So after only 9 days of my newest Double IPA in primary I racked to secondary to dry hop and take a hydrometer reading, but to my surprise my beer is already fairly carbonated... almost enough to drink! Is this odd? Has this happened to anyone else?
Demus said:Am I missing something? I hope we all know he main byproducts of fermentation are alcohol and carbon dioxide. CO2 in a sample should be pretty obvious evidence that fermentation is still ongoing....
Thunder_Chicken said:If you still have gas bubbles in your samples you should try to shake them out. If you take a hydrometer reading in a fizzy sample the reading will be artificially low due to the gas reducing the density of the sample.
I don't think dissolved CO2 significantly decreases SG. However CO2 bubbles clinging to the hydrometer bulb definitely increase its buoyancy causing artifactually low SG readings. For this reason I degas my samples before hydrometer readings.
Perhaps you mean artificially high readings? Increased buoyancy would raise increase the gravity reading.
It will read low if the beer is actually a mixture of liquid and gas. The mixture gravity will be less than that of the liquid by itself.
If you happen to get a ton of bubbles sticking to the hydrometer, then yes, you might see it go the other way.
It might lower the reading slightly with CO2 in solution, but you're much more likely to see a higher than expected reading with a non-degassed sample because of the bubbles sticking to the side of the hydrometer, especially in a beer that's just finished fermentation (and hasn't been carbonated in a keg or bottle).
I'll have to check it out with some club soda.
But the bottom line is - OP's beer is not done! Step away from the fermenter!
Yeah, after 9 days I bet it IS done. A healthy and active fermentation is usually over by about day 5. The c02 bubbles will hang around quite a while, especially at cooler temperatures.
I thought we were supposed to keep things in primary until we qualify for AARP membership, and only then can we rack to secondary.
Seriously, I agree that the fermentation is probably over, but the extra time to clean up and let things settle out is still very helpful.
afr0byte said:Perhaps you mean artificially high readings? Increased buoyancy would raise increase the gravity reading.
True but...CO2 remains in solution for a while once production ceases. This is true even in a vessel at atmospheric pressure. So CO2 bubble formation can mean either there is an active fermentation or that there was an active fermentation.
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