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1.016 Pale Ale


Christoph3r

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Hi all,

 

Just chasing a bit of advice...

I brewed a Pale Ale last weekend loosely based on Gage Roads Little Dove. The grain bill was approx. 63% Pale Ale malt, 22% Munich 20L, 12% caramalt 70L, 3% carapils.

 

Its a 23L batch and I only used 1 packet of US-05 ( I made a starter). OG was 1.056. It fermented vigourously for the first two days but has stayed at 1.016 for the past 72 hours. I mashed at 69*C btw.

 

Could the combination of 15% caramel malt and the high mash temp result in a beer finishing at 1.016? Other brews I have done with US-05 have finished quite a bit lower than this. It's been very hot in Perth this week so it has hovered around 24-25*C fermentation temp. Could I possibly have a stuck fermentation and if so how can I restart the process without adding more yeast if possible?

 

Any input would be appreciated.

 

Cheers - Chris

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Hey Christoph3r

 

I suspect it is done too if you mashed at 69C. I punched the numbers into a calculator. 1.056 down to 1.016 is 70% attenuation. US-05 can attenuate more than this, but combined with your ingredients and mash temp, you are likely done and it is not stuck.

 

Do the usual and leave for a couple more days, take another gravity reading to be sure.

 

And get yourself a fridge ASAP so you can continue brewing in summer!

 

Jools

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.... but has stayed at 1.016 for the past 72 hours. I mashed at 69*C btw.
I've rarely had a low to medium gravity brew finish that high (usually in the 1.010 -1.012 range)' date=' though a recent 1.060 Belgian finished at 5 points higher than estimated at 1.013. Like you I too am always a little wary of these ones - never quite sure if they've stalled just shy of FG or whether it has actually reached FG. [img']unsure[/img]

 

E.g. https://club.coopers.com.au/coopers-forum/topic/16817/

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Blacksands there are some major differences between your brews and the OPs that make this difficult to compare apples with apples

 

OG - yours are typically low to mid OG; Christoph3r's is 1.056

You partial mash with a kit; Christoph3r is all-grain

You add sugar to your brews; Christoph3r did not in this case

 

I punched in your numbers (OG 1.046 down to FG 1.012) and this is 73% attenuation. Christoph3r's is not far off this at 70%.

 

Christoph3r take an SG reading in a couple of days and let us know if it has dropped. FWIW most of my beers (avg OG of 1.050) finish at 1.013-1.015. I do mash low though as I brew mostly American Pale Ales and want to achieve a dry finish

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Thanks for the responses guys. I took another reading this morning and it is still at 1.016 so I will do as Jools suggested and take readings for the next two days to see if there is any change. I was thinking its more likely finished than not but like BlackSands suggested, it's hard not to be wary when it comes in higher than anticipated. My main reason for being unsure is that I have only ever used two packets of US-05 before and this was my first attempt at using 1 packet with a starter before pitching.

 

Jools I actually just got a fridge off gumtree and am going to use it to cold crash this brew. I've managed to get fairly stable fermentation temps so far by keeping the FV on the concrete slab under the house and wrapping it in a sleeping bag but I suspect this will get harder to control as the weather heats up. Next investment might have to be in a temp controller.

 

Cheers - Chris

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Blacksands there are some major differences between your brews and the OPs that make this difficult to compare apples with apples

 

OG - yours are typically low to mid OG; Christoph3r's is 1.056

You partial mash with a kit; Christoph3r is all-grain

You add sugar to your brews; Christoph3r did not in this case

 

I agree that my PM's differ in some fundamental ways. The belgian I referred to had an OG=1.060' date=' and comprised 3.8% sugar. With a high attenuating abbaye yeast (81-83%) it was estimated to finish at 1.008. It stopped well short at 1.013 - 1.014.

 

I punched in your numbers (OG 1.046 down to FG 1.012) and this is 73% attenuation. Christoph3r's is not far off this at 70%.
That scottish of mine you refer to finished high at 1.016 which was the point of the thread... it SHOULD have been around 1.012 according to software. pouty

 

Doing the numbers on Christoph3r's Beersmith actually estimates around FG=1.017, though I have often wondered how well BS takes mash temp into account.

 

I think the key point here is that when fermentations finish at SG's several points higher than the numbers expected/estimated then there's often a level of uncertainty as to whether it's actually fully completed or not, though in this case it looks like it's actually on target. unsure

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