Notre Dame Pale Ale

[retourrbx]

Brewed this 11 days ago, added the crystal and chocolate so isn't particularly pale;

4.8kg MO
150g Crystal
50g Choc

Mosaic hops 11.5%
60mins 20g
5 mins 30g
80' Steep 30g
US-05

22L @1.044

First time I've brewed in a couple of years so good to test the equipment.

It went down to 1.018 after 7 days and it's still there after 11 days. Tastes decent already, needs time to condition but surprised it's stuck at so high an SG. Have raised temp of fermentation chamber from 19' to 21' to try and get it to drop.

Anyone else had this with US-05? It's always had a high attention in the past as far as I can remember.

Cheers

 

[Zephyr259]

Yeah, 60% attenuation is a bit on the low side even if you mashed at 72c I'd guess.

 

[Slid]

Brewed this 11 days ago, added the crystal and chocolate so isn't particularly pale;

4.8kg MO
150g Crystal
50g Choc

Mosaic hops 11.5%
60mins 20g
5 mins 30g
80' Steep 30g
US-05

22L @1.044

First time I've brewed in a couple of years so good to test the equipment.

It went down to 1.018 after 7 days and it's still there after 11 days. Tastes decent already, needs time to condition but surprised it's stuck at so high an SG. Have raised temp of fermentation chamber from 19' to 21' to try and get it to drop.

Anyone else had this with US-05? It's always had a high attention in the past as far as I can remember.

Cheers

US 05 always gets me 80% plus on attenuation, for almost every style I have tried it on, it is my go-to yeast and I don't believe a fully viable sachet would stall at 19C in such a controlled environment.

Any other variables, or oddities? It all seems very run-of-the-mill from what you say?

 

[retourrbx]

The mash was 68', nothing interesting apart from the crystal and chocolate being rather old... I'm using a refractometer to measure sg, could try my hydrometer just in case although it's calibrated albeit with tap water.

 

[retourrbx]

Well there you go... 1.006 according to the hydrometer... Refractometer can't be trusted

 

[foxbat]

Well there you go... 1.006 according to the hydrometer... Refractometer can't be trusted

You can't use a refractometer when there's alchohol present. Well, actually you can, but if you search "wort correction factor" you can decide if the effort is worth it when you can just fill up your hydrometer jar. It's still useful to detect when fermentation has finished though by waiting for stable readings and ignoring what the readings actually say.

 

[Zephyr259]

*facepalm* This was one of my first thoughts but I saw you were an experienced brewer and decided it was unlikely. I use a digital refractometer for my readings, spent a year (the table I used needs 30 samples) doing both to get the trend data and have been lazy in my last 2 brews and not bothered with the hydrometer.

 

[retourrbx]

You learn something new everyday!

 

[Benjamin Tolmer]

Amazing!!:hat:

 

[pottsworth]

*facepalm* This was one of my first thoughts but I saw you were an experienced brewer and decided it was unlikely. I use a digital refractometer for my readings, spent a year (the table I used needs 30 samples) doing both to get the trend data and have been lazy in my last 2 brews and not bothered with the hydrometer.

Where did you get the digital one from? I’ve looked a couple of times, but have never found one for less than £100.

 

[Zephyr259]

Where did you get the digital one from? I’ve looked a couple of times, but have never found one for less than £100.

Stumbled upon one online from cash converters, an Atago 3810 PAL-1, t was £100 but it's over £200 anywhere else. Looks brand new and is very accurate and precise.

Since I was going to be making mead which needs the gravity monitored daily for timing of nutrient additions I didn't want to be using a hydrometer for that, unfortunately the refractometer seems to be wildly inaccurate at measuring the sg of a mead fermentation, maybe the formula isn't accurate at the much higher gravities. It's still very convenient for beer.