Confused as to whats going on

First I want to say a HUGE thank you to this entire forum for its wealth of knowledge on homebrewing, it made my first day of brewing so much easier.

Now on to my confusion, I brewed my first batch (a sweet stout) on 11/25. The OG reading I got at that time was 1.069. The recipe called for it to be 1.048. My first question is which one of these is correct? It's an all extract brew with steeping grains, I also steeped the grains longer then the recipe suggested could this have something to do with it?

I'm worried about the OG number because after a very active fermentation that required a quick blow off tube, I am getting a FG of 1.026. If I go by the recipe number I am no where near the recommended 1.014, which has me concerned. I know it may need more time, but the krausen has completely fallen and there is no more activity from what I can tell.

I tried some last night from my hydrometer tube and it tasted VERY good even though it was warm and flat.

My guesses:

1. You're hydrometer is broke
2. You're not reading your hydrometer correctly
3. Your OG was high because you hadn't fully homogenized your wort.

If I'm wrong on all of those points, that's okay... you already like your beer anyway

Did you take your OG reading from the final mixed volume of wort in your fermenter??

I thought about the Hydrometer being messed up but I've been checking it against room temperature water and it always returns to 1.000. Now about the wort not being homogenized that could very well be. I stirred it up quite a bit to make sure everything was aerated, but thats not to say that it was entirely mixed.

Even so then the FG numbers worries me even more as it would be off quite a bit from the projected number.

The beer itself is great, I just don't want to make bottle bombs haha.

mgortel said:

Did you take your OG reading from the final mixed volume of wort in your fermenter??

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Yup straight from the bottle after mixing and aerating.

unionrdr said:

Well,if it's settling out already,it could be stalled. Try gently swirling the fermenter to stir up some yeast. Then warm it a couple degrees from that 68F brew temp. It can take a day to get going again but this could do it if you're worried that it stopped fermenting.

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I know the yeast I used (Safale-S04) is a super active yeast and it took about 10 hours to get going, but when it got going it went! The Krausen totally filled a gallon of headspace and required an emergency blow off tube. It bubbled (more like belched) for a good week before slowly tapering off.

Should I be worried about a stall? And if so how should I gently warm it up? Put it next to my baseboard heating?

Thanks so much everyone.

Revvy said:

Attention new brewers, yes your original gravity reading is wrong. Don't panic.

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Thanks Revvy! I saw that before asking the question and figured that's what the problem there was. I was just wondering if my over steep had caused some of it too?

Revvy has this like 6th sense, previous post alarm built into his noggin or something.

He somehow manages to track down every question like this within a 24 hour period and immediately post a link to the relevant thread which is somehow cataloged perfectly in his memory bank.

The clues are almost always in the initial post...he said it was an extract batch....99% of the people who are doing their first batch are doing at STOVETOP top off batch. Very few folks out of the box begin with full volume boils. And EVERYDAY we have at least 10 of these posts....it's pretty obvious that this is going to be what the issue is. Usually the most obvious, most simplest answer is the correct one. People tend to overthink these thinks, and think somehow the problem is going to be different somehow....but it rarely is.

Extract + Top off water = Skewed Gravity Reading.

unionrdr said:

No,I can get one to warm a couple degrees by wrapping it in an old coat or blanket. But there have been times when I've seen it drop the krausen & start settling a bit. But it was still finishing up by way of hydrometer tests. So you could be experiencing this. Testing is the only wat to know. So if it's still dropping slowly,keep it warm & let it finish out. If it isn't dropping,then swirl & warm.

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Thanks so much! I'll check again on Saturday and if no drop is present I'll do a little swirl and wrap it in a coat or something.

Is the recipe from a kit or something you came up with yourself? You can always plug in your ingredients to one of the online calculators like Hopville.com and see what it OG it comes up with with. Regardless, it's already been made so if you want the gravity to drop some more than you could always add more yeast that's tolerant to higher alcohol levels if you really want, but keep in mind from what you said a OG of 1.069 and FG of 1.026=5.6% ABV. Compare that to OG of 1.048 and FG of 1.014=4.5% and you will see the beer is already stronger than what you thought it would be.

