The Bar Towel

matt7215 wrote:

JesseMcG wrote:

matt7215 wrote:jesse, i wouldnt trust the IBU calculator. if your doing a partial boil on the stove you will not get near 100 IBU's. you certainly could use 2 oz as a bittering addition but i dont find the 3.5 oz addition to be too bitter. if you already have the amount of hops in the original recipe id up the 10min and flameout addition.

I'm brewing this as we speak... and I juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuussssttt about had my first boil over... if it wasn't for my fiance keeping a really close eye, it would have. As soon as I dropped the bittering hops in (went with 2 oz) I took my eye off it, and within 2 seconds it was nearly over...

any updates on this one?

I was fermenting this on the low end... in the low 60s and it dropped below 60 and I believe it stalled. I took a reading and the SG was 1.033, down from an OG of 1.055. I moved it to a warmer area of the condo and it was back to bubbling a little bit by the end of the day. So it's been about a 2.5 weeks in the primary and I'm still getting a bubble every 45 seconds or so. I'm going to take another gravity reading tonight probably.

The plan is to rack to secondary and dry hop with 2 ounces of Centennial for 7 days before bottling. I really hope this fermented down to a drinkable level. My last batch of pilsner finished at 1.030 and it's pretty disappointing.

JesseMcG wrote:I was fermenting this on the low end... in the low 60s and it dropped below 60 and I believe it stalled. I took a reading and the SG was 1.033, down from an OG of 1.055. I moved it to a warmer area of the condo and it was back to bubbling a little bit by the end of the day. So it's been about a 2.5 weeks in the primary and I'm still getting a bubble every 45 seconds or so. I'm going to take another gravity reading tonight probably.

The plan is to rack to secondary and dry hop with 2 ounces of Centennial for 7 days before bottling. I really hope this fermented down to a drinkable level. My last batch of pilsner finished at 1.030 and it's pretty disappointing.

Are you rehydrating the dry yeast? What is your method for oxygenating the wort?

markaberrant wrote:

JesseMcG wrote:I was fermenting this on the low end... in the low 60s and it dropped below 60 and I believe it stalled. I took a reading and the SG was 1.033, down from an OG of 1.055. I moved it to a warmer area of the condo and it was back to bubbling a little bit by the end of the day. So it's been about a 2.5 weeks in the primary and I'm still getting a bubble every 45 seconds or so. I'm going to take another gravity reading tonight probably.

The plan is to rack to secondary and dry hop with 2 ounces of Centennial for 7 days before bottling. I really hope this fermented down to a drinkable level. My last batch of pilsner finished at 1.030 and it's pretty disappointing.

Are you rehydrating the dry yeast? What is your method for oxygenating the wort?

I didn't rehydrate... just used right out of the package...

I ran the wort through a strainer on the way from the kettle to the fermenter. That caused a TON of foam on top, more than I expected... then I shook the hell out of the fermenting bucket afterwards. Plus I thought that dry yeast didn't need nearly as much oxygen.

So I took another hydro reading and it hasn't moved from 1.033. So it's done.

I'm pretty discouraged after my last 2 batches finishing this high. I'm starting to think that the DME I get from the LHBS in Kingston is pretty shitty. Could that be the cause?

My first batch was 1 can of coopers wheat liquid extract and a bunch of dextrose. Fermented to about 1.010 or lower even. Pitched a pack of dry coopers yeast that came with the extract kit.

Second batch I boiled 1 can of coopers ipa liquid extract with 2.2 pounds of DME, and used some hops in the boil. These fermented down to 1.020 with the dry yeast in the coopers extract kit.

Third batch I used 100% DME, with some steeped grains. Hops in boil. Pitched Pilsner Urquell liquid Wyeast. Fermented a LOW temps for months, finished at 1.030.

Fourth batch I used 100% DME with even more steeped grains. Hops in boil. Pitched Safale-05 and fermented in low 60s. Finished at 1.033.

All boils lasted 60 mins. I've got a pretty shitty pot but I don't get any DME scorching on the bottom...

I know I should be creating starters but I haven't... but other than the DME being garbage... I don't know what's going on.

Based on what you've said here, and assuming your technique has been fairly consistent batch to batch, the common denominator for your high FG batches is the DME.

If the DME is high in dextrins, then that could explain the high FG. Perhaps call your LHBS and ask what brand DME they would have sold you, and approximately how old it would be.

Nevertheless the DME is not necessarily the issue, but is probably a good place to start.

With respect to starters, you shouldn't need one with dry yeast. The cell count should be sufficientl to achieve the typical attenuation for that particular yeast with a 1.055 OG wort. Did you happen to check to see how old the yeast was?

