Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by earnold25

What was your starting gravity? 1.065 ( recipe said 1.046 - 1.050)
What yeast did you use? Wyeast Irish ale prop. ( on a starter)
What temperature have you been fermenting at? Around 68 - 70
Was this an extract batch? Did it have steeping grains? Yes and yes ( steeped at 150)

Answer those and I can give you a target range for Final Gravity... and the method for figuring it out.

Thanks!

mkay, Wyeast 1084 will have 71-75% attenuation and all of your conditions look great for that yeast so you could expect a 1.019-1.016 final. I would lean towards the higher side of middle since it is extract with steeped grains. If you hadn't done a starter, I would say the high end.

Here's how I came up with that:
FG = -(((A%/100)(SG-1))-SG)

Note the negative symbol in front of the parens. it'll work without, but yield a negative number.

FG is the final gravity for a given starting gravity (SG) and a given attenuation (A%).
Yeast strain attenuations can be found on their respective manufacturer sites. I always plug in the high (75% in this case) and low (71%) to get the min/max and make judgments based off of conditions.

What did the recipe say final would be? 1.012-1.015?

[earnold25]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

What did the recipe say final would be? 1.012-1.015?

close. 1.011-1.014

thanks for the help. i'll keep ya posted

was i correct in assuming that the OG was off due to not enough water in the final wort? i.e. too much boiled off?

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by earnold25

close. 1.011-1.014

thanks for the help. i'll keep ya posted

was i correct in assuming that the OG was off due to not enough water in the final wort? i.e. too much boiled off?

Funny, I rounded up and they truncated. My actual calcs were 1.0115 and 1.0145.

That is the most likely thing that coulda done it. Although, you woulda had to have lost quite a bit due to boil off to get that high. Cold break and trub in the sample can also give false high gravity readings. I always manage to screw up temperature factors on warm readings too (calculation error?).
If you run short again you can always add plain, boiled water to the wort to top off prior to fermentation and after the boil.
Regardless, it'll be fine.

[earnold25]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

That is the most likely thing that coulda done it. Although, you woulda had to have lost quite a bit due to boil off to get that high. Cold break and trub in the sample can also give false high gravity readings. I always manage to screw up temperature factors on warm readings too (calculation error?).
If you run short again you can always add plain, boiled water to the wort to top off prior to fermentation and after the boil.
Regardless, it'll be fine.

gotcha. i did add some, but i wasn't sure how much liquid i was dealing with and didn't want to bring to total over 5 gallons.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by earnold25

gotcha. i did add some, but i wasn't sure how much liquid i was dealing with and didn't want to bring to total over 5 gallons.

I put gallon markings on the sides of my fermenter, so I can pretty much estimate how much wort I'm dealing with. I also do full boils, starting with about 6-7 gallons of wort. By the time I'm done, something under 6 gallons is usually in the primary and I'll eventually end up racking 5 into the bottling bucket.

As for gravity readings, I used to take a lot of them. But then I realized it was more of a pain in the ass than it was worth, so I just wait and eyeball fermentation activity at the airlock. I take three readings: O.G. before pitching, when I rack to the secondary, and F.G. after adding priming sugar to the bottling bucket. I've never had a stuck fermentation, so I suppose I'm lucky in that regard--it might make me change my technique.

[earnold25]

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

I put gallon markings on the sides of my fermenter, so I can pretty much estimate how much wort I'm dealing with. .

that's a great idea. i may have to steal it what'd you use to measure a gallon? I guess I could use the 1000mL flask i have but that'd take a while to fill.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by earnold25

that's a great idea. i may have to steal it what'd you use to measure a gallon? I guess I could use the 1000mL flask i have but that'd take a while to fill.

A plastic gallon-sized water bottle, or a milk jug would work--I sometimes use spring water or distilled water in my brews and had one laying around. I just put some painters tape right below each gallon line as I filled, and numbered it on the tape. I had to shine a flashlight through the backside of the plastic fermenter, to make sure of the level.

