jgbrown

Recipes 

So yesterday I started by first brew. Followed all the instructions up until adding the wort to the primary fermenter. I siphoned the wort into the primary fermenter but did not stir it. There was a very obvious separation between the water and wort. I let it cool over night and this morning I added the yeast. It has been bubbling all day. I read in a post that not stirring can lead to very off specific gravity readings. My question is should I open up the fermenter and stir or should I just let her go?

Kai

Recipes 

The only off-readings it would cause are pre-fermentation, and it sounds like you didn't take one (which is well enough, as extract OGs are usually dead-on).

The fermentation going on now will already have adequately mixed the beer. Your FG reading will be right.

Don't worry. This will not hurt you.

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Arneba28

Recipes 

just let it go at this point. All the churning from the active fermentation should mix everything up just fine. Did you take a hydrometer reading?

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McKBrew

Recipes 

No need to worry now, it's fermenting fine. I'm assuming you didn't take a SG reading before adding the yeast. Had you done this you would have probably had an SG reading that was way off of what the recipe called for. Not a big issue unless you wanted to know what your final ABV was going to be.

Everything mixed together and fermentation is in progress, so it's time to RDWHAHB! Or since this is your first batch, just have a commercial beer.

jgbrown

Recipes 

Dang you guys are fast! I did not take a hydrometer reading. I figured since it came with the kit somebody else had this pretty well figured out. The recipe that came with the kit has both specific gravities listed. Thanks guys

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

jgbrown - Just promise us that you have / or will get a hydrometer and use it to measure the final gravity. Then start to use it religiously until you can use "the force" to "Grok" exactly when fermentation is done, then wait a week to transfer to secondary, or three to bottle.

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tumbleweed14

Recipes 

Love the "Star Wars" reference combined with "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Will have to steal that. New bumper sticker " I Grok Beer"

And I agree, I may be on my first brew, but the more I know about what it is doing, the better I can understand why it will turn out the way it does, and how to make improvements.