For this batch, you could possibly pitch another pack of yeast. Also, based on your posts it sounds like you've only had it in the warmer area for a few hours. Maybe give it a gentle swirl, while minimizing oxygen introduction, and wait to see how it is doing tomorrow.

Some things for future batches, you can make sure that the DME that you are using is of the highly fermentable variety, use the freshest liquid yeast possible with a good starter, use relatively fresh packs of dry yeast properly rehydrated prior to pitching and you could consider adding yeast nutrient (1/2 tsp with 10 minutes left in boil). I'd also suggest that you move on to all grain brewing in order to give yourself control over the fermentability of your wort, but I believe you said in a much earlier post that you do not have the room for that.

Good luck pal.

cannondale wrote:Based on what you've said here, and assuming your technique has been fairly consistent batch to batch, the common denominator for your high FG batches is the DME.

If the DME is high in dextrins, then that could explain the high FG. Perhaps call your LHBS and ask what brand DME they would have sold you, and approximately how old it would be.

Nevertheless the DME is not necessarily the issue, but is probably a good place to start.

With respect to starters, you shouldn't need one with dry yeast. The cell count should be sufficientl to achieve the typical attenuation for that particular yeast with a 1.055 OG wort. Did you happen to check to see how old the yeast was?

For this batch, you could possibly pitch another pack of yeast. Also, based on your posts it sounds like you've only had it in the warmer area for a few hours. Maybe give it a gentle swirl, while minimizing oxygen introduction, and wait to see how it is doing tomorrow.

Some things for future batches, you can make sure that the DME that you are using is of the highly fermentable variety, use the freshest liquid yeast possible with a good starter, use relatively fresh packs of dry yeast properly rehydrated prior to pitching and you could consider adding yeast nutrient (1/2 tsp with 10 minutes left in boil). I'd also suggest that you move on to all grain brewing in order to give yourself control over the fermentability of your wort, but I believe you said in a much earlier post that you do not have the room for that.

Good luck pal.

Thanks for your post, I appreciate it.

The DME comes from some place in Peterborough, it's pretty generic I believe... I can find out when I get home tonight and post exactly where it's from.

I'd LOVE to go all-grain but I don't have the capacity for a full boil right now. I suppose I could split the boil.... not having a car and getting large amounts of grains is also a huge pain in the ass.

Bah!

Definitely rehydrate your dry yeast, and make starters for liquid yeast.

I like using pure O2 for oxygenating, foam doesn't mean anything.

If you still think the DME is the culprit, you can try cutting it with some simple sugar. Start with 10% of fermentables, and see if that helps.

markaberrant wrote:If you still think the DME is the culprit, you can try cutting it with some simple sugar. Start with 10% of fermentables, and see if that helps.

I don't know if this would work or not, but I have heard that you can steep some crushed malt in a grain bag in your DME wort at mashing temps to increase the fermentability of the wort. Never done it myself so don't know what kind of quantities you would need or even if it really would work, but might be worth a shot.

jcc wrote:I don't know if this would work or not, but I have heard that you can steep some crushed malt in a grain bag in your DME wort at mashing temps to increase the fermentability of the wort. Never done it myself so don't know what kind of quantities you would need or even if it really would work, but might be worth a shot.

This is supposedly something Jamil suggested at one time or another. I would be rather skeptical of this.

When I've topped up with DME, I've had some crappy attenuation as well... I figured the DME was under 60% attenuation IIRC.

When I used a 5 Gallon MLT, I used to use diastatic LME to top up, and it worked really well. Very predictable attenuation. I use to be way more precise than I am now (so many more variables with the bigger MLT!).

The Coopers kits (with LME) and the festabrew bags of wort were pretty decent... but yeah, I didn't have a lot of luck with DME.

markaberrant wrote:

jcc wrote:I don't know if this would work or not, but I have heard that you can steep some crushed malt in a grain bag in your DME wort at mashing temps to increase the fermentability of the wort. Never done it myself so don't know what kind of quantities you would need or even if it really would work, but might be worth a shot.

This is supposedly something Jamil suggested at one time or another. I would be rather skeptical of this.

Being skeptical of any internet advice is probably a good thing. However, if I was an extract brewer and thought the fermentability of my DME or LME was suspect, then I would certainly give this approach a shot particularly if I was not interested in adding additional simple sugars to my wort. Worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work.

jcc wrote:Being skeptical of any internet advice is probably a good thing. However, if I was an extract brewer and thought the fermentability of my DME or LME was suspect, then I would certainly give this approach a shot particularly if I was not interested in adding additional simple sugars to my wort. Worst thing that can happen is it doesn't work.

I'm just saying I've never heard of anyone actually trying this method. You would think that if Jamil had indeed suggested this, there would have been extract brewers all over the place trying it out.

Many extract brewers successfully add a bit of sugar to improve fermentability, especially with bigger beers.