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m_rawdin

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So I've just finished fermenting a milk stout, I was expecting an ABV of about 6.5% but it's come out at 4.7%. The OG was 1062 and FG is 1026, I used crossmyloof real ale yeast and it seemed to be a perfect fermentation, didn't look like it got stuck anywhere. My maris otter malt is about 6 or 7 months old but can't think where else things might not have gone exactly gone to plan? Any suggestions?
 
How much lactose? Even at 1018 i could not drink them so i now use the US pale ale yeast for Stouts now or WLP007 as had a few stuck using WLP004. Could you off accidently mashed too high. I would be inclined to pitch more yeast( not the same) and see what happens.
 
How much lactose? Even at 1018 i could not drink them so i now use the US pale ale yeast for Stouts now or WLP007 as had a few stuck using WLP004. Could you off accidently mashed too high. I would be inclined to pitch more yeast( not the same) and see what happens.

There was 500g lactose and 5.25kg of grain for a 20 litre batch. I might try the US pale next time. I have a braumeister so doubt I've mashed too high.
 
I used CML us pale ale yeast in mine which finished at 1.024 with only 250g lactose so you might have took it as far as it would go. The recipe FG in my case was 1.019 but I started 5 points high as well.
 
There was 500g lactose and 5.25kg of grain for a 20 litre batch. I might try the US pale next time. I have a braumeister so doubt I've mashed too high.

Thats really annoying. I have only used that yeast once and beer came out ok. I had 3 stuck in a row at 1018 using irish ale yeast so i know how you feel. You could try giving it a stir, seems to work sometimes but didn't for me.
 
I'm seeing more and more posts about CML yeasts sticking but I've had no problem with three variants in well over a dozen brews so don't know what's going down with the problematic ones.
 
500g of lactose in 20 litres is 10 gravity points of unfermentable sugar, so 1.026 "adjusts" to 1.016 plus your lactose. So it doesn't sound like an outrageous miss depending on your mash temperature.
 
I am a CML sticker my only ever stuck brew which evolved into something it wasn't supposed to be..

I just think it was a freak occurrance
 
The OG was 1062 and FG is 1026, I used crossmyloof real ale yeast and it seemed to be a perfect fermentation

Did you pitch just the 1 pack of yeast?

I've never used "cross my loof" yeast, but a quick Google shows the packs are only 5g each (~50 billion yeast cells per pack).

For a 5 gallon batch of 1.062 beer, you'd need more like ~240 billion.

I'd hazard a guess you considerably under-pitched.
 
Did you pitch just the 1 pack of yeast?

I've never used "cross my loof" yeast, but a quick Google shows the packs are only 5g each (~50 billion yeast cells per pack).

For a 5 gallon batch of 1.062 beer, you'd need more like ~240 billion.

I'd hazard a guess you considerably under-pitched.

?? All those I've had contained 10g. Those cells must be beasts judging by how quickly they get going and rip thru' a ferment in record time.
 
They are definitely 10g packs, although at 1.062 it wouldn't be a bad idea to pitch 2 packs, especially given the cheapness of CML yeast. As ajhutch said though, the lactose is unfermentable so it's never going to ferment out that far. Mash temp could have some influence too.

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