Oh my gosh, this is stressful!

I've just taken a hydrometer reading of my beer and I'm worried that I've infected my beer (I've tried to keep everything as sanitised as possible but it's incredibly difficult!).

Also, It's been 8 days and it says my brew is 2.2%. I'm aiming for 4%. How long should I leave it until I do another reading?

nicklawmusic said:

I've just taken a hydrometer reading of my beer and I'm worried that I've infected my beer (I've tried to keep everything as sanitised as possible but it's incredibly difficult!).

Also, It's been 8 days and it says my brew is 2.2%. I'm aiming for 4%. How long should I leave it until I do another reading?

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How are you reading the hydrometer? You need to take the OG-minus the SG and multiply it by 131.

First off... RELAX!

Leave it alone until it has been in the fermenter for at least 2 weeks, then take a reading. Wait 2 or 3 days and take another reading, if the readings are the same it is done. Then you can bottle or keg and know what your final ABV is. At 8 days the yeast are still working on the sugars.

What's SG?

Will having the lid off my fermenting bucket and allowing air in whilst I took readings leave me open to contamination? I'm fermenting in my cellar?

Also, I'm a little concerned that I took my sample with a sanitised turkey baster. Do I need to keep resanitising it every time I dip it into the brew to get a sample? It took about 3 goes to get enough out and it kept dripping. Am worried about contamination!

Actually, I'm probably worried that the end of the baster touched the test jar which wasn't sanitised.

Am I paranoid?!

nicklawmusic said:

Will having the lid off my fermenting bucket and allowing air in whilst I took readings leave me open to contamination? I'm fermenting in my cellar?

Also, I'm a little concerned that I took my sample with a sanitised turkey baster. Do I need to keep resanitising it every time I dip it into the brew to get a sample? It took about 3 goes to get enough out and it kept dripping. Am worried about contamination!

Actually, I'm probably worried that the end of the baster touched the test jar which wasn't sanitised.

Am I paranoid?!

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I think you may be paranoid. Beer in the primary is quite difficult to infect. It is too acidic for many bacteria, it has too much alcohol for others, and it has a layer of CO2 protecting it from the rest. You should try to be as sanitary as is reasonable but quit worrying about it. Leaving the bucket open for a short time shouldn't hurt as the CO2 that is blanketing your beer is heavier than air and won't all jump out at the first opportunity. Relax and have a beer.

Nick, settle down. You will be fine.

nicklawmusic said:

What's SG?

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SG is specific gravity, the reading on your hydrometer at the time you sample. That could be the OG, the reading before fermentation starts (original gravity) or FG, the final gravity, when all fermentation has ceased.

Look at your hydrometer. It should have more than one scale on it. At the top of one (in very tiny letters) is should say "beer" and start at .990 and increase from there. I would expect your current SG to be about 1.020. It may be higher or lower than that number though.

I love that the first advice on this forum is always settle down and have a beer. I always feel better reading that!

I say you're DOOMED As always, followed by RDWAHAHB

BTW, SG refers to specific gravity. In the context used above it is referring to the Final Gravity (FG) of your wort. That's when your gravity readings are the same (remain constant) for 4 or 5 days in a row.

OG, FG, PBG are all acronyms referring to a specific gravity reading taken at a certain time or referring to a specific state of your wort/beer.

OG, Original Gravity: The specific gravity of the beer just before you pitch yeast and begin fermentation.
FG, Final Gravity: the specific gravity of the beer when fermentation is completed and the specific gravity remains constant.
PBG, Pre-Boil Gravity: The specific gravity of the wort right after mashing. Could refer to first runnings or first runnings and sparged wort. This references the specific gravity of the wort before you being the boil.

Hope that helps.

RM-MN beat me. "Oh No! I suck again!"

Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

You're being a bit too paranoid. Being concerned about sanitation is one thing, but don't take it to the extreme. Like others have said, you don't need to worry about taking a follow-up reading on your SG (specific gravity) until it has been fermenting for 2 weeks. As long as your baster was sanitized and you didn't leave the fermenter uncovered for more than a few minutes, you shouldn't have much to worry about.

Thanks everyone. It's my first time brewing! The instructions on my kit said 4-6 fermenting (it's been 8). I'll give it another week and see what happens.

I expected there to me more of a head on the wort when I opened the FV. Having said that, I did how the FV a shake the other day as the airlock had stopped bubbling. Shaking it started it again.

Sorry your not getting good head But seriously folks,

Two points more important than your turkey baster being sterile:

1. Beer kit instructions suck. There seems to be a trend of these kits telling people that they only need to ferment for a week or less. Lousy advice. I would buy yourself a copy of John Palmer's "How to Brew" and learn from that. You can find a free copy online these days.

