[quote=“masquelle”]Hi, all,
Looking for your sage advice here.
I made the NB extract kit for the Baltic Porter. Hit the OG more or less - OG 1.068.
Used WY2112
fermented at around 62ºF for 2 weeks primary.
Racked and left in secondary for 1.5mo.
Today I bottled for bottle conditioning and took a reading of 1.028. Too high. This puts my ABV at around 5.7%ish – too low ABV for the style.
It’s certainly beer. But I missed the style – would have like to have gotten to FG somewhere around 1.01, but not sure what else to have done.
I bottled a bit early as I was a bit nervous about a white film expanding on the top of the beer in the secondary. They are in big 32oz bottles and intend to leave them for some weeks/months before drinking.
My question is:
What could/should I have done to get to that FG?
I know the next Q might be: did you do a starter?
A: I can’t remember! :shock: probably. It was 2 mo ago.
Let me know your high-gravity suggestions. I owe so much of my learning to you all.
Thanks in advance.[/quote]
I don’t mean to sound like a smart*$##,but your real mistake here is waiting until bottling day to take a gravity reading.Never do that.Don’t assume that just because the wort should be done,or even that it might appear to be done,doesn’t mean that it is.If airlock activity appears to have ceased or slowed to a crawl,do a gravity reading before you do anything else.If you had done that,you would seen then that the wort was not fully fermented,and you could have done something like pitching more yeast or yeast energizer and/or giving the fermenter a gentle rousing,etc.That’s my advice for future reference.But there’s another very important point here:if there’s still fermentable sugar left in the wort,and you pitched in more yeast at bottling time,you could be sitting on some time bombs.I don’t mean to alarm you unnececssarily,but I’d be very careful when you open those bottles,and about where you store them.Open them in a shower and aim them away from yourself.I’m not kidding.If your final gravity was way above what it should have been,it’s entirely possible that the yeast in the bottles will finish eating that residual sugar and give you some seriously overcarbonated beer.If I hadn’t experienced that exact same scenario in years past myself,I wouldn’t be saying this,believe me.I’m not saying that you should panic,just be cautious,and don’t give out bottles of that beer to anyone until you’ve given it plenty of time (like a good 3 months) to verify that you don’t have any gushers before you share it with anyone.Just a little word to the wise. 
