Beer fermented out to 1.000

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spook100
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Beer fermented out to 1.000

Post by spook100 » Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:53 pm

A couple of years ago I experimented with making a lowish achohol bitter, around 2.5%. To prevent it tasting too thin, I mashed at 70C to produce a lot of long-chain, unfermentable sugurs that would add to the body but not the ABV. That all went to plan and I produced a beer with an OG of 1.030 and FG 0f 0.014.
However, I didn't like it very much so have just left it in the keg and used it for cooking since then. Today I tapped off a pint for a beef and ale stew and had a little taste and it was *really* but tasted stronger than 2.5%. So, I took a gravity reading and it is now at 1.000.
My question is, how has it fermented out so much for a beer that is meant to have so much unfermentable sugars in it? Is it a bacterial infection? If so, I can taste none of the typical flavours that you get from bacterial infections. Is it just the yeast that, given long enough, will ferment out even the 'unfermentable' sugars?
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f00b4r
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Re: Beer fermented out to 1.000

Post by f00b4r » Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:00 pm

Did you remove the carbonation before measuring it?

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Eric
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Re: Beer fermented out to 1.000

Post by Eric » Thu Oct 14, 2021 11:47 pm

What you have found isn't unusual, but maybe towards a lower limit in the circumstances you describe.

Yeast doesn't simply stop their activities when beer reaches what we imagine as, and call, final gravity. At that stage most yeast will flocculate and drop out, others will continue by breaking down longer chain carbohydrates and making alcohol. The rate this will happen will depend largely upon the yeast strain or strains present, their health and ambient temperature as well as the other nutrients present.

Hydrometer readings are usually taken at atmospheric pressure and ~ 20C, when the amount of dissolved CO2 shouldn't significantly change a gravity reading by a spinning hydrometer.
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Re: Beer fermented out to 1.000

Post by IPA » Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:06 am

OG 1030 FG 1014 and it's been in a keg for a couple of years ? Now that is unusual..
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