While I was typing my first reply, it looks like others already had chimed in and Revvy is usually on the money. I've also noticed also that gravity can sway due to partial boils and topping off amounts.

Elbaryn said:

I thought about the Hydrometer being messed up but I've been checking it against room temperature water and it always returns to 1.000. Now about the wort not being homogenized that could very well be. I stirred it up quite a bit to make sure everything was aerated, but thats not to say that it was entirely mixed.

Even so then the FG numbers worries me even more as it would be off quite a bit from the projected number.

The beer itself is great, I just don't want to make bottle bombs haha.

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I didn't see anyone else bring it up, but typically hydrometers are calibrated to 59F. So if you were checking it in room temp water and getting exactly 1.000, that's part of your issue as well. Assuming your room temp is 75F, that's only a +.002 correction, but still.

unionrdr said:

I've seen a couple different temps for setting the hydrometer. So it depends on the temp the instructions give with that particular one.

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True, but either way .002 wasn't equating to his .02 issue.

I want to thank everyone for your responses! I think fermentation has stalled. I checked the gravity again today and I'm still at 1.026.

My house runs fairly cold 68-70F and its been sitting on the basement floor, so I've lifted it off the floor, wrapped it in a coat, and lightly swirled it to hopefully get the yeast back up into solution. If anyone has any other ideas as to what I can do to get this restarted please let me know!

Elbaryn said:

I want to thank everyone for your responses! I think fermentation has stalled. I checked the gravity again today and I'm still at 1.026.

My house runs fairly cold 68-70F and its been sitting on the basement floor, so I've lifted it off the floor, wrapped it in a coat, and lightly swirled it to hopefully get the yeast back up into solution. If anyone has any other ideas as to what I can do to get this restarted please let me know!

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If you used a pound of lactose, that alone would add about .009 to the FG reading (as lactose isn't fermentable). Using dark LME and other dark grains would also increase the FG.

1.026 isn't uncommon for a sweet stout, especially one made with dark extract and/or lactose.

The recipe called for 6 pounds of extra light LME, and a pound of maltodextrin. My LHBS gave me 6 lbs of extra light DME and the maltodextrin. I didn't use any lactose, but extra dark grains and oats were used in steeping.

Elbaryn said:

The recipe called for 6 pounds of extra light LME, and a pound of maltodextrin. My LHBS gave me 6 lbs of extra light DME and the maltodextrin. I didn't use any lactose, but extra dark grains and oats were used in steeping.

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Maltodextrine? I don't think that's fermentable, and would definitely contribute to a higher FG. That's an odd addition, as it's a "thickener".

If the SG doesn't drop more after a few days, I'd call the beer finished.

Yooper said:

Maltodextrine? I don't think that's fermentable, and would definitely contribute to a higher FG. That's an odd addition, as it's a "thickener".

If the SG doesn't drop more after a few days, I'd call the beer finished.

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So is it just going to be a low alcohol beer then? At 1.048 to 1.026 its only 2.89%. It tastes good so that doesn't concern me, but when I go to bottle how should I calculate my sugar? Or does that not matter with the ABV in the bottle?

Yooper said:

Maltodextrine? I don't think that's fermentable, and would definitely contribute to a higher FG. That's an odd addition, as it's a "thickener".

If the SG doesn't drop more after a few days, I'd call the beer finished.

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It's considered partially fermentable. There's a small percentage of it that the yeast can eat, contributing slightly to abv, and then what's left behind give the beer the body, and higher fg....I thought I read years ago that it is 30% fermentable, but I can't recall, and different companies may have different ratios.

After letting it sit for a few hours and moving it to a warmer room, I can tell you the yeast is floating again and starting to bubble. I definitely think it stalled and I'm trying to get it back into action. Is there anything else I can do to warm it up other then what I've done? Its in a space blanket now.