brewed a "New England" IPA and it's on day 12 in the fermenter. I use brew chiper and the target FG is 1.015. Below is a rough estimate of the recipe: 20% wheat malt 10% flaked oats 70% 2 row The OG was 1.066 and I pitched a yeast slurry from my previous IPA using London 3. I pitched 100ml of slurry with a starter. The yeast was 20 days old. I used the shake periodically method with the starter. I tested the gravity on Monday 11/30 and then again today and got the same reading of 1.020. There is still some very minor air lock activity. I opened the fermenter last night to dry hop and didn't see any krausen though. This was the first time mashing with a direct heat, as opposed to using my igloo cooler, and on one occasion I heated up the mash tun then checked the heat with a digital thermometer and it was like 162. I quickly turned off the the heat and stirred trying to reduce the heat. The mash temp did sit higher then I like around 154. My first thought is the heat has reduced the fermentability. I usually aerate the wort with pure O2 but my canister was out so I did the shake and stir method. The beer doesn't taste sweet but more dense, that could because of the wheat and oats or high chloride/sulfate ratio. I would love to get a few more points on my gravity. Any options to get those few extra points? I don't want a dry beer but 1.020 seems bit too high. The gravity sample is tasty so I am hoping worst case is once the beer is carbonated is will help make the beer lighter on the palate. I don't know if this is a yeast issue or a fermentability issue.
Considering you're going for a New England (or is it North East?) style IPA, which in my mind implies a fuller mouthfeel, I probably wouldn't try to fix it, especially if you're okay with the sweet/bitter balance. If you really want to try to get the FG down, you could try pitching a more attenuative strain, but if it were me, I don't think I would.
It does have a fuller mouthfeel and it didn't taste too sweet, so I'll probay just let it ride. My concerns are it might be too full, or if I "fix" it to get a few points lower I could make it worse. Hmmmm, I guess it's probably better not to mess around if it tastes at least good now.
Such as swirling the Carboy or using a spoon? My fermenter has a large mouth so I can put my whole arm in.
BrettBruxTrois is a sacc strain. In hindsight brett additions may be silly at this point. The brett would take a while to chew away the complex sugars, and the benefits of late addition hop bursting would be negated. Dryhopping once the brett is finished may help, but won't give you that same hop presence. Just drink it.
I kegged it last night. The gravity didn't change but it was tasty. I think with some carbonation it will be really good....cheers!
