BeerBorg

Instructions call for about 1.020 for a FG but at 2 weeks I'm at 1.031. The API IPA I did 6 weeks ago was off about the same from the called for FG, the hydrometer didn't move over a 3 day period on that one. OG for the Novocaine was 1.098.

I would think you could get closer to 1.025. What yeast did you use, and how much?

It's probably done or close to being done. Give it another week, and then bottle. You may want to add some champagne yeast at bottling - I still have half a case of uncarbed Novocaine I made 2 years ago...

It came with a packet of us-05 so the whole packet went in. If its done, that'll be a big disappointment :/ sure it'll probably taste great and its still up there in abv but for the money, won't be doing it again. I saved a bit when the big sale was on.

I've had that happen a couple of times with the 04, if you are going to give it a bit more time you might try gently rocking the LBK back and forth without splashing it around. It seems to get the yeast hungry enough again to get the FG down a bit.

Tried rocking it around a bit last Saturday so we'll see how it is later today when I bottle.

I've brewed 3 batches of Novacaine over the years usually so they were ready to drink by New Years. The recipes sold back then were shipped with liquid Wyeast 1056 - American Ale Liquid Yeast and I used a entire smack pack for each LBK sized batch. After 9 months of conditioning the beer was very good, with nice carbonation and we really appreciated how good it came out.

Of course if I were to brew the same recipe today I would have made a yeast starter using the Wyeast 1056 and oxygenated the cooled wort just prior to pitching the yeast. Both of these things in combination will help the yeast to fully attenuate the wort sugars and get you closer to the target final gravity.

It's important to remember that the alcohol in wort becomes lethal to yeast when the levels get high, this is where taking the additional steps I've outlined earlier ensure you're pitching the healthiest yeast possible to get the job done.

Well, I bottled it and there was no difference in the hydrometer reading from over a week ago. Good info screwy, if I ever do try it again, I'll try that yeast and do a starter. Now, I have yet to start the snake eyes recipe that's waiting in the cabinet, another high abv. It also came with the us05 but since it didn't do what I wanted on Novocaine, same recommendation on the different yeast and a starter?

Had a tester bottle to make sure things would carb OK, holy cow its going to be good after a few months.

BDR wrote:It came with a packet of us-05 so the whole packet went in. If its done, that'll be a big disappointment :/ sure it'll probably taste great and its still up there in abv but for the money, won't be doing it again. I saved a bit when the big sale was on.

If that was a 5 gallon batch I would have double pitched the yeast. Beyond that this is why I stopped using S05 and switched to BRY-97

Nope, it was a 2.13 gal batch, mr beer stuff.