Gravity stuck at 1.030 during last two brews.

You need to use a refractometer calculator to adjust the readings.

 

Or use a hydrometer after alcohol has been produced.
Refractometer is good for brew day. Hydrometer is best for cold side imo.

 

Just to be sure, what do you mean by "brix calcs?" Did you use a tool called a refractometer calculator (or something similar), i.e. one that takes in both your original and final refractometer reading, and uses them together to determine FG?

 

This is also industry standard. Using a refractometer during/post-fermentation will yield inaccurate results. It is designed to measure sugar concentration in the absence of alcohol. Make sure you use a hydrometer and de-gas your sample before taking a reading (the little carbonation in the green beer will inflate your reading).

One more thing, that yeast strain is a high flocculating yeast, so it is easier for it to just poop out sooner than you'd like. It's not ideal, but you could revive it by giving the carboy a very gentle swirling to see if it will finish up. Also, it doesn't hurt to throw in some 05 yeast to finish the job, especially if you don't want to be drinking an overly-sweet beer.

 

Hmmm. I've taken gravity readings in several commercial breweries, and I'd say about half were using refractometers more often than hydrometers.

 

Anecdotally my experience in 2 breweries has always been hydrometer cold side FWIW.

+ 1 to degas sample as well. I remember taking samples by vigorously pouring the sampled beer back and forth between flasks then leaving it sit out for about 30+ minutes before taking a gravity.

 

I'm not generally an advocate of throwing in additional yeast, unless something is really stuck. And in this case, I'd be even less inclined to do it, since OP is brewing a NEIPA. US-05 is not one of the fast flocculators known for getting out of the way and leaving dry hop oils in suspension.

 

Using your recipe's specs, and depending on which "pale 2 row" malt is specified, BrewCipher predicts an FG of either 1.014 or 1.015. So I'd say you are probably there.

 

Totally with you on this, Vikeman, but if I had the option between having an overly-sweet beer just because its not true to style to add 05 (or some other yeast) or having a drinkable product that wasn't what I was originally shooting for in the beginning (i.e., too dry, not enough hop oils, etc.), I'd pick the latter. As a homebrewer, drinkability is a high priority for me. It's also cheaper than dumping an overly-sweet beer where the fermentation is stuck.

 

I never realized this was something that needed to be done but it makes sense! I will definitely be doing this in the future... I also made the mistake in my first 2 brews of adding water to top off the wort to 5 gallons and then taking an OG reading from the diluted top of the carboy

 

I’m guessing that you have a bad reading. How does it taste? Obviously it won’t be amazing at this point, but is it crazy sweet? If not, then you’re on track, you just don’t have a means to calculate abv at the end.

With the other batch, as you seem to be aware, temperature is everything. Gotta keep those enzymes happy at ~154

Also, very minor, “g” stands for grams. Use “gal” for gallons mate

RDWHAHB

Bryan

 

@Bryan12345, you might want to read the whole thread. Thr "problem" has been solved.

 

Ain’t nobody got time for that

 

I use refractometers throughout fermentation for quick checks and to get a really close ballpark. Then for the final test before cold crashing, I use a certified calibrated hydrometer for production records. Those hydrometers are expensive, so I don't like to risk breaking them (I get clumsy when I'm trying to work quick) by using them too often.

 

But they got time to type gal?

 

I used to calibrate with distilled, but honestly, haven't lately and never will again. I understand the concept of it but I think it is faulty to calibrate to distilled unless you are brewing with distilled. I calibrate to my brewing water only. The amount of sugar I am measuring is in relation to my water, not distilled.