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Russian Imperial Stout

Wfu1bunn

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Sep 29, 2014
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Recently brewed a RIS.  Starting gravity and final gravity were way off.  What went wrong?
 
ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.....ummmmmmmmmmmmm....

ummmmmmmmmmmmm.....  You have to actually tell us about the brew and your process, or we couldn't possibly answer that question.
 
Sorry about that.  Well it was a partial grain recipe.  Started yeast a couple of days before brew day(Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast).  Original gravity should have been 1103-1104.  Checked it and was only 1050.  Had major blow off day one in the fermentor.  After 2 weeks bottled it.  Checked final gravity at only 1040.  Should have been 1022-1024.  Cracker one tonight and it is VERY sweet!!

Does that help, or is more info needed to diagnosed the problem?
 
Give us the whole recipe including batch size and your process. How big was your boil size and how much, if any, water did you use to top off with?
Original gravity readings can be off if the water you used to top off with hasnt had enough time to homogenize fully with the wort you boiled and you could have just pulled a sample off the top that was mostly your top off water.

Did you take 2 gravity readings 3 days apart? 2 weeks isnt a very long time for a RIS, though I hope it was done by then if you bottled it already.
 
Sounds to me like you under pitched and didnot let wort ferment long enough. Aggressive fermentation with a short lag phase is symtomatic of to high wort temp at pitching. Yeast worked like crazy then floculated before their job was done leaving lots of sugar, a sweet wort.
 
How are you measuring gravity: hydrometer or refractometer?

If you're using a refractometer the reading must be adjusted to account for the effect of alcohol. Beersmith has a tool to make the correction.
 
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