FG is never reached or is it! Any Advice please

1 year ago | chrisharry (Member)

Hello,

I have finished brewing my 3rd beer kit using the Coopers starter kit.
All beer kits started with OG 1040 but the best FG achieved is 1012.

The beers I've produced are Coopers canadian blonde Lager, Geordie Lager and EDME superbrew lager and I must admit they all taste good :-). However alcohol strength is weak compared to the commercial products.

Fermentation is at a stable 22'c for at least 10 days with all kits and sugar used is the geordie kit enhancer or coopers.

So just wondering if I'm doing anything wrong or if the hard tap water is to blame. Any advice would be great thanks.

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Responses

saracen:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Hi Chrisharry. FG 1.012 is pretty good. With an OG of 1.040 you will only get 4.0% ABV anyway. You can get to a stated FG but you need the right yeast and the right fermenting conditions. Kits rarely reach their stated FG.
Yeast has various properties but the 2 you need to think about when looking for a low FG are 'attenuation' and 'floculation'. Attenuation is the yeast's ability to turn the fermentables to alcohol. If you have a yeast with attenuation 75% and an OG of 1.040 then you cannot get down below 1.010. In other words it will only convert 75% of the sugars to alcohol. Floculation is the yeast's ability to 'drop out' of the beer when it's job is done. Low floculation gives a loose deposit on the bottom of the fermenter which is easily disturbed when you move it, high floculation is the opposite. The deposit is a hard layer and is far more resistent to being stirred up by movement. But... highly floculative yeast will drop out of the beer very easily, and will often not reach it's stated final gravity within our time scale because there is so little yeast left in suspension.
Lager ferments at low temperatures, and Hamish is the expert on this one. I think you should move on from the kits you are using to a premium 3 Kg kit and maybe replace the yeast with Safale S-04 or US-05, but again, Hamish would know more about it.

If you're not living on the edge..... you're taking up too much space!!

Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!

E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Lager ferments at low temperatures, and Hamish is the expert on this one

Hmm, I think not.

To brew a proper lager is a bit of a palaver. You need to be able to control the fermentation temperature, 8 - 10°C ideally, certainly no warmer than 12°C. Then you need to mature it at 4 - 5°C for several weeks.

US-05 (which is an ale yeast) will ferment down to 1010 or below but saracen is right, 1012 is good, I wouldn't be concerned at all.

If you want a stronger beer either increase the fermentables or decrease the water, simples!.

Are you treating your water at all?. If your water is hard then ideally you need to remove that chalk by either boiling the water for 20 minutes or treating with special salts before brewing.

Planning: Wheat beer fermented with Schneider Weisse yeast, a Stout, lots of hoppy pale ales
Fermenting: Marynka pseudo-lager
Maturing/Conditioning:
Drinking: Wheat beer, ESB, Vienna lager & shop bought stuff

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Just thought I'd say that when I done kits I don't think I ever reached the final gravity stated! It's near as so I was never worried but like others say you could decease the amount of water used or increase the sugars/malt to provide a higher abv. Also a lower fermenting yeast like us05 ( which ferments lower than a lot of the other dried yeasts in kits) will also provide you with more alcohol. Just remember that it will change the flavour and or mouthfeel of the beer

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

chrisharry:

Posted 1 year ago by Member

Thanks for the advice guys.
I feel more confident now I know a bit more now.
But when your new to brewing and follow the kit instructions. ie dont bottle until you reach FG 1006 it can be confusing.

Cheers.

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

In regards to the legging/ bottling it's best to do it whn fermentation has stopped. Make sure it's stopped by taking a 2 hydrometer readings over 2 days as long as they are constant and near to final gravity it's good to go.

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

Hamish:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

legging? has someone learnt some new brew speak?.

Nath:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Damn iPhone predictive texting thingy, kegging hehehehehehe

Drinkin' - nowt, it's all gone

Plannin'-
Loads a beer after an upgrade!

nathbrew@gmail.com

saracen:

Posted 1 year ago by Moderator

Ah. Predictive text. Does that explain why you've been using "buttering hops" recently?
I needed to phone a lady the other day and sent a text saying, "Are you home?" what it actually said was, "Are you good?" Well,... not sure yet...

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