Home Brew Forum

I tried a bitter and twisted from barleybottom the other week:

3.00kg pale malt
0.20kg flaked barley
0.20kg crystal malk
0.20 torrified wheat
26.3 IBU fuggles @ 90 min
7.3 IBU bobeck @ 15 mins


Beer profile:

Est gravity 1.044 SG
Est final gravity 1.012 SG
Est alcohol 4.27%
Bitterness 33.6 IBU

I managed to only get 24lt at 1035, which i work out my efficiency at 77% > dunno how i was meant to get 1045?

The beer is currently stuck at 1020 could these be unfermentable sugars my other two brews have gone down to 1008 so i think my mash temps and fermenting temps are ok.

Any ideas?

with a grist bill of 3.6kg you would be struggling to get 24l at 1044 with 100% efficiency. check what the brew length of the original recipie.

with a starting gravity of 1035 a final gravity of 1020 is not down to unfermentable sugars.
usual causes would be yeast quantity/condition, aeration, pitching/feremnting temp.

try rousing and pitching an active yeast starter.

gb

Thanks for the reply, the only thing I can think of is the first night the beer was left in my kitchen which gets quite cold - but I moved it to my bedroom - which is perfect temperature. The airlock had quite a bit of activity after that but the gravity wasn't falling - might be co2 release from the beer making the airlock bubble. Do I need to re-aerate the beer when I add the yeast , my gut tells me not too.

What yeast are you using?

Pitching yeast into cold wort can shock the yeast and lead to long lag times, slow/ineffective growth and the yeast settling out early. Check your temp and try rousing (do not aearate at this stage) and pitching an active starter and make sure wort is fairly warm (21c) before pitching.

gb

Using s04. Garth is sending me some so it might get to me by tomorrow.. Ill take a temp reading and try my other hydrometer tonight when i get in. Thanks for the information though. For the starter could i use some of the aerated wort then pitch that? I dont have any DME to use.

without the option of making a normal starter then i suggest the following

rehydrate the so4 at 27c in ten times weight of water (for an 11g sachet 110ml of water, in the circumstances use 2 sachets therfore 220ml) in a vessel big engough to top up with wort. let it stand for 15 to 20 mins and let the yeast absorb the water then gently stir until you have a smooth cream and you should see clear signs of fermentation. add small quantities of your brew but ensure this is about 21c.

what happens next is not clear. best option after say 20 to 30 mins is that the starter will continue to ferment if not then don't panic pitch into brew rouse and wait and see. In this situation there is no guarentee.

I would try and keep the brew temp fairly constant and in the range 18c to 21c so4 is a highly flocculant yeast and at low temp will settle out very quickly

gb

That sounds like great advice, thanks. I’ve just stuck two hydrometers in the brew and they are at about 1010 now so its dropped 10 points without airlock activity - must have not been air tight. I’ve just got hold of 48 bottles so this should be ok to bottle very soon. I just wish I had paid attention with my brew length - looks like it will only be 3.3% least ill be able to drink a fair bit before falling over and the priming sugar will add a tiny amount of alcohol. This being my third AG attempt I’m expecting to have some teething problems!