MSKBeerfan

Recipes 

I brewed a Black IPA extract kit I had on the shelf 2 weeks ago,
heavy starting specific gravity, 1.085 I was slighly higher than the kit called for at 1.075 but included additional hops.
The kit included 9.15 lbs of extract and 1 lb of corn sugar in addition to the steeping grains. So I was thinking this would be a high % beer,
After sitting and fermenting for more than 10 days with activity, it appears to have stopped. I measured the past three days and I consistantly measure at1.020 which only is like 3% on my scale. Disapointing... clearly there is more sugar to be developed. I have moved it to a warmer spot in the house, I had been fermenting at about 65 degrees and shook up the primary to get things active again.

Any suggestions?

ongreystreet

Recipes 

og 1.085
fg 1.02

abv = 8.7%

ayoungrad

Recipes 

Quick and dirty calculation is (OG-FG)/OG. That estimates your ABV at 6%. I would check your calculations. Just intuitively a 1.085 beer fermenting down to 1.020 is MUCH higher than 3%. And I bet my estimate is even a low estimate. Also, never rely on what appears to be finishing or finished primary fermentation. Always take gravity measurements 24-48 hours apart or more. If these measure a stable gravity, then primary fermentation is complete. Bubbles and krausen mean nothing.

ayoungrad

Recipes 

Sorry. I got my denominator wrong. The equation is:

(OG-FG)/(0.00753) = 8.7% ABV

HexKrak

Recipes 

Sounds like it's done to me, and strong to boot.

__________________
Pipe Dreams: Chai Porter
Primary #1: Empty
Primary #2: Empty
Primary #3: Alley Cat Ale IIPA
Bottle Conditioning/Drinking: Black Cat Stout, Cat Haus Ale
Want to know more? Visit my beer blog!

MSKBeerfan

Recipes 

Thanks for the formula, boy do I feel like a dumb A$$...
I was looking at my Hydrometer and reading it without doing the calculation...
Okay, I feel much better... of course I just shook the primary so now I have to wait a few days for this to setting back down so I can transfer to my secondary as fermentation was done based on two days of steady readings.

malkore

Recipes 

that little alcohol scale is 'potential alcohol' and only works when taking the starting gravity...and I think its actually for making wine and thus assumes a final gravity under 1.000

you're far from the first person to be thrown off by that scale

__________________
Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10