Missed Target Gravity What to Ferment To?

[oldsoulsound@mac.com]

I brewed a Fulklers ESB style clone on Saturday. My target gravity. was 1.053 what I obtained was 1.041. I pitched the yeast anyway and it it fermenting away. My question is that after only two days I'm already down to 1.015. The recipe I was following said to ferment down to 1.10. That would give an ABV of 4.07. Should I still aim for that or go a little longer?

 

[Megary]

Good thing is you don't have to make this decision! The yeast will tell you when fermentation is over. The gravity will only drop so far. Just let it ride until the gravity doesn't change for a few days.

 

[oldsoulsound@mac.com]

Right, When the yeast has eaten all the sugars it will stop fermenting. Do you suspect that this target miss affect the mouth feel an maltiness in flavor?

 

[Craigerrr]

I brewed a Fulklers ESB style clone on Saturday. My target gravity. was 1.053 what I obtained was 1.041. I pitched the yeast anyway and it it fermenting away. My question is that after only two days I'm already down to 1.015. The recipe I was following said to ferment down to 1.10. That would give an ABV of 4.07. Should I still aim for that or go a little longer?

What yeast did you use?
Most yeasts need 1-2 weeks to ferment, best thing is to forget about it until early next week.

Are you brewing extract, or all grain?
If all grain you could have missed OG due to lower than expected efficiency, or by mashing at high temperature.

 

[oldsoulsound@mac.com]

This was all grain and I believe I sparged too quickly. My temp was little low not high. The yeast is WYeast 1968 London ESB Ale

 

[Craigerrr]

I have never used 1968 so can't comment.
I do however believe that 1010 is rather optimistic for this strain.
I did some googling and found this on the AHA forum, it is from 2016.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=28222.0
Not sure if you want to leave this beer on this yeast for too long, but it will definitely take more than a few days to reach FG.
Hope this helps.

 

[^Tony^]

I never go by the expected FG for a signal to bottle...mostly because I never hit it dead on. I use it more for a "head up! the fermentation may be almost done" kind of signal. I have had batches take a week to drop from something like 1.012 to 1.010 and I have had batches go from 1.065 to 1.010 in ONLY a week. It depends on a lot. I wait about 2 weeks, take a grav. reading to see if I'm close to the expected FG, then wait 7 days more take another. If there are no changes I bottle, if it changes so much as 0.001 I may wait a few more days. I have never had an extra week or 2 of fermenting time ruin a batch. In fact, i find the finished product ends up cleaner tasting and with much better clarity if i do end up waiting.

And most of all, I would be careful not to bottle too early or you may get some bottle bombs. That will ruin your batch for sure.

 

[Craigerrr]

Truth^^^^