Over Fermentation?

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Slim Joe

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Brewing all grain, 10 gal, keg Blonde Ale I had a situation that I need some help with. OG reading was right on target (1.053) for sugars but after fermentation (2 weeks) the FG was close to 1 (1.006 with a target of 1.013) making it 1% higher in ABV. Hadn't experienced this before. Usual pale ale yeast with starter. The end result is a drinkable ale but more like a Bud with high alcohol, that is to say not much body or taste. I usually ferment for 10-12 days and then cold crash for 2. This time I let it go 2 extra days. I live where it is hot and when we are out of town the house can stay at about 80 degrees this time of year. Oh, one more thing, I used 5 gals of bottled water along with the usual well water that we usually brew with (mash and sparge 17 gals for a 13 gal boil). First time this has been an issue. I have missed OG and then FG before but not this.
 
A hotter fermentation makes the yeast 'hungrier' and more active, so that could be what happened. That would account for the lack of body and flavor too, very little sugar left after it finished.

I don't think the extra time made a difference.

A remote possibility is a diastaticus strain or an infection, but it doesn't sound like that was an issue.
 
Also, what was the yeast and how much was pitched? I have had a French Saison all the way down to 1.002. 80 degrees is awful hot unless you are brewing a Begian or using Kveik. Most yeasts that I have used like to be around 68, and some of the English ones like it a little cooler than that.
 
Sandy Feet said:
Also, what was the yeast and how much was pitched? I have had a French Saison all the way down to 1.002. 80 degrees is awful hot unless you are brewing a Begian or using Kveik. Most yeasts that I have used like to be around 68, and some of the English ones like it a little cooler than that.
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When we are home we tend to keep the house closer to 76-78. So, yes, that could be it. I use 2 packs of Safale 05 with a starter and pitch it all for the 12 gals in carboys. Don't have the luxury of having another refrigerator for fermenting. Summer brewing is a challenge. Once it cools off I can get closer to 60 plus.
 
Hey y'all thanks! I am going with fermentation temp. May need to buy a little heat pump for my fermenting room aka office.
 
I do remember the old Mr. Beer days and trying to ferment at 80 in my closet LOL. When I tried to do it the right way, I had an electrician come out and make sure I had a proper garage outlet for a refrigerator. I bought a used refrigerator from a friend for next to nothing.
In a closet, a fan and under an ac vent will help a little, but a controller on a refrigerator will help a whole lot more. Since my fridge is in the garage, I can have issues in the three weeks out of the year when it is actually chilly. In that case, the wife's hairdryer is in the garage, and I heat up the refrigerator a few times a day.
S-05 will tolerate a little more heat, maybe not that much. The British ones would have been a fruit bomb.
 
Sandy Feet said:
Since my fridge is in the garage, I can have issues in the three weeks out of the year when it is actually chilly. In that case, the wife's hairdryer is in the garage, and I heat up the refrigerator a few times a day.
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A heating pad, the kind for a sore back, can warm your fermenter fairly efficiently. I use a bungee cord to wrap it around my fermenter and run it on its lowest setting.
 
@Slim Joe
Have you thought if a wet T-shirt competition for your fermenters :p
Seriously, you could make use of evaporative cooling by wrapping them into something wet/moist. I like a T-shirt because it fits nicely over the airlock and neck of carboy.
You can then leave as is and wetting occasionally, ir placing the carboys in a tub with some water, or under a leaking tap/shower or something likewise.
Or use Kveik:cool:
 
Donoroto said:
A heating pad, the kind for a sore back, can warm your fermenter fairly efficiently. I use a bungee cord to wrap it around my fermenter and run it on its lowest setting.
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I appreciate the input. If it gets really cold, I might think about that. We only have maybe two or three weeks during the year where it stays cold longer than two or three days. A cold winter day to me is 65F, and a very cold night could range from a very infrequent hard freeze to something in the 40s F. I am very paranoid about starting a fire with some of the cheaper heating devices. When I use a hairdryer, it is with me right there and only for a minute or two. That seems to keep it a little warmer for a few hours. If I lived somewhere where the white crap falls from the sky, I might have something a little more heavy duty.
 
I had this and it really surprised me. I'm sending samples to Brewlabs now and they came back with 1.005 while we had measured 1.011 so 1% over for us as well.

My suspicion is around the hydrometer - cheapie Chinese - so I bought a couple of commercial ones; let's see how those go. My worry over that is that the OG was correct according to us, it just fermented out further than I expected.

We're brewing again on Monday so my plan is to look at the attenuation from the last brew and adjust the recipe accordingly.
 
We had this happen most of the fall here in Australia. Not sure why, but the US-05 we had was consistently finishing ferment at 1.008 instead of 1.010.

I think there can be yeast variations just like anything in brewing.

Temp definitely plays a role as well, but lets remember, yeast is just like hops, and I'm sure there will be variance between crops
 
I'm convinced around hydrometers now. We've had a couple of lab samples come back and they're significantly off. Our cheapie measures were OG 1.046 FG 1.011 and the lab report is 1.043 and 1.007 (rounded - lab samples go to two decimal places).

We use Safale yeasts as well - S04 and US05 - and I think they work really well in our environment. All we are doing now is adjusting the brewhouse efficiency and yeast attenuation within the recipe to get the final results into the same window as the lab results. The commercial hydrometers really help as well, much easier to read accurately.
 
I haven't used US-05 for a while, or any yeast for that matter :(, but it typically finished up around 1008 for me the last number of times that I used it. There are a lot of factors, one of course being wort fermentability...
 
Yeah, we're using cheapies in the shop as well. I can't justify using a 300 dollar hydrometer for homebrew lol. That being said, been using Nottingham and Windsor all winter and they've all finished right on target, so I don't think the hydro is the problem

I haven't noticed much taste difference between 1.008 and 1.010 anyways 05 is always dry to me
 
Dirty Dingo Brewing CO. said:
Yeah, we're using cheapies in the shop as well. I can't justify using a 300 dollar hydrometer for homebrew lol. That being said, been using Nottingham and Windsor all winter and they've all finished right on target, so I don't think the hydro is the problem

I haven't noticed much taste difference between 1.008 and 1.010 anyways 05 is always dry to me
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I switched to a $50 refract and call it good.... close enough for homebrew
 
Texas Ale Works said:
I switched to a $50 refract and call it good.... close enough for homebrew
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Can you get a refractometer to give FG accurately? Good for OG and only needs a small sample but FG won't work?

I guess cheapie hydrometers are good enough for homebrew - who's checking? - but it was quite a surprise to me to find how inaccurate the ones I had been using were.
 
Steve SPF said:
Can you get a refractometer to give FG accurately? Good for OG and only needs a small sample but FG won't work?

I guess cheapie hydrometers are good enough for homebrew - who's checking? - but it was quite a surprise to me to find how inaccurate the ones I had been using were.
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Just use the conversion table.
Or you can just use it to check if fermentation is finished. Same reading, 2 days apart or so
 
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