Caribou Slobber high FG

Hey all, I don’t normally deal with what appears to be a stuck ferment, but I thought I’d ask anyway.

I brewed NB’s Caribou Slobber extract kit OG 1.052 and pitched a measured amount of Windsor slurry from a previous brown ale, hit the wort with pure o2 for 1 minute as usual, and fermentation kicked off in 5 hours or so.

Checked gravity 3 days in found krausen dropped completely and found 1.024 FG. I swirled the bucket and used a spoon to resuspend yeast - 1.5 weeks later - FG 1.024… I expect windsor to attenuate low, and there is a lot of amber lme and dme in the recipe, so… Done, or repitch something else? I have fresh packs of notty, so4, and so5 ready.

Same thing has happened with my Caribou Slobber. I used the Danstar dry yeast that comes with the kit. I pitched the yeast on Friday. I rehydrated per directions. It really took off on Saturday, a couple of bubbles per second, so I installed the blow off tubing.

I removed the blow off tubing this evening and took a sample and my FG is 1.020.

Obviously, I need to leave in fermenter for much longer. But the other two brews I’ve done kept bubbling for at least a few days.

So my question…do I need to do anything or just let it sit for 2-3 more weeks?

Thanks
Blake

I think you’re jumping the gun. If I read you correctly, in 2 days it’s down to 1.020, already 4 points lower than the other guy. What OG/FG does the kit predict?
I’d say just make sure it’s at a good temp and leave it be - way too soon to assume that there is anything wrong. Good luck.

I don’t know if this will help, but I just bottled my CS. OG was 1.054 and FG was 1.022. I used 05 dry yeast with no rehydration. Not sure what the FG really should be, but I figure this is 4.1 ABV and it tasted ok :slight_smile:

I am currently brewing this right now. My OG was at 1.051 or so, and my FG was at 1.020. I left it in primary for two weeks and am going to leave in the secondary for two weeks(one week completed so far), then to bottle condition for two weeks. I think I will check again when I open the bottles. But the consensus of the final gravity of Caribou Slobber is about 1.020 or so. So, maybe we are doing it correctly or we are making the same new brewer mistakes?

Raise the temp and rouse the yeast a couple of times a day. British yeasts work fast and drop out fast, when temps are cool they sometimes drop prematurely.

Moose Drool should finish around 1.012. It sounds like you may have to brew all-grain to make that happen. It sounds like the average FG for the Caribou Slobber is 1.022 which IMO is way to high.

+1 these yeast need to be kept on the warm end toward the end of fermentation.

Hi there!

This is my first post on the boards, and I’m sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I’m making Caribou Slobber as my first brew and I’m worried about the FG. After 2 weeks of primary I got a reading of 1.022 and then transferred to secondary. I checked again last Saturday after week of secondary and it hadn’t budged. I’m hoping to bottle this weekend, and while it sounds like 1.022 is ‘normal,’ it might not be optimal. From what I’ve read here, it sounds like an average temp of 60 - 62 may have caused the yeasts to drop off early.

My questions:
[list=1]

  • Could the yeast potentially start up again if I bring the temp up? If so, is it worth it?[/*]
  • Will the flavor at 1.022 vs 1.015 be significantly sweeter, or just a tad? Will other flavors be effected?[/*]
  • (unrelated): After the first week I had the beer in a dim room that gets indirect sunlight through a thin blue curtain. I moved it there because it's a little warmer than the closet, but then I got worried about skunking and moved it back last Saturday. Is it likely I skunked my beer?[/*]
  • I should probably just calm down and discover all this stuff for myself, but if I don't post this I'll do something rash like bottle it tonight and start drinking it in three days :cheers: [/*]
  • Oh, haha, I must have seen the '09 date in another thread I was reading…so, yeah, I guess posting to this thread was the right play :wink:

    Saw this got revived somehow and figured I’d post an update. I tried racking this on to an so4 cake from an oatmeal stout — didn’t budge. So I kegged it and figured I’d see how it tasted.

    Surprisingly good to be honest. It’s a little sweet, but it just come off malty. I’m actually happy so far with this beer, but would like to see NB maybe alter the extract recipe by cutting some of the extract and replacing it with some sort of sugar to help dry it out some. All in all, I’ll have no issues finishing this keg.

    It got revived by a Google search on my part :slight_smile:

    Glad you posted an update. Sounds like I shouldn’t take any additional action prior to bottling. Hopefully I didn’t skunk it by leaving it the dimly-lit room for a couple weeks.

    I’m wondering if the dry hops, as opposed to temp issues, are to blame for the high FG. Next time I brew this I’ll try the slap pack and see what happens.

    Part of the beauty of the Slobber is the unfermentables. 1.020 is great for this beer. Let the farts begin

    Well, that’s heartening! Are you referring literally to farts, or to something brewing related? If the former, my wife and I are sure to have a real gas once it’s ready :wink:

    I should mention that I drank the last sample I thieved, and…I was pretty impressed. The super bitter aftertaste present pre-pitching was almost gone, reduced to a nice accent to round off the flavor.

    Do I really have to wait two weeks after bottling before cracking one open?

    ickyfoot:

    Not to worry. I just sampled the first batch of my Caribou Slobber yesterday after only being in bottle for two weeks.

    It was delicious, btw, clocking in a little under 5%.
    I suspect that over time some this one will only get better.

    I just bottled a batch this weekend and my FG came out at 1.010. Kept it in the primary for 4 weeks.

    Thanks pointyskull, good to hear!

    I’m gonna try one this weekend. I’ve been tasting it at just about every stage along the way, and it’s been pretty cool experiencing the changes it goes through. I can already confirm that it improves with age, and that’s pre-carbonation. The hoppy flavor on the backend has increasingly mellowed from an intense, unpleasant bitterness when it was wort to a nice, almost subtle accent when I bottled last weekend. This is after 2 weeks primary and 2 weeks secondary.

    bford - did you use dry yeast or slap pack? Extract or all grain? I do like drier beers, so I’d like to get down to 1.010 - 1.015 next time I brew this.

    Extract and slap pack

    OK, gotcha, thanks. I’m getting the sense that ~1.020 is what you can expect from dry yeast and ~1.012 is what you can expect from the slap pack. Good to know.

    Quick follow up:
    I just read about Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast
    http://www.danstaryeast.com/products/windsor-ale-yeast
    on the Danstar site, and it seems that everything proceeded as expected (for me and the OP):

    Brewing Properties:

    • Quick start to fermentation, which can be completed in 3 days above 17°C.
    • Moderate attenuation, which will leave a relatively high gravity.

    Based on my limited but growing knowledge, it seems like this yeast basically turns out Mild ale that’s hopped like an American ale, whereas the slap pack turns out a straight up American brown ale (more akin to Moose Drool itself).

    Ill say that you’re right.
    If it was supposed to get that dry they would reccomend US05.