Your homebrew shop might carry clear vinyl stickers that work well on glass carboys. I think they're numbered 1 - 6, with plain line sticker for half-gallon increments.

[rack04]

Originally Posted by earnold25

that's a great idea. i may have to steal it what'd you use to measure a gallon? I guess I could use the 1000mL flask i have but that'd take a while to fill.

I used weight to calibrate the volume in my fermenters. I wanted 1/4 gallon marks so I built an excel spreadsheet that calculates the weight of 1/4, 1/2, and 1 gallon of water based on the temperature of the water.

For example:

1/4 gallon of 60 degree F water will weigh 2 pounds 1.4 ounces
1/2 gallon of 60 degree F water will weigh 4 pounds 2.7 ounces
1 gallon of 60 degree F water will weigh 8 pounds 5.4 ounces

[earnold25]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

My actual calcs were 1.0115 and 1.0145.

Here we are 3 weeks to the day and my gravity reading is 1.020. Should I keep waiting? Doesn't look like much has been going on in the air lock for quite a while.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by earnold25

Here we are 3 weeks to the day and my gravity reading is 1.020. Should I keep waiting? Doesn't look like much has been going on in the air lock for quite a while.

So here's what I would do. I would rack to a glass secondary and then watch it for a week. And by that, I mean actually eyeball it. Go all "beer whisperer" on it and see if it looks done. Anything bobbing around, or clumping on the top? Is it still as can be? Maybe float the hydrometer in there midweek to see if there's any movement. Then I'd bottle it and not worry.

I hestitate to say it's stuck, especially since you started at an OG that was 10 points higher than expected, and now you're only 6-8 points higher than the recipe. Just means you have a big bodied beer.

[rack04]

As soon as all the parts for my mash tun arrive I will brew BierMuncher Centennial Blonde. I have it on good authority that this is a good light ale for summer drinking pleasure. Plus it costs $18.87 to brew 5 gallons of beer which equates to approximately $0.36 per 12 ounce beer.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by rack04

As soon as all the parts for my mash tun arrive I will brew BierMuncher Centennial Blonde. I have it on good authority that this is a good light ale for summer drinking pleasure. Plus it costs $18.87 to brew 5 gallons of beer which equates to approximately $0.36 per 12 ounce beer.

I have brewed this a number of times and can attest that it's a very good beer. icantbejon's wife loves it, and she's not much into homebrew. It's just as good if you leave out the Vienna malt, which I've done when I overlooked it in the recipe

Bottled my light American ale test batch last night--tasted a little like a cross between Rolling Rock & Sam Adams ale. Not my favorite style, but it's experimental for some non-craft brew drinking friends.

Tonight I'm racking my Hopslam clone, adding the honey and salvaging the yeast. Had good, steady fermentation for almost a full week, I'm really pleased at how well the yeast performed considering I cultivated it from the bottle dregs!

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by earnold25

Here we are 3 weeks to the day and my gravity reading is 1.020. Should I keep waiting? Doesn't look like much has been going on in the air lock for quite a while.

.020 isn't bad. Not ideal, but not bad, full bodies and a touch sweet. I like that.
If its still there(.020) by the time you read this and take another measurement, I'd call it good. It'll still be good beer. Did it get into the low 60's while fermenting?

[earnold25]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

.020 isn't bad. Not ideal, but not bad, full bodies and a touch sweet. I like that.
If its still there(.020) by the time you read this and take another measurement, I'd call it good. It'll still be good beer. Did it get into the low 60's while fermenting?

sounds good. I was going to bottle anyway, but I found out I can't easily bottle straight from the primary with an autosiphon and a bottling wand. Looks like I need a bottling bucket or something similar.

Oh, I really doubt it got to the low 60's during fermenting. I'd guess 65 at the lowest but anything's possible. Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch it 24/7, even though I would have liked to

[rack04]

Bottled my Irish Red today. 3 weeks is gonna feel like forever with this one.