My recent batch of Nearly Nirvana Pale Ale finished at 1.019 specific gravity. I tasted a sample and it is slightly sweet. I am wonder what options I have.
I believe I let the mash get too warm. The target was 156F but I know it was at 159-160F. I thought it would be fine and let it ride. I do BIAB and the temp drops a lot during the mash. But, I guess I denatured some of the enzymes.
I think my options are:
Krausen with a different yeast that might like long chain starches.
Drink it as is.
Dilute it and drink it.
I currently plan to skip #1 and try #2. If I can’t stand the sweetness I will then try diluting by 25% with deaerated water. That would drop the OG from 1060 to 1045, the FG to 1015, and the bitterness to 34 IBU. I am not sure if that will help.
Then I don’t know what I did wrong. I have never had this happen before. I have measured with two hydrometers (Tilt and my finish hydrometer) and with a refractometer. Plus tasting a bit sweet makes me think I did something wrong.
The yeast took off in 12-15 hours after pitch. So that seems normal. The beer tastes pretty good. Just a tad sweet. Hopefully, it is in my head and the beer will taste fine after carbonation.
Regarding, blending. I don’t want to brew a special batch. Maybe I could blend by the glass with beers already in the beer fridge, but I don’t like to waste good beer blending it with bad beer.
If it isn’t already packaged, you could attempt to add a more attenuative yeast. I’m assuming you didn’t use US-05 because that one in particular is the highest attenuating American ale yeast strain. Otherwise you could try a Belgian. Just ideas. You might prefer to go with your other options, and there’s never a guarantee that any additional yeast will take off again.
Dilute it in the glass with carbonated water. That way you can drink it as is till you’re tired of the sweetness for that day and then switch to diluted pints. Good news is the keg will last much longer!
Good question. I know that the enzymes work best at mash temps but I don’t think that means they don’t work at all if added to fermentation. No clue if ph or alcohol hampers it too.
To answer Denny’s question I have never tried adding hop tea to fix a beer but have heard the advice before so thought I a would add that piece of spaghetti to what we were throwing against the wall.
My experience with hop tea has been so bad I could never recommend it. I was curious if you’d found some way to make it work that I’d missed. FWIW, I find most people who recommend hop tea haven’t actually tried it.
Probably too late now, but I’d double-check my mash thermometer’s accuracy and mash lower next time.
Upping the gypsum post-ferm is, IMO, the best “fix” post fermentation, unless you’ve got some 34/70 lager yeast laying around.
The other option would change the beer, but a warm and decently sizeable whole hop dry hop addition to try to get the amylase enzyme to dry the beer out another point or two. (I know Denny’s experience has been that it doesn’t do much.)
Most of the amylase enzyme products will just keep drying a beer out until near 1.000, so personally I’d avoid them at all costs unless you have access to FAA in reasonably sized quantities: Fungal α-amylase - 1kg | BSG Canada. (It’s a self-limiting amylase enzyme that will get you a couple extra points and then stop.)
I don’t know of anyone selling it in homebrewer sizes…
I favor the blending approach when I have had similar issues; brew the same recipe at a low low mash temp and perhaps substitute some sugar for some of the malt.
This has worked well for me and hasn’t ever felt like a too big of a compromise. If it does for you, then just dump it.
Good luck!
i think people said some options post-fact for reducing FG, but for me:
-unexpectedly high FG frustrates me because i just dont want to choke down a whole bunch of overly heavy, high sugar alcoholic beverages when I don’t necessarily need to. I actually DO consider “drinkability” lol
-it may indicate a poor fermentation, and ive missed my intended numbers to balance ABV/IBU/flavours etc
-its extra calories i dont need
i was going to make some kind of thread for this to gauge peoples thoughts but im increasingly doing beers that have much lowered FGs than one would expect and im finding using a flavourful but highly fermentable malt easily makes up for it, imho my homebrewed beers generally having a more perceptible malt presence than any store bought beers.
had a lager i made this winter that had an FG of 1.006 unexpectedly, but it was excellent tasting and very malty. more beer for me and less residual sugar. im close to pulling out phrases like “same great taste but LESS FILLING!” but i mean it.
im definitely aiming to try a bunch of styles doing this come fall brewing.
It is my understanding that the difference in calories between carbs and alcohol is small. That means that OG, not FG, is what matters when it comes to calories - it really doesn’t make much difference if you finish with high FG and low alcohol or low FG and high alcohol.
maybe, but sipping on a 1.08 beer fermented with say windsor (as an extreme example) with a 1.03FG vs. 1.08 beer fermented with BE256 down to 1.010, you know which one you will be willing to drink another of. i do count beer as a means of consuming alcohol of course.
