SG numbers

Hi ya'll
I have 5 gallons of a California Ale in the fermenter. It has 6lbs of light DME, 2oz willamette hops and some White Labs ale yeast. My Beginning SG was .028 and that seems low to me. That seems more like a finished SG to me. It is bubbling now with a thick head of Krausen so it seems like things are working.

This is my first batch after a 15 year break from brewing.
It's all coming back to me now.

Oscar

Welcome Oscar!
Chances are you took your sample after you put in your top off water and the wort and top off weren't mix thoroughly. To get those layers mixed thoroughly, you have to shake that bucket/carboy like you are trying to get money from it.

Congratulations on your first brew (in a while) and glad to have you back in the brew fold!

Thanks for the tip, I did take the sample just after the water addition. Do you think I should take another sample? It has been fermenting for 3 days now.

I read the importance of an hour at a full rolling boil, I stirred my Wort to prevent boil over and the sugars from burning on the bottom of the tub. Should I just let it boil or is stirring it a good idea?

So, I also understand that the Krausen will settle back into the Wort and create some off flavors, should I find a way of removing the Krausen?

It's these fine points that can make a good batch.

Cheers!

No need to take a sample now. You could use some simple software to estimate where your OG should have been, but I wouldn't sweat it.

No need to stir for the full boil. Just stir to mix in you extract. If you are having boilover issues, you need a bigger pot or some other method of foam control.

Krausen settling into wort does not create off flavors, not sure where you heard that at. I haven't met a brewer yet that removes the krausen.

Don't take a reading for a week to 10 days. The yeast knows where to find the sugar. Since it's an extract kit, whatever the instructions say will be the OG since there is a set amount of sugars in the extract.

Definitely stir during the boil; it's too easy for the extract to scorch if you don't stir.

Removing krausen or having it create off flavors for home brew is a myth that won't die. I believe there may be some reason that it is done in commercial brews but that reason escapes me at the moment. One of the beer science geeks will have to jump in on that. I've never messed with the krausen in my 4 or 5 years of brewing so I see no reason to start now.

edit: oops! Seems McKBrew and I disagree on the stirring.

No don't take another reading until before you rack or bottle to make sure it is done fermenting. It is too late to get a Starting Gravity.

Stirring is a good idea. I stir a lot during the boil. It should have no effect on the quality of the boil itself.

Do not worry about the krausen falling back into the beer. Sounds like you have been reading some Papazian. There is some bitterness and other nasties in that krausen but nothing that will not precipitate and fall out the other side of the beer as trub when you rack to secondary or bottling bucket.

The two most important things to try to get back is your brewing patience and the ability to brew two batches at once. This way you spread your concern over two batches.

Thanks for the advice, guys. Having the Forums is a great way to learn. Back in the day, all we had was Papazian and trial and error...mostly error!

I'd just as soon leave it in the primary for 3-5 weeks. Don't bother with SG readings unless there is something specific you're trying to figure out, such as brewhouse efficiency, etc (and with extract brews, that's most certainly not the case). The extended primary time allows the yeast to "clean up" after primary fermentation. A lot of folks assume after primary ferment is done, just bottle it up. Quite the contrary, the yeast are still alive and active, searching for more food. In this case, that food ends up being the partially digested refuse from the primary ferment.

Thanks for the advice, I was hoping to have this batch for NYE but I may let her sit in repose for a while and have a better brew in the long run.
Get this for interesting advice, the fellow at the very respected HBStore advised me to boil the Hops for 45 minutes and then add the DME for the last 15 minutes. That went against everything I have read so I didn't do it.

Thoughts on this idea?

I was going to mention this. Yes, he is right. When using extracts it is common and probably best practice to do them as "late addition." This minimizes the caramelization that can occur to the sugars in the extract.

You do want some in the boil for the whole duration to work with the hops but most should be late addition. You also get better hops utilization with this method.

+1 to DME at the end. The reason he said to do 45 minutes is that you'll be getting better hop utilization. Thus, if all things are equal, but you add the extract at the end, you're looking at maybe 40 IBU. But if you cut the boil down to 45 minutes, then it goes down to about 30 IBU. This is just an example, but it illustrates what I'm trying to convey.

Intresting. I re-read my notes from brewday and I added the DME after 1/2 hour of the hops boiling and had 1/2 hour of hops and DME for a total of 1 hour boil.
Perhaps my next batch will feature only 15 minutes of DME in the boil and see how that works.

Thanks for the great advice, having all of these opinions and archives is a great tool.

Cheers!
Petho

Petho said:

Intresting. I re-read my notes from brewday and I added the DME after 1/2 hour of the hops boiling and had 1/2 hour of hops and DME for a total of 1 hour boil.
Perhaps my next batch will feature only 15 minutes of DME in the boil and see how that works.

Thanks for the great advice, having all of these opinions and archives is a great tool.

Cheers!
Petho

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Bear in mind, you need some DME in the beginning for full hop utilization. You should shoot for having about 1/3 of your extract added at the beginning, and the rest with 10-15 minutes remaining.

Petho said:

Thanks for the advice, guys. Having the Forums is a great way to learn. Back in the day, all we had was Papazian and trial and error...mostly error!

Click to expand...

Isn't this the truth. The ready availablility of forums on nearly every topic is one of the great things about the internet.