Hey everyone. I had a problem with the finishing gravities of my last 2 batches of IPA and hoping someone may have a theory as to why.
Background info - They are batch #9 and #10 of this IPA recipe at the brewery in Costa Rica I'm consulting at right now. I haven't been here too long so still figuring a few things out but this one has me stumped. I've brewed about total 40 batches here in the last 5 months with no real issues, just the usual stuff unitl now.
5bbl brewhouse/batches
2 Row Pale 92%
CaraPils 6%
Acid Malt 2%
Mash temp 149-150
RO water, rebuilt in to mimic typical IPA profile
Yeast - Batch #9 New pitch 500g Safale 05 (no rehydration), Batch #10 Cone to cone transfer 5th Gen. Safale 05, 6 liters of good slurry (no microscope here)
Fermentation temp 20C (68F)
Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary on brewdays, all targets hit
So here's the problem - Both batches looked typical for first 2-3 days of fermentation and since these FVs don't have sample ports and I have to use the racking arm for zwickel, I tend not to pull samples everyday. By day 4 I start checking gravity and #9 is only at 6 plato. Day 5 5.7P - Day 6 5.6P - Day 7 5.5P, Day 8 5.5P.
At this point batch #10 is on it's day 2 of fermentation and chugging right along so I pump over about 50liters of krausen hoping to get #9 moving. It doesn't seem to help much and batch #9 just trickles along down to 3.8 plato over 12 days.
Meanwhile batch #10 follows almost the same pattern, slowing down around day 6 and stops about 4 days later also at exactly 3.8 plato.
Remember, these are 2 completely different yeast pitches
Now I've made a variation of this recipe for years at a few different breweries and without fail I get to between 2.2 -2.5 plato in 4-6 days. The past 8 batches of IPA at this brewery have been extremely consistent and without problems. If it had happened on 1 batch I'd chalk it up to yeast health or human error during brewday or poor record keeping or something. But to have both batches act identical just has me baffled. Thankfully they taste OK, not great, a little on the sweet side but not extremely cloying so we should be able to salvage both batches and sell them if we ever get to open again! But for now I just left scratching my head.
I've calibrated my mash tun probe, used 3 different hydrometers to check samples. No idea?!?!
Anyone got hunch as to what happened here? Malt health? No "beta enzyme"? I dunno?
Thanks, stay safe, cheers.
Background info - They are batch #9 and #10 of this IPA recipe at the brewery in Costa Rica I'm consulting at right now. I haven't been here too long so still figuring a few things out but this one has me stumped. I've brewed about total 40 batches here in the last 5 months with no real issues, just the usual stuff unitl now.
5bbl brewhouse/batches
2 Row Pale 92%
CaraPils 6%
Acid Malt 2%
Mash temp 149-150
RO water, rebuilt in to mimic typical IPA profile
Yeast - Batch #9 New pitch 500g Safale 05 (no rehydration), Batch #10 Cone to cone transfer 5th Gen. Safale 05, 6 liters of good slurry (no microscope here)
Fermentation temp 20C (68F)
Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary on brewdays, all targets hit
So here's the problem - Both batches looked typical for first 2-3 days of fermentation and since these FVs don't have sample ports and I have to use the racking arm for zwickel, I tend not to pull samples everyday. By day 4 I start checking gravity and #9 is only at 6 plato. Day 5 5.7P - Day 6 5.6P - Day 7 5.5P, Day 8 5.5P.
At this point batch #10 is on it's day 2 of fermentation and chugging right along so I pump over about 50liters of krausen hoping to get #9 moving. It doesn't seem to help much and batch #9 just trickles along down to 3.8 plato over 12 days.
Meanwhile batch #10 follows almost the same pattern, slowing down around day 6 and stops about 4 days later also at exactly 3.8 plato.
Remember, these are 2 completely different yeast pitches
Now I've made a variation of this recipe for years at a few different breweries and without fail I get to between 2.2 -2.5 plato in 4-6 days. The past 8 batches of IPA at this brewery have been extremely consistent and without problems. If it had happened on 1 batch I'd chalk it up to yeast health or human error during brewday or poor record keeping or something. But to have both batches act identical just has me baffled. Thankfully they taste OK, not great, a little on the sweet side but not extremely cloying so we should be able to salvage both batches and sell them if we ever get to open again! But for now I just left scratching my head.
I've calibrated my mash tun probe, used 3 different hydrometers to check samples. No idea?!?!
Anyone got hunch as to what happened here? Malt health? No "beta enzyme"? I dunno?
Thanks, stay safe, cheers.
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