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looking for a cause

Sithmisfit

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Apr 12, 2015
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Location
Asheville NC
Hi everybody. I recently put together an American IPA making my own version of Baba Budan. The recipe is on the cloud Golden Bean IPA. Any way I hit all my targets and the only measurement (which would be super helpful at the moment) I forgot to take was after sparge. Everything else was golden so to speak. My target FG is about 1.019 or there abouts but after 10 days in primary Im at 1.038. Moved to secondary for the next 7 or so. What happened? I used 1lb. flaked oates. would that account for high gravity? OG was 1.076. Anyway BS predicted 7+ percent and i'm right at 5. Ideas?
 
Hello mate... George here from Sydney...without more info about what temp you mashed it at etc all I can guess at this stage is that with such a high OG of 1076 that you did not leave it in the primary long enough... ?

with such a high OG I would leave it for 2 weeks minimum and in Australia we use the food grade plastic bucket style fermenters, so I would give it a gently shake so as to get the yeast in the sediment to wake up and get munching on more sugars and that has always helped a lot

What yeast have you used? Saf US 05?
Did you use a yeast nutrient?
what temp did your primary fermenter brew at?

I don't recon that the flaked oats will make much of a difference one pound is not that much to say that you have a lot of unfermentable sugars that are causing your Gravity to be at  1038

George
 
Another Aussie here, but a weird one. If I hear about slow ferments or poor attenuation, the first three things I think of are all yeast related:

1. Yeast quality: Is it good viable yeast? How old? How has it been stored? etc

2. Yeast quantity: Has enough been pitched? Has this been checked with one of the reputable online yeast calculators?

3. Yeast environment: (and IMHO this is the most commonly ignored). Was the wort aerated as well as possible prior to and/or at pitching time?

Good luck.
 
I'll second antiphile's #2 and #3 as being critical, and add fermentation temp.  How much yeast did you pitch and what temp did you ferment at?
 
It's a stupid question, but I'm a stupid brewer who's made the mistake: Were you checking the SG with a refractometer? You can't use it after fermentation starts because alcohol will bollocks the reading. Months ago I had a 1.078 wort that I checked with a refractometer after a couple days. It read 1.030-something. When I check again with a hydrometer I'd already fermented out to 1.014. Doh!
 
Thanks for all the ideas but turns out the stupid question wins the day. I was at the brewshop the otherday picking up supplies and thats when I learned after fermentation no refractometer. Went home and I got  a FG of 1.026 so Im actually at 6.55%. Doh! Just for the heck of it though I used WL Cali ale yeast and I made a 2L starter because I always feel better doing it even if it isn't completely necessary. Mash was at 156F Fermentation at 68F I did not use any yeast nutrient but, My starter was kicking pretty good. I aeration should have been fine I try to shake the carboy like a sumo eats. Primary was ten days it is currently in secondary going for five to six days with some dry hopping. Then I usually keg and put under pressure for 4 days. Thanks again for the ideas. Im loving these forums great community ;D
 
Well done, Mofo. You picked it in one go.

Even though I use Beersmith for recipe and brew day, I still keep an excel spreadsheet for each brew. You actually can use the refractometer after fermentation as long as you use the formula to compensate for the existing alcohol etc in the wort. If you wish, you can grab a copy of my batch spreadsheet to work it out from here.

There are a few compulsory fields ie.
The name or ID of the batch in the first box
The date of pitching in the date box
The OG from a hydrometer on the day of pitching (day 0).

After that you can use hydrometer or refractometer reading on any subsequent days you wish to use, but if you use both the hydrometer reading will take preference.

Maybe it will help. Maybe not.
 
Those refractometers should come with a disclaimer explaining this issue... this forum is how I learned about it too.  FYI there's a tool in beersmith that will give you an accurate FG if you plug in the OG and the refractometer's reading.
 
I finally pegged one! Very happy to have helped!

antiphile said:
Even though I use Beersmith for recipe and brew day, I still keep an excel spreadsheet for each brew. You actually can use the refractometer after fermentation as long as you use the formula to compensate for the existing alcohol etc in the wort. If you wish, you can grab a copy of my batch spreadsheet to work it out from here.

Maybe it will help. Maybe not.

Awesome. I've grabbed it. It will definitely help! I have a spreadsheet I initially put together to help tweak my equipment profile across my first half dozen brews. I've since added gravity readings and other info and it's become unwieldy. I'm in the (slow) process of rebuilding it. Would love to incorporate your SG tool.
 
I'm not sure if it is of any use, but that batch spreadsheet was designed to be used in conjunction with another spreadsheet called "Brew Summaries-4". If you're interested, I've culled all unecessary files and zipped up the directory, and it can be downloaded from here (one of my own servers).

Guarantees: I guarantee all files are free from any trojans, viruses and malware. However, even though I've been using this for over 18 months, I can't promise it will work for you, but it should (on a Windows system with Excel 2007 or better). If there are any problems, Beersmith know where I live!

Instructions: Unzip the file to wherever you like. Place a shortcut of the file "Brew Summaries-4.xlsx" on the desktop and use this as a starting point to get to what you want. The name of the brew is a link to the relevant batch spreadsheet (so for new brews you'll need to right-click the name and insert a hyperlink).

Since the spreadsheets are linked, when you open or exit the Brew Summaries file, it will ask you if you wish to update or save the current spreadsheet -- this is your option but I always choose "yes". If you have any concerns, you should disable any macros from running (even though there are absolutely none in any of the spreadsheets or files.

I'm sure it should be easy to follow and you'll see which columns have formulae and which require an entry in them.

Feel free to edit, disassemble, delete or modify in any way you'd like.

Cheers
 
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