Beer Forum

so Ive been doing all grain for about 7 months now, probably 8 beers in that time. I always do a starter when I need to build up yeast before pitching, aerate with an aquarium pump, etc... For some reason I consistently can only get my beers to finish at the lowest around 1015-1016. I also recently got a temp controller for my ferm. fridge and have done the past two beers that way. same problem. also those two beers I used 1056 am. ale. Im letting the fermentations go about a week or so before I pull the beer of the cake. Any suggestions/comments/concerns?

also, for the beers Ive done I should have gotten lower than 1.016

First check the calculator on mrmalty and make sure you are pitching the right amount of yeast.

Second I would aerate every 8 to 12 hours or so. Until you see visible fermentation.

Now that you have the temp control on the fermentation. What I do to make things finish a bit drier is at the end of fermentation I bump the temp a few degrees to help the yeast finish out.

I usually have the opposite problems. For some reason, yeast attenuate high in my brewery. Here are my additional thoughts, but I've only been brewing all grain for 2 years or so.

1. Is your fermentation temp high enough. I'm White Labs man, but for 1056, I'd guess you'd want your temps in the 68 to 72 range.

2. Is there still a layer of krausen when you rack? I know that with proper pitcing rates, a lot of batches ferment out in a week or less, but personally, I never rack while there is still foam on top, and I usually leave it in the fermenter for 2-4 weeks. I like to shine a flashlight in there to see if anything at all is still active in there before moving the beer. In short, maybe let it finish its job.

3. Yeast Nutrient.

4. I don't usually spend a lot of time on aeration; I just shake my carboy. But, when I transfer my wort form my kettle to the carboy, I let it splash a lot. I know it's important.

5. Pitching Rate

5. High Mash Temp - Don't think this would be a big contributer, but I know that high mash temps can cause a more dextrinous wort, which can contribute to small elevation of final gravity.

Calibrate your hydrometer in distilled water - you may be lower than you think.

Calibrate hydrometer (or just buy a new one) and stop racking off your yeast so early.

Aeration IS important if you want healthy yeast growth in your fermentor (which you almost always do).

Push E.

You may want to check out/recalibrate your thermometer. If you're mashing at a higher temp than you think you are, that will leave with more residual sugars which might cause this.

thanks for all the replies all. So, my beer in question right now is jamil's 60/- I checked the calculator before to make sure I pitched enough for a 1.036 beer. I even pitched a bit extra just in case my cell density was lower than what was calculated. Right now its been fermenting since last sunday, so how ever many days that is. It went at 64 until yesterday when I checked the gravity, it was 1020, and bumped it up to 69. I just now checked it and it lost two points, so I bumped it up to 72. Im not worried about off flavors because by now the yeast are just finishing up. We'll see though. Tomorrow I need the carboy for a RIS.

Push Eject wrote:...stop racking off your yeast so early.

Push E.

That. While there may be little visible fermentation after one week... it can still take it down a few more points.