Strange gravities?

Hello everyone,

Just did first homebrew last week, Hop Head DIPA extract kit from Midwest Supplies. On day 7 transferred from primary to secondary in order to dry hop (per the instructions).

The SG was about 1.060, should have been around 1.070-1.074 according to the directions. It's a 5 gallon recipe, i boiled 6 gallons and ended up really close to 5 so i did not add any water. When transferring i took another gravity reading and it was down at 1.010, where the target was 1.016-1.018.

My two questions are pertaining to the starting and current gravities, and what i may have done wrong (if anything) to cause that to happen. I do still see activity in the airlock so i assume it's still fermenting, so does this mean i'm going to end up with an even lower gravity beer? As for the starting gravity, i was a little bit concerned that i might not have boiled it hard enough in fear of a boilover, could that cause it to start off lower than it should have been?

Thanks

How did you measure the 5 gal? Ale pails aren't marked too accurately.

Generally don't want to transfer to secondary till the fermentation has stopped, stable sg. The airlock could be bubbling from dissolved co2. Won't know without multiple sg readings.

Only options for messing up the og, is to not have enough extract, or to have too much water ( assuming well mixed solution, temperature adjustments, etc)

Was it only extract? The low OG could have been due to not getting the sugars well enough out of specialty grains. Also, if you measured your OG when the wort was warm, you will be given a false low value. Did you measure when the wort was cooled down to the pitching temperature?

As mentioned in the reply above, you want to transfer when the fermentation is complete. I would be surprised if you actually are getting fermentation and a strong enough amount to get the airlock going. It is probably an artifact of the transfer.

The OG is purely the amount of sugar in water. Boil it hard or light, all that matters is the amount of sugar and the volume of water.

As far as the lower SG, I seem to always get a lower FG than I expect.

That being said, if you are following the instructions, it should taste just fine! Lower OG and FG? So it will just have a lighter base flavor, but will be still tasty!

It will be fine, so relax and anticipate the tastiness! Post up when it is done and give a report of your success.

Extract gravities are notoriously off - you did a full boil so this should be less true than with partial boils and inadequately mixed top-offs, but since the proportions of your OG and FG are consistent with the proportions of the expected OG and FG all is well. I sometimes hit my OG or am a little high and then fall below my FG...there are a number of factors that play into this. As it relates to fermentation, you have probably hit your terminal FG, but you should continue to test and let it sit for a few more days to clean up after itself. The bubbling airlock isn't necessarily representative of fermentation and could simply be off-gassing of CO2 from your fermented beer. Use your hydrometer and go from there - but it's sure to be a tasty brew.

Thanks for the replies

How did you measure the 5 gal? Ale pails aren't marked too accurately.

Only options for messing up the og, is to not have enough extract, or to have too much water ( assuming well mixed solution, temperature adjustments, etc)

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I did measure the 5 gal using an ale pale, i guess i'll have to do some more exact measuring next time to determine where my 5 gal mark is in my equipment.

Was it only extract? The low OG could have been due to not getting the sugars well enough out of specialty grains. Also, if you measured your OG when the wort was warm, you will be given a false low value. Did you measure when the wort was cooled down to the pitching temperature?

Click to expand...

This was an extract w/specialty grains recipe. I steeped for about 25 minutes (recipe said 15-30 min) before boiling, and i did make sure to use all of the extract.

I measured the OG at pitching temp, right before pitching, and according to my hydrometer the adjustment was almost nothing.



I think i'll probably let it sit until next week before i take a set of gravity readings. Thanks for the replies

If the water wasn't warm enough for the grain steeping then that may have been your issue. i steep grains around that 150 mark for the time required, then let the water get to 170 and remove them then to help dissolve the sugars that are still stuck in the grain bag.

As far as using the pail for measurement of volume, it isn't an exact measurement, but if your OG difference was due to having too much water it would have to be 6 gallons, not 5, so the markings on the pail being off by a pit or so wouldn't make much difference.

With dry hopping you want to be careful how long you do that for to get the ideal aroma, so let that be the mark for when you should be taking those measurements. I feel at the SG you are at now that fermentation is done, just bottle it when the dry hopping schedule is complete.