Surprising FG reading

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FedoraDave
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Surprising FG reading

Post by FedoraDave »

I'm bottling a fiver of 2Daves Irish Red this afternoon. It's been fermenting for 20 days. I racked it to a secondary last Saturday. Anyway, I figured I should take a sample just to confirm that it's done.

OG was 1.062, so I calculated the FG to be 1.015. I was really surprised to find it at 1.010. I believe I used White Labs Irish Ale yeast, which would have been my go-to in this situation anyway. I just don't remember it being this aggressive and complete before.

Sample tasted great, though, and I'm going to enjoy this batch when it's ready.
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by Dawg LB Steve »

That just happened with the SMaSH I kegged last weekend, it was US-05, supposed to finish @ 1.011 it finally stopped @ 1.005. Really cleaned it up nice!
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John Sand
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by John Sand »

Similarly my Amber, currently bottle conditioning, started a little high (water volumes) and ended a little low. So, it's +1 ABV. I named it "Happy Amber".
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by Gymrat »

FedoraDave wrote:I'm bottling a fiver of 2Daves Irish Red this afternoon. It's been fermenting for 20 days. I racked it to a secondary last Saturday. Anyway, I figured I should take a sample just to confirm that it's done.

OG was 1.062, so I calculated the FG to be 1.015. I was really surprised to find it at 1.010. I believe I used White Labs Irish Ale yeast, which would have been my go-to in this situation anyway. I just don't remember it being this aggressive and complete before.

Sample tasted great, though, and I'm going to enjoy this batch when it's ready.
That's almost saison attenuation. What you have there is an Imperial Red :)
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by Brewbirds »

This must be a contagious bug on the Borg we've had two go nuts on the FG.
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Sparrow
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by Sparrow »

Somethings in the water, I had a 1.059 OG finish at 1.004 with US-05.
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by Foothiller »

A lot of variables affect the attenuation. With US-05, the range for me has been from 69% to 84%, where FG was 1.008. In a cider, US-05 reached 90% attenuation.
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by FedoraDave »

Gymrat wrote:
FedoraDave wrote:I'm bottling a fiver of 2Daves Irish Red this afternoon. It's been fermenting for 20 days. I racked it to a secondary last Saturday. Anyway, I figured I should take a sample just to confirm that it's done.

OG was 1.062, so I calculated the FG to be 1.015. I was really surprised to find it at 1.010. I believe I used White Labs Irish Ale yeast, which would have been my go-to in this situation anyway. I just don't remember it being this aggressive and complete before.

Sample tasted great, though, and I'm going to enjoy this batch when it's ready.
That's almost saison attenuation. What you have there is an Imperial Red :)
Well, the ABV comes in at around 6.8%, I think, which is way higher than an Irish Red should be, but the sample was so smooth-tasting and mellow, it doesn't seem that high. I'm gonna have to be careful with this one!
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Natural 20 Pale Ale -- Bull Terrier Best Bitter -- King Duncan's Porter -- Schöenwald Schwarzbier -- Littlejohn's Ale
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by FrozenInTime »

It's happened to me a few times, always love the low FG surprises. Water, temp and yeastie viability has to be just right. Wish I could do it every time, but have not attained that perfection.... yet.
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Re: Surprising FG reading

Post by ScrewyBrewer »

Mash temperature and water pH definitely both have an impact on the amount of residual sugars converted during the mash. Throw in some viable yeast and there you go, higher attenuation equals lower final gravity beer. Since moving I've been using the same mash tun and kettle I always used before. But now using Nottingham dry yeast instead of the big fat happy yeast starters I'd come to love, I'm getting lower attenuation and higher final gravities than I'm used to seeing.

The beers are clean tasting with lacing that hangs onto the glass until the end, I'm not complaining, other than it's not what I had become used to. Just thank the beer gods apparently they seem to be smiling down on your work.
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