2. Don't shake the fermenter once the process has started. Shaking will add oxygen to your fermenting beer and produce off flavors.
Shaking before pitching your yeast=good
shaking after pitching your yeast=bad

"Leave the damn thing alone, stop touching it" -Things mom used to say when you were in the bathroom too long

Nick, get some books on home brewing dude. Reading the instructions on some of those kits can actually kill more brain cells than the beer you make!

Take VERY good notes as you go. Ask questions before, during and after your brew. Keep an open mind to suggestions. Drink a lot of beer.

What everyone else said.....relax my man, it's all good.

It's normal to feel paranoid about sanitation and to be anxious and impatient the first few batches. As you continue to learn your process and come up with a protocol of how your typical brew day will progress, it will become less stressful and more fun. Never go by the kit instructions pertaining to the fermentation time frames. There are way too many factors involved in the fermentation process to put a number to it. Like the others said, be patient. There's no need to shake the fermenter everytime the airlock activity slows. Once you get into brewing more frequently and have a bit of a pipeline going, you will no longer feel anxious or the need to try to rush the process.

Relax and get brewing!

I'd read on this forum that shaking your fermenter would rekick start your yeast. The airlock had gone back to being level but dyer shaking the fermenter it showed signs of giving off CO2.

So you're saying I shouldn't have shaken it?

That should have read 'after shaking the fermenter' by the way.

I'm simply saying that airlock activity is not an accurate indicator of where you are at in the process. I've had aggressive fermentations that have blown the lids off of my buckets, because krausen clogged the airlock and I've had fermentations that have shown minimal air-lock activity whatsoever and still reached FG. Trying to agitate the yeast to stimulate air lock activity isn't a great idea, for reasons already mentioned. Did you ruin your beer.....no. Could it potentially impart some off flavors in the beer....maybe.

I think that the general consensus is relax and give it some time.....and space. Hovering over your fermenter is only going to stress you out more, it does nothing for the beer.

What yeast are you using and at what temperature is the fermenter? Too cold and the yeast will work very slowly to convert the sugar into alcohol while producing very little CO2/airlock activity.

And yes, it is PAINFUL to wait for the yeast to do their job. Brewing beer is a little bit of working and a whole lot of waiting.

Swirling the fermenter and warming the beer is recommended to restart a stuck ferment but you haven't given us anything to suggest your ferment had stalled. When you agitated the beer by shaking the fermenter, you caused some of the CO2 to come out of solution, much like shaking a can of pop. At this point in the ferment, the yeast are no longer producing CO2 but are busy with digesting byproducts of the early ferment. Here's a nice article on the life cycle of the yeast as they are making beer. I find that the times listed are much shorter than what I see but the process is the same. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

Will my beer reproduce more CO2 then?

Sorry, missed the bit about CO2 when I read that. Ignore my question.

Congrats Nick, you made beer. Now the hard part: Patience!

You need to give it time in the fermenter. Vigorous primary fermentation can be done in just a few days (and as stated before, airlock activity is *NOT* a sufficiently good indicator of fermentation). But many folks here will extoll the virtues of an "extended primary" with no secondary. The idea is that once the sugars are gone, the yeast will go to work on some of the by-products and thus "clean up after themselves".

Three weeks in primary is a general time span.

The hydrometer is your friend. It will tell you when fermentation is complete. NOT the airlock. No more swirling the fermenter! Unless you know your fermentation is stuck.

Be sensible with your sanitation but no need to be OCD. It should be FUN (and only a little stressful at first )

As others have said before Relax, Don't Worry, Have a HomeBrew (RDWHAHB)... You'll see this admonition often here

also read http://www.howtobrew.com to allay some of your fears.

The online version is a bit out of date with respect to modern best practices, but is still a a veritable fount of information.

I bet your beer is doing just fine. Relax. Believe it or not, after some more brews you'll have the relax thing down and sooner or later you'll forget u even have one in the fermenter for longer than u planned - and it will still turn out just fine most likely.

Thanks. Worried that it won't reach higher than 2.2%

nicklawmusic said:

Thanks. Worried that it won't reach higher than 2.2%

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That 2.2% is from misinterpreting what your hydrometer is telling you. Your beer is likely more like 5 to 5.5%. You cannot directly read the alcohol amount with your hydrometer, you really have to calculate it based on the original gravity (OG) which was probably listed on the kit and on the final gravity (FG) that you read when the brew is done. Just guessing but I suspect your OG would have been something like 1.052 and your FG should end up somewhere near 1.014. Look closely at the hydrometer for a scale that starts at about .990 and increases as you look down lower. It may even have (in very tiny letters) beer at the top. That is the scale you will be using. To mind out the alcohol you take the OG, subtract the FG, and multiply that by 131 to get the percent alcohol.

