help needed with brew

[Fishywil]

Hi
i have just brewed my first batch of real ale from a full mash
looks great and about to bottle in next few days
had a little sample and taste is good but seams to be bit dry, will meturing it get rid of that or is there something i need to do

thanks in advance
:

 

[fbsf]

Hi, and welcome along to the AG dark side!

It's quite possible that the hops are still a little astringent at this stage - they will calm a little with aging.

The other explanation is that the mash was maybe a little cool. A mash of 62-64°C will produce a more fermentable wort, meaning less sugars left behind than a mash of 66-69°C would.

 

[carl_saint]

What were your gravity readings? As Fbsf said if you mashed at a lower temp then you will end up with a real dry beer.

 

[Fishywil]

fermented at 69 og 0f 1050 and it reads now 996
little low but what can i do apart from add sugar

:

 

[fbsf]

Wow, that's a hell of an attenuation. I would expect a 1.050 beer mashed at 69° to finish somewhere between 1.008 and 1.012. What yeast did you use?

It would certainly explain the dryness though. Does it taste ok apart from that? Sometimes other bacteria can infect the brew, and that might explain a drastically lower final gravity than would be expected.

If it tastes ok, then maybe something like splenda could add a little residual sweetness.

 

[cwiseman77]

fermented at 69 og 0f 1050 and it reads now 996
little low but what can i do apart from add sugar

:

Whatever you do don't add sugar(except when priming) as the yeast will just ferment it. If you do want to add sweetness use a non-fermentable sweetener like splenda, I've used it for alcoholic ginger beer a few times. :thumb:

 

[Fishywil]

dont know the type of yeast im afraid
wow didnt know you could use a sweetner

will give it a go and let you know

thanks for all your help guys

 

[cwiseman77]

dont know the type of yeast im afraid
wow didnt know you could use a sweetner

will give it a go and let you know

thanks for all your help guys

Yup, I've never used it in beer but worked good in my ginger beer which was drier dry thing

 

[Fishywil]

Did i do something wrong to make it go like this
or is it just something that happens

:

 

[cwiseman77]

Did i do something wrong to make it go like this
or is it just something that happens

:

As said above maybe mash was a little low. I brew extract so no expert on the subject

 

[carl_saint]

What temp did you mash at?

 

[fbsf]

It was mentioned above - 69° So I'd expect a sweet full-bodied brew, not one finishing at 0.996!!

 

[cwiseman77]

Yeast maybe? Only brew i've had finish that low was ginger beer and I used champagne yeast.

 

[Fishywil]

i got it in a kit from ebay and was a old speckled hen mix and had yeast with it so dont know what type
was my first try to see how it goes before trying my own

any help would be good
was a constant 69

 

[pittsy]

doesn't sound too good , it may still be drinkable but i would put it down to the beer gods playing you up . If an ale yeast was used and not a wine/champagne yeast then it shouldn't ferment that low , it will have less body than a decapitated head , so it most likely is some wild yeast got in there , did you leave it a long time from brewing to pitching yeast ?
However you seem to have the AG thing sorted (not too hard is it ) so get your note book out and plan your next brew (we can help) and i'm sure all will be well.