Am I close enough?

Share an all grain or partial grain recipe that you like or want to get feedback from the Borg.

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Beer-lord
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Am I close enough?

Post by Beer-lord »

Regarding the ongoing battles with final gravity, I kegged my Big Honkin Stout today and have another confused head. Though the recipe is from Northern Brewer, it was not their kit. Their recipe states OG at 1.068 and Beersmith says 1.075 (but it's set for 76% efficiency) and I got 1.075. FG, according to Beersmith was 1.016. All the charts I find online for American Stouts show that a 1.075 should end BETWEEN 1.017 and 1.022. It's 3 weeks in the fermenter and had the same gravity for 7 days.
It's going to stay in the keg conditioning for 4-5 weeks and tasted very good.....the kind of stout I like.
So, is that close enough? I aerated the crap out of this beer, used good, clean washed 05, had perfect temps throughout, slightly moved the fermenter after the first week to keep the yeast roused and still, the FG is high.
I'm all out of ideas and am just thankful the beers are still coming out ok but the question begs.......could they be better?
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Re: Am I close enough?

Post by russki »

So, what was the actual FG? Recipes with a high percentage of roasted grains tend not to attenuate as much as, due to mostly unfermentable sugars being contributed by those roasted grains. If it tastes good, RDWHAHB!
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Re: Am I close enough?

Post by Beer-lord »

So sorry, I thought I mentioned the FG. It was 1.023.
And, yes, so far, it tastes great. I'm just not sure why, when I moved from a 9 gallon kettle on the stove to a 15 gallon pot on a burner, all my numbers are off. I'm pretty sure I've got Beersmith tweaked correctly with help from here and Beersmith.
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Re: Am I close enough?

Post by russki »

Beer-lord wrote:So sorry, I thought I mentioned the FG. It was 1.023.
And, yes, so far, it tastes great. I'm just not sure why, when I moved from a 9 gallon kettle on the stove to a 15 gallon pot on a burner, all my numbers are off. I'm pretty sure I've got Beersmith tweaked correctly with help from here and Beersmith.
What temperature did you mash at? I actually think you are spot on for your FG - it's over 75% attenuation, which is exactly where you should be with US-05 if you mashed around 152-154F.
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Cranberry Mead
Buck-Flower Mead
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Hefeweizen (5-gal)(AG)
Oaked Pear Cider
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Re: Am I close enough?

Post by Beer-lord »

BIAB at 153 with a 10 minute mashout to 168. It certainly doesn't taste sweet like some of my other high FG beers. Actually, I could drink it uncarbed and enjoy it.
I thought it was pretty much right on too but that damn Beersmith keeps making me OCD. I think I'll have to go drink a beer right now!
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Re: Am I close enough?

Post by philm00x »

Don't worry about Beersmith too much! I calculate 70% attenuation (75 x 0.30 = 22.5, approx 23) but I'm wondering if there were some unfermentables added, like lactose or something. I had an issue with my first batch of Murican Wheat not attenuating close to where it should have when I did a 155 mash, so there definitely wasn't as much fermentables put into the wort. I also used washed 05 for that batch. At least yours was within a point of FG. Mine was like 10 points out.
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Re: Am I close enough?

Post by Inkleg »

At 7% and a FG of 1.023 that is going to be one right tasty beer in a few weeks.

I just kinda use BeerSmith to get me TO the ball park. Sometimes my numbers are high, sometimes low, but hey, at least I'm playing in the game. :clink:
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