North American recipe then it's probably got too much crystal in it, which won't help.

A BU:GU of 0.70 is pretty typical of a lot of commercial bitters, particularly down south. Personally I'd prefer something more up in the 0.85 kind of range (and generous amounts of sulphate in the water), but that's just my personal taste. You could add some alpha extract or hop tea, but the current level of bittering is within "normal" commercial range, even if a bit low for me.

At this stage it's probably a bit late to do anything much more than add a higher attenuation yeast - Nottingham would perhaps be more appropriate than US-05 but US-05 will be OK, and a bit of sugar to help it get going.

And just give it a bit of time - a number of British yeasts will rush down to the high 1.01x's, and then just slowly munch away on what's left. I don't know 1028 well, but that may be happening here.