First AG need yeast help

Hi all,

Just brewed my first AG batch on Friday (2 days ago). It was a Dry Irish Stout, and the OG was 1.039. My damn thermometer broke during the boil, so I had to rely on an old turkey meat thermometer to take the temperature of the cooled wort. It was <80F when I pitched the yeast (Safale-S-04, dry yeast). It's fermenting in my bathtub in a water bath with some ice bottles to keep it within temp range (64-75F), which it is. It began bubbling like crazy after about 10 hours, but I woke up this morning and it's going less and the film that was forming on the head is now gone. What should I do? Thanks for any help/suggestions

That sounds fairly normally, you know you didn;t kill your yeast by the fac that it started fermentation The OG sounds kinda low, did you have a target OG?

Whats the SG now? It's probably almost done. Fast, yeah, but not unheard of.

I've had fermentations go that fast as well. Doesn't seem like anything is particularly wrong. Concur that you should take a gravity reading now and see where you stand.

Congrats on the first AG. Enjoy the results.

Thanks for the replies guys. Went to my LHBS to see if I needed to repitch, and he suggested I just wait another 7 days or so, see how it progresses, and take a gravity reading then. @ron, the target OG was 1.042, so I was just a little short with 1.039. Quick question that y'all might know the answer to. I only took a gravity reading of my wort pre-boil. I didn't take one after. Would the gravity reading differ between pre-boil and post-boil? And if so, how? Thanks again. This forum has been a life/beer saver!

brantley said:

Thanks for the replies guys. Went to my LHBS to see if I needed to repitch, and he suggested I just wait another 7 days or so, see how it progresses, and take a gravity reading then. @ron, the target OG was 1.042, so I was just a little short with 1.039. Quick question that y'all might know the answer to. I only took a gravity reading of my wort pre-boil. I didn't take one after. Would the gravity reading differ between pre-boil and post-boil? And if so, how? Thanks again. This forum has been a life/beer saver!

Click to expand...

Of course it matters! You boiled off a certain amount of water, increasing the SG by concentrating the wort. The measurement after boiling is the OG. Confusing yes

Ah, okay, so my "OG" was probably higher than the 1.039 pre-boil. I guess that's good since the recipe was for 1.042. Thanks mikethepoolguy.