A little background here, experienced homebrewer went from G30 to G40 system. After about 3 months with G40 was not getting good attenuation (did not do iodine test) but saw great hot and cold break, clear wort in fermenter. So I checked temperatures and found them to be way off. Called grainfather did some tests 0- faulty heating element and new G40 sent as replacement.
First two batches brewed. One a lager and other an IPA. tested temperatures, all good. Did not do iodine test. Both beers different yeasts and "shaken not stirred " starter or vitality starter made. Wort oxygenated. Both beers in different temp controlled environments. Both hard stop fermentation at 8.5 º P. This was from pill hydrometer, Thus I used my Milwaukee refractometer and a standard hydrometer to verify.
More into process, once beer at the desired temp I let the cold break settle and pressure transfer to sanitized fermentor. Then I oxygenate and pitch. Generally use a spunding valve that is all the way open at first, generally give 5-10 PSI on it with about 2ºP to go. Did not attenuate so did not do this step.
Since this problem, at day 13 I called whitelabs, they recommended transfer off old yeast and add nutrient and pitch fresh. Here I am day 18 and nothing. Yesterday even pulled fermenters to room temp, nothing changing, so facing the music and will dump them. Wort still tastes sweet, I do not think it is just unfermentable sugars keeping the yeast from doing their job.
I am about to brew tomorrow, and want to really create beer again!Any thoughts appreciated on this.
White Labs gave you questionable advice. Removing live yeast and repitching with new to a completed fermentation, even with nutrient, I would expect nothing to happen, which is what you’ve experienced.
There are a dozen variables, but the first ones I would focus on:
What yeast strain are you using? This can matter a lot. Some yeasts simply do not attenuate very well.
How have you checked your mash thermometer for accuracy? Really the ONLY way to do this, in my opinion, is to check that the temperature reads 0 C (32 F) in ice water, AND reads properly in boiling water depending on your elevation above sea level. If an error on your mash thermometer caused you to mash a few degrees too hot, it can kill off the beta amylase which can limit attenuation in a big way.
How are you measuring gravity exactly? Is your traditional hydrometer in agreement with the pill? Is the refractometer corrected for alcohol content using an equivalency calculator such as Brewer’s Friend or Terrill? And have you calibrated your hydrometers and refractometer in plain water to ensure they read 1.000 or 0.0, respectively?
Hi, I used WLP001 in the ale, and Bavarian Lager Yeast i think M74 in the lager. Big starter for the lager. I was on day 13 when I called white labs which I think may be why they told me to get the wort off the old yeast.
The thermometers yes have calibrated in ice water. I had tested the mash temps and I did hit beta rest and alpha rest temps.
I measure gravity with calibrated pill, then the Milwaukee refractometer as. well as a traditional floating hydrometer. I have calibrated the hydrometers as well in RO mater. The refractometer I use as “ballpark” and find spot on for initial gravity and close in finishing…
The pill won’t read accurately when there is yeast and hops stuck to it. It will tend to read higher than the true gravity. So I’ll bet that’s a factor.
The refractometer will not read accurately when alcohol is present. So there’s another factor.
The traditional hydrometer should be the primary tool that is the most accurate of all. You need to focus on that one, and ignore the other results. I wonder if this might resolve your issue, in combination with my earlier points about checking your mash thermometer at boiling temperatures (not just mash temp). If not, then… I don’t know if I can help… things are not adding up, some variables are either not taken correctly or reported correctly.
Could the traditional hydrometer be cracked or broken? That’s about the only other thing I can think of.
I have no idea if this will be of any help, but I recently experienced a similar issue. I think that what may have happened is that I started mashing in slightly differently by filling my Spike basket with the grist and then lowering it into the hot liquor. This produced no dough balls, so I didn’t really do much mash paddle work.
I think that because of that, the mash may have been unevenly heated or something which threw off the fermentability of the wort I ended up with. Not even positive if that was the cause, but it’s my best guess. Things seemed to be humming along so consistently lately that I may have gotten a little lazy with some measurements, including iodine tests.
