Fresh hop ipa FG 1.020?

Mash temp?
Mash duration?
Mash thickness?
Fermentation temp?

 

While I would expect this beer to finish lower, don't overlook the more important questions of taste and drinkability. If those pan out, who cares about the numbers?

 

Are you taking a final reading with a refractometer? Or hydrometer? If it's a refractometer you need to find an online calculator that will factor in all of your numbers because refractometers don't determine FG

 

If using dry yeast, did you rehydrate? If using liquid, did you make a starter, and did you oxygenate? When beers don't appear to finish, these are not trivial questions.

 

It's a commonly overlooked aspect of beer that most brewers aren't aware of. But numbers actually add flavor.

 

I'm not being critical here, just blunt because I'm tired. Your definition of body is off. Body is the perceived mouth feel of a beer. Think viscosity. Is it thin like alcohol, or thick like used motor oil? That's about it.

Hops can change body, but cannot add or subtract from the OG or FG of a beer. Gravity is a measure of potential sugar. Not bitterness.

If it were me after 12 days, and my gravity stopped at 1.020, I'd take a second read 3 days later. Still 1.020? I'd pitch another packet of yeast. At this point it can only do good to overpitch. 1.010 Is very reasonable on a beer like this. I wouldn't bottle this beer at 1.020 and I would be concerned about gushers and bottle bombs.

Keep an eye on the way these carb up. With it being a hop-forward beer, you won't have a problem gulping a few down in the next week to 10 days. When it gets to the carb level you want, I'd be clearing fridge space for the whole batch and get them chilly. They should be good in the fridge for 6 months, or until the wife gets pissed!

I hope you bittered the bejesus out of this beer to balance the malt and the hops. I'd put money on this beer drinking a little more like a IIPA for the first month. This is probably when it'll be best and it should be drank ICE COLD.

Live and learn. If this is the worst thing you do in your homebrewing career, you're ahead of me by a long shot.

 

I prefer something balanced, with 3s, 5s, and 9s, to round out flavors. So many beers these days go overboard with the 7s and ignore these other important numbers. I just don't get it. If you look at the top 250 it's all 7s. When did we get so 1-dimensional. It's like the 1980s when all you could find on the shelves was 6. There was a brand that put out an 8, and we'd drink it just to celebrate the difference, but it wasn't very good.

 

One small point. Adding sugar doesn't dry a beer out. But substituting sugar for some of the base malt does, in comparison with the original recipe.

 

Good advice. I'll add that it may help to put the yeast in a small starter first, let it get vigorous, and pitch the whole enchilada. The added yeast may be less sluggish if they start out in a low alcohol environment. Pitch the whole starter rather than crash to floc out so the yeast stay active. Make a small starter so you are not altering the beer too much. Don't go crazy on starter oxidation b/c you are adding it to your beer. I never used this trick to fix a gravity problem but it did once help me fix a diacetyl issue.

 

How sure are you about your thermometer? Maybe you mashed at a higher temp than you think?

 

At this point when you're reading gravity, you need to make sure there aren't any bubbles in it. I think I got angry at a post a few months ago about sticking bottled beer in a blender. I believe you that it's still probably really close to 1.020. If the beer tastes good, I wouldn't waste any more towards gravity readings. Drink up!