My original hydrometer reading was 1.035 and my reading yesterday was 1.017

The hydrometer is calibrated to 20c. The temperature on the OG was 21c and yesterday 19c. The adjustment was minimal so I'm pretty sure after using several calculators was somewhere between 2.2 and 2.4%.

It's been fermenting for 8 days so far.

I'm a bit confused as to why, given all the fermentables in my wort why I'd have a low ABV (unless the wort still has sugars to eat). There was 1 can of malt and hop extract, 1 x 500g bag of dark DME and 600g dextrose (the kit calls for 1kg of fermentables).

The kit stats the finished reading should be around 1.008 at 4% ABV

I'm a bit confused as to why, given all the fermentables in my wort why I'd have a low ABV (unless the wort still has sugars to eat). There was 1 can of malt and hop extract, 1 x 500g bag of dark DME and 600g dextrose (the kit calls for 1kg of fermentables).

The kit stats the finished reading should be around 1.008 at 4% ABV

Was this an extract batch where you boiled about 2 1/2 gallons and then did top off with water into the fermenter? If so, your hydrometer reading is not accurate because getting the concentrated wort thoroughly mixed with the top off water is very difficult and it is common to take a sample that has more water than wort, giving you a false low reading. If this was such a kit, the expected OG would have been listed on the package. Use that instead of your hydrometer reading for the OG.

Yes, it's a Wilkos Newkie Brown extract kit. I'm not sure whether it stated the original gravity on the can, only the target final gravity.

Yes, I topped it off with water. I have the mixture a good stir. Should I have shaken the fermenting bucket to get all the extract mixed?

You should have just mixed it well.

If you are using a kit, and adding the CORRECT amount of water, your gravity and ABV will be correct. There is no efficiency concerns with extract.

Also, you may wish to get rid of the bubbles in the tube when you take a hydro reading. It will be easier to read.

I definitely mixed it well. It called for 23 litres of water but I did 21 as I wanted a more concentrated batch.

I didn't see you answer the question about the yeast you used. Can you tell us that?
Also, the photo you show does not indicate a gravity of 1.035. In fact, it reads about 1.044 or just a bit more because you have all the bubbles, but safe to say 1.044 at least. The 1.030 range is the white above the orange. Once the white stopped, you entered the 1.040 range. Each notch represents .002 points (if that is the right word). So the line between white and orange is 1.040, the next is 1.042, and the next is 1.044. You read the line just below the liquid.

If you're at 1.017 now, which I am not certain you are because based on your text and your photos, you're reading the hydrometer wrong, then your ABV is 3.54%. Not knowing the yeast you used, it is hard to say where it should have ended but I am fairly certain you shouldn't have an issue seeing 1.010 if you followed the kit instructions. Even if you pitched then went and sloshed your wort around, eventually it would have settled and started. I drove home with a carboy of work after pitching and it's fermenting just fine. It was a slow start but it was intended to be that way due to the style of beer and the yeast.

Can you confirm the yeast as well as show a picture of the hydrometer reading now? If you've just opened the fermenter and took a reading, wait a few days before you do that. You need to be careful about spending your time opening up your fermentation vessel repeatedly because you will have crappy beer. It'll be beer, but it'll be crappy most likely due to oxidation.

Hello said:

Also, the photo you show does not indicate a gravity of 1.035. In fact, it reads about 1.044 or just a bit more because you have all the bubbles, but safe to say 1.044 at least. T

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This isn't correct. See the red and the green sections on the hydrometer? Those indicate below 1.000 (red) and above 1.000 (green.) The thicker black line between the two colors is 1.000. So you can see the long line on the hydrometer UNDER the number indicates the level of that number. So Nick's reading is correct at around. 1.035

MrHadack said:

So Nick's reading is correct at around. 1.035

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Not with all those bubbles it's not...

Wait for the bubbles to go, give the hydro a little spin to dislodge any bubbles stuck to it, then read it again. I think you'll come up with a different result.

That was my OG so that's all I have to go on. I couldn't get rid of the bubbles but took an accurate reading down at the water level (ie: not from above) and it was definitely 1035.

In fact, I'm pretty sure now that I think about it that I made sure I wasn't reading those bubbles. I'm about 95% sure the reading is 1035