High FG

[timtoos]

Hi everyone,

I brewed the brown porter from Greg Hughes's book on Sunday. Followed his grains and his mash schedule. Using the Wyeast 1028 yeast according to the book and beersmith, my FG should be finishing at about 1.012. Well, I'm at 1.016 and have been for a few days now. The fermentation went off to an initial blistering pace. I have gently roused twice and bumped the temperature up 0.5C, now with an SP of 19.3C

What are your thoughts? Was the 67C mash too high? Is this the FG as 1016 is a little high, and out for the style. Is there anything else I can do?

Cheers

[orlando]

What % of attenuation have you achieved? Is it in the range for the yeast? Try putting up to 22c.

[Jocky]

I presume this isn’t the first time you’ve used that hydrometer? I’ve had one that read 4 points different to other ones!

Mainly though I’d not sweat it over just 4 points. Try the beer. If you find it a bit sweet then mash at 65 or 63 next time, or increase the bitterness to offset it

Edit: realised I was talking about the wrong yeast.

[orlando]

I have just used repitched London Ale yeast (WLP013), dropped it from the FV 5 minutes ago. Due to "issues" the mash ended up circa 64. Result? 80.9% attenuation.

[Jocky]

I realise now that I’m thinking of a different yeast. I’ve not used 1028!

[PeeBee]

… What are your thoughts? Was the 67C mash too high? Is this the FG as 1016 is a little high, and out for the style. Is there anything else I can do?

1.016? A little high? Out for the style?

What complete tosh have you been listening to? 67C is a very middle-of-the-road mashing temperature. If your "brown porter" had an OG of 1.060 (about right for a porter) your apparent attenuation will be 73% which is in the documented "normal" for this yeast (according to Wyeast). So you ask "is there anything else I can do?". Yes! Stop fretting! Stop cooking the flippin' beer (19C; hell's teeth!)! Stick it in a barrel, or leave a bit longer if bottling.

My own porter (estimation of 1850 Whitbread's London Porter) was casked a couple of weeks ago. It had an OG of 1.059 (68-ish IBUs). It was mashed at 67C. It's FG was 1.017. In my estimation too LOW given I was using Wyeast 1099. It's in storage for Christmas now.

[timtoos]

OG was 1.052, FG is 1.015 now. Attenuation: 70.5%
Was expetcting about 75/77%

[PeeBee]

An OG of 1.052 would be about right for an early 20th century porter ("brown porter" is a label acquired by some for English porters) as it slid into obscurity, but it would slide still further as did "mild" until the two probably merged into one and "stout" became the new "porter" (even though stout, a hefty porter, was by then much weaker than porter from a few decades earlier).

I still wouldn't worry overly about your porter unless bottling (especially if in glass) in which case you might encourage it to ferment a little more.

I rant because you said "out-of-style", probably according to the American BJCP which would put my own porter down as "out-of-style" yet it was following a recipe for a 1850 Whitbread London porter - about as definitive a porter as could be. Just beware of foreign beer writers with their country's beer history much thinner than our own dictating how our beer should be.

[timtoos]

I checked the gravity this morning and it was still 1.015, however this afternoon the tilt is now recording 1.014 (it did read 1.015 when I manually checked). Hopefully its dropped a point.
My plan was to leave in the primary for 14 days at ferm temperature (its been in there 7 days today), then crash in the primary for another 7 days then transfer to brite tank for a few more weeks to clear and carb. From there I was gong to bottle.
What you think? I dont want bottle bombs but I wont be adding priming sugar to carb up.

[guypettigrew]

Why leave it for another 7 days at fermentation temperature if it's already finished? Cool it now to drop the yeast out.

Guy