Fermenting an ale with OG 1.044 at 68 F with Safale-04. Tilt Hydrometer showed rapid drop in SG over 2 days, (1.044 to 1.020) and then the yeast dropped and the beer cleared but there is still a very slow ramp of decreasing SG, (1.020 to 1.015 over 10 days). I mashed at 157 F so must have generated a fair bit of Maltotriose. Has anyone observed this behavior before? How long should I wait until bottling?
It should eventually finish at about 1.010-1.011. It’s only sluggish from your maltotriose, which it is able to eat but obviously more slowly.
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Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. Do you know if English yeast strains typically have a hard time fermenting Maltotriose? I remember brewing with LalBrew Windsor (pre-Tilt use), and thought fermentation was complete, though OG was somewhat high. After bottle conditioning, the beer was way over-carbonated. I’ve not observed this lag with Safale-05 or Saflager 34/70. Also, I followed the link to your yeast database, very interesting.
English yeasts vary widely in their ability to ferment maltotriose. S-04 is typically very good at eating maltotriose, but with your relatively high mash temperature… results might not be so typical. Windsor cannot eat complex sugars at all, and it is the least attenuative yeast currently available commercially as far as I know. There are dozens of other UK yeasts with average attenuation percentages all over the spectrum of about 60-85%. If you experienced overcarbonation with Windsor, I am pretty surprised… it might be caused by a contaminant. Same could be said for your current batch. How do you sanitize? When is the last time you replaced your hoses, gaskets, plastic or rubber piece parts?
I’m pretty sure I’ve had this with S-04, too. Just be patient and don’t get antsy and package too soon like I did.
That Windsor batch was 4 years ago. I had spilt the packaging between a small keg and bottles (to share). The keg went fast but the bottles sat around longer, so I thought the yeast must have been munching on complex residual sugars. Based on your feedback that Windsor doesn’t eat complex sugars, I bet I messed up on the priming sugar amount for the bottles and overdosed them. The current S-04 batch seems to be slowing down, it’s at 1.014 today, so maybe another few days and I’ll package it.
Glad to hear that confirmation. This is the first time I’ve seen this behavior since I started using a Tilt a couple years ago to monitor things.
My experience w/ S-04 is very different. It starts fast, ferments vigorously, and finishes at BeerSmith predicted FG within just a few days. I’ve never experienced it stopping at 1.020 then slowly continuing to full attenuation.