mongrell

Recipes 

I created the starter for an IPA about a week ago, couldn't get around to brew till yesterday.

During brewing, I had 2 boil overs, very short, just lost a few floating hops, nothing major.

I cooled the wort to 65deg, aerated it and poured it in a carboy to aerate it further. I took a gravity reading of 1.032 for a recipe with 8lbs of malt! Could this be from the aerating or from the fact that I took it from the top of a carboy that had been settling for about 10min it was estimated that the gravity was suppose to be ~1.070.

So I set up a blow off for it and wake up this morning 10 hours later and there is almost no activity going on inside the fermentor, very slow fermentation. Is this from the starter sitting so long?

For a batch that I had thought to be my most perfectly brewed one yet, I'm seeing anomalies. Anyone want to confirm or give me their opinions as to why things are acting the way they are?

Also I have about 4 oz of hops in the carboy from the first wort/boil/steep. If it sits at the bottom of this carboy for 2 weeks are they going to act like dry hopping? Should I rack the beer off of it sooner rather than later?

A4J

Recipes 

I have 3 batches currently fermenting, all using starters. The first 2 batches started fermenting within 12 hours of pitching, but the 3rd one took 24 hours. RDWADAHB.

__________________
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Tap 1: pale ale
Tap 2: hibiscus kolsch
Tap 3: traditional kolsch
Tap 4: moose drool clone
Tap 5: soda
Bottles: porter, raspberry ale, and a lot of commercial microbrews
planning:flanders red or oud bruin

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malkore

Recipes 

8lbs of grain, or 8lbs of malt extract?? 1.032 is entirely likely with all grain and a poor efficiency.

if you mean malt extract, then I think your gravity reading was simply inaccurate.

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
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mongrell

Recipes 

It was 8lbs liquid extract. I know 1.032 cannot be right, but I wanna know why. My hydrometer doesn't look damaged.

If your wort has settled or has been aerated can that change a reading? Even if it can, can it change it that drastically?

BrianP

Recipes 

Low gravity with an extract recipe is usually due to not mixing it well.

__________________
Cheers,

BP

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Fermenter 1: Best bitter (1)
Fermenter 2: Best bitter (2)
Fermenter 3: APA
Fermenter 4: APA

Jamo99

Recipes 

Or an uncalibrated hydrometer. Are any of the bits loose in the bulb at the bottom? Do you read 1.000 in water? It's either that or poor mixing.

EdWort

Recipes 

+1 Stir briskly with a sanitized spoon before taking your sample. It aerates it and makes sure it is well mixed for a proper reading.

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Cheers,

EdWort



Haus Pale Ale, Bavarian Hefeweizen, Robust Porter, Oktoberfest Ale, Wounded Knee IPA, Rye IPA, BCB IPA, Kolsch, Apfelwein

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cudaaar

Recipes 

only thing I can think of that can happen to a hydrometer is that the markings move relative to the glass. If it reads 1.000 in water then I would bet that it is fine.

How could not mixing extract account for ~20 points?

BrianP

Recipes 

Stratification. Low density fluid floats on top of higher density fluid.

__________________
Cheers,

BP

-------------------------------
Fermenter 1: Best bitter (1)
Fermenter 2: Best bitter (2)
Fermenter 3: APA
Fermenter 4: APA

cudaaar

Recipes 

BrianP: As fermentation proceeds, do you mix before taking a gravity reading? I never really thought about this-- how significant is stratification? 20 points worth?