MRMARTINSALES said:
it has managed to get down to 1020 now which gives it 4.6% ABV. as mentioned previosuly this beer should have finished at 1.017. What i'm trying to achieve is consistency so if it is finished i want to chill and keg and then the next time do it exactly the same way.
It makes me question again, how does a commercial brewery do it? they dont wait that long for the beer to get to FG?
Is the Safale s04 the culprit here or not? I have a ss brewtech chronical with a fermentation temp controller so i know it has nothing to do with the temps fluctuating.
Thanks
There are so many factors which go into the performance of yeast. Fermentation rate and the ultimate FG can be affected by: (1) mashing temperature, (2) water to grist ratio at mashing temperatures, (3) the quality of the grain used, (4) the specific species of barley used, (5) the degree of modification during the malting process, (6) the amount of time and heat used for halting the germination process, (7) the amount of non-enzymatic grains or adjuncts used in the grist bill, (8) the quality and quantity of the yeast pitch, and (9) fermentation temperatures and duration, among other lesser factors. I don't worry about hitting the FG exactly every time because I know these factors that I may have very little control over will affect every single batch. Further, it takes a really, really discriminating taster to discern the difference of a few points of gravity between beers.
Most mid sized and larger brewers that I have talked to have tight controls on their incoming raw materials. They make slight changes to adapt their process to take into account the differences of base malts lot to lot and I know a few that purposely blend base malts of the same type from different suppliers to reduce the effect any one lot or supplier has on the outcome of their products. This is something we, as home brewers or smaller breweries, don't have as much control over.
A prime example of this is the A-B plant in Merrimack, NH which is close to me and I've visited several times. They get base malt from three different malting companies and blend them from the tank cars and silos into a mix which is determined by the amount of protein, enzyme content, dry basis extraction, and moisture content, among other things of each lot that they receive. It takes a lot of manipulation and work to make a beer with that little flavor consistently. Smuttynose in Portsmouth, NH is another which does blending to reduce variations in their base malts.
This is one reason that I made a switch a few years ago to buying base malt in full bags. I know for a short while what I can expect and can get a full malt analysis sheet from the malting company that gives me the numbers needed to plug into BeerSmith and how that will potentially affect the outcome of my brews.
I would give it another few days to a week to finish off before worrying too much about where it ends up. I've learned a lot of patience by taking up home brewing and now don't even consider looking at where the gravity of a fermenting wort is until at least 10 to 14 days have passed.