First English Pale Ale

rwing7486 · 02-04-2010, 02:05 AM

Hey Guys, brewing my first english pale ale (malt extract). Today I just finished up primary fermentation (5 days) and siphoned it into my glass carboy. I also took this chance to add 1oz kent goldings for dry hoping. How much longer do you guys recommend i let this pale ale ferment for?? I was thinking about 1-1.5 weeks before priming and bottling. The OG of my wort was about 1.040. The final gravity for this recipe is suppose to be 1.009. Today I did take a specific gravity rating and it went down to 1.020

**android** · 02-04-2010, 02:13 AM

if it had only gone down to 1.020, you should have left it on the primary yeast cake until it was down to your desired gravity (or once you get consistent readings over a few days). dry hopping can be done for anywhere from three days to two weeks, i like to do a week personally. but since you've transferred it, hopefully fermentation will still finish up like it would have in the primary. regardless of the fact that you dry hopped, wait until you get consistent gravity readings to bottle it.

rwing7486 · 02-04-2010, 02:15 AM

ya its still fermenting, still getting air lock action....about a bubble every 10 seconds

**Nugent** · 02-04-2010, 02:21 AM

Big fan of EPAs here.

A few questions and some advice:

- when you took the gravity reading, what was the beer's temp? It may have 'shown' a bit high due to its temp. Hydrometers are calibrated to 60C (I think. Sorry, I use metric for temp here in Canadia)

- what yeast did you use? Different yeasts attenuate differently. 1.020 is still high for the beer's original gravity, but it might now go down significantly.

- 1.020 is still high for anything like bottling, so let it sit in the carboy and take a reading in a week. If it's still at 1.020, type '1.020' into the search box; lots of info on stuck fermentation.

- finally, your original gravity wasn't very high. If you do go down to 1.012 or 1.010, it'll be less than 4.0% ABV and will be ready to go into the bottle as soon as it's the same FG for three days in a row.

Let it carb up for three weeks and enjoy the fruit of your labours.

Good luck. Oh, and welcome to HBT.

PT Ray · 02-04-2010, 02:24 AM

Think I'd plan on another two weeks. I am surprised it's only dropped 20 points after 5 days. Since you moved it hopefully it will continue to drop, just might be slow goings. Put it in the corner and start on another in the meantime.

mc_eric · 02-04-2010, 02:31 AM

I think nugent meant 60 F there.

Hydrometers are usually calibrated to 60 F. 60 celsius is like 140 farenheit.

**Nugent** · 02-04-2010, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mc_eric

I think nugent meant 60 F there.

Hydrometers are usually calibrated to 60 F. 60 celsius is like 140 farenheit.

Yes, yes I did. Sorry for the confusion.

rwing7486 · 02-04-2010, 02:35 AM

I took the OG reading when the temp of the wort was 65 F and at that point i pitched the yeast which said to pitch anywhere between 59F-75F. I cant remember the brand of the yeast or number but i do remember that is came in a blue package (dry yeast) and was meant for british ales and was fast acting. Also my OG reading was just above 1.040...probably around 1.042 and the FG will be at 1.008-1.009 which is 4.2% ABV.

And thanks for the welcome, this forum has been ALOT of help

Rob

mc_eric · 02-04-2010, 02:35 AM

yeah, i'm a little

just noticed the typo and felt the need to set it straight.

To rwing: sounds like you used S-04. IMO, you shouldn't have racked so soon. If you can warm it up and leave it alone for a while it might help the yeast ferment out a few more gravity points. The beers I've used S-04 on have finished around the 1.014-1.018 range, but they were all around 1.070 OG.

**Nugent** · 02-04-2010, 03:12 AM

Sorry, Rob. A clarification for one of my questions.

What was the temperature of the sample that you took to check the gravity after the five days? Probably not a big deal at all, but a place to start.

I agree with the rest of the posts - maybe a bit early to rack to the carboy, but it'll hopefully come down from 1.020 with time and a bit of warmth.

Good luck, and, yes, get another batch going while you're fiddling with that one. Empty fermenter = having to buy beer in six weeks time.

Cheers.