Coffee porter input - Hydrometer reading

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SaltyDog03

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Hi all. This is my 4th batch that I've brewed up. This is a personally tweaked recipe I received from someone else for 5 ga.

7 lbs DME
1 lb Carmel Malt
.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
6 oz Belgium Candi sugar
8 oz CaraPils
1 oz Northdown for bittering
3-4 oz dark coffee added to 15 min boil
.5 UK kent Goldings last 15 min boil
.5 UK kent dry hop

Anyway, I am having trouble getting a consistent reading on the hydrometer. My first reading was 1.02. My heart sank when I saw this. I swirled the batch up and took another reading. 1.025. Thinking this batch was a failure, I decided to pitch the yeast anyway. I used about 10 g if I recall correctly. After I pitched the yeast, I was still distraught over the readings. I said screw it, I will shake the carboy up vigorously and take another reading even though I added the yeast. When I did this, my reading was 1.058 and adjusting for temperature it is about 1.06. Much better.

I however am still very worried about the recipe. I believe the OG should be somewhere around 1.064 or so.

Taking a reading after pitching the yeast I'm sure sways an accurate reading. Could my readings really have varied this much if my beer wasn't mixed up well enough? Do I dare take another reading?

I guess I'm just looking for some advice at this point. I'm new to brewing so any steps / tips would be great. I know how to use a hydrometer, but something must have gone awry. I've used it before on my last batch and I hit the OG spot on.

Thanks for any input.

Edit: I should also add that I tried the wort which was very sweet. I know it's going to be sweet, but it was very sweet. This was the first time trying the wort. I also think the sweetness is making me worry.
 
Yes, the readings will vary that much if the wort is not well mixed. If your well mixed sample was 1.060, I would call it close enough and not worry too much about it. A beer with a OG of 1.060 is going to taste very sweet, nothing to worry about.

As a side note, have you calibrated your hydrometer? It should read 1.000 in pure water at the appropriate temperature (60F for most). If it does not, then just record the difference and remember to correct all future readings.
 
I have not calibrated my hydrometer. I will check it out to make sure it's accurate.

Also, thanks for the input.
 
Try taking your OG sample at the end of your boil. The wort is boiling vigoursly so the sugars are constantly suspended in the liquid, unlike after cooling where they can give false readings due to sugars dropping out of suspension. I was having difficulites with readings when I first started and a friend had me take readings this way and I have had good results since. Just an option to try. Happy brewing!
 
Try taking your OG sample at the end of your boil. The wort is boiling vigoursly so the sugars are constantly suspended in the liquid, unlike after cooling where they can give false readings due to sugars dropping out of suspension.


Sugar DISSOLVES in water. It is not a suspension. It does not "drop out" of suspension unless you have literally so much sugar in there that the water is saturated with it.

If you are doing a partial boil, taking a reading immediately after the boil will always read high, because you haven't got all the water in there yet. If you add water post-boil, then you need to mix it extremely well before taking any readings, and my advice would be to let it wait a couple of hours after mixing thoroughly just to be sure. The problem is that when you top off your batch with water, you are making a stratified solution...higher OG on the bottom, and lower OG on top. Stirring might mix it a little, and might move around the spots that are high OG vs low OG, but it still won't give you a homogeneous solution right away.

Additionally, you need to take the reading with cooled wort, or the hydrometer will not read correctly. Most hydrometers are calibrated for wort around 60F. For *minor* temperature variations, there is a correction factor you can apply, but this correction factor goes pretty wrong for anything over, say, 80F IMO.
 
I left out that I take the wort and put it in the freezer until the temp in around 60F. I dont read it right out of the boil. Additionally, I have never had to add water post boil which would give me a stratified solution.
 
I did a partial boil, added remaining water, mixed and took 2 readings. Both were extremely low so I mixed the life out of the carboy and took a 3rd reading.

On a side note, the fermentation literally began in (probably) less than 8 hours. I racked to carboy, went to sleep, woke up 8 hours later and a violent fermentation had already begun. It's slowed down drastically after 24 hours (roughly 1 bubble in airlock per 9 seconds). Is this okay? My other batches never fermented this violently. It is a new yeast: Safebrew t-58.

Does my recipe look adequate? I want to make sure I have enough yeast for the recipe.
 
Also, rather than starting a new thread since my next question still pertains to my OP, do you think that the 4oz of coffee added to the last 15 mins of boil is enough? I tasted the wort and there was no hint of coffee at all. I'm sure the flavor must mature more, but I've also read people racking to secondary fermenter and adding coffee there. If I'm not satisfied with the coffee flavor in a week from now, would that be a good option to increase the flavor?

Thanks for any input.
 
Your recipe looks fine. If this is a kit and you used all the ingredients AND you ended up with 5 gallons of wort, then you should be fine and I wouldn't worry too much about your hyrdometer readings. Generally speaking, it is very hard to miss your target OG if you are using extract and hit your volumes, so my guess is measurement error.


Regarding the coffee flavor, yeah just dump in more coffee later on if you like. I would wait until fermentation is pretty much over, like say a week later, before adding more coffee, as active fermentation will tend to "scrub" a lot of that aroma and flavor away. Then let it sit there for a few days after adding the coffee before doing anything else with it like bottling/kegging/whatever.
 
Thank you for the input.

Well like I stated, I had a very violent 24 hour fermentation period. Now, 2 days later it looks dead. There's hardly any bubbles in the air lock anymore....1 bubble every 16 seconds. Is this lack of bubbling anything to worry about? It's literally been 2 days and the fermentation looks dead. I planned on fermenting for a minimum of 3 weeks.
 
The 3 week primary plan is still a good one, even if you don't "see" fermentation happening. As you will read so many time on this site, airlock activity is NOT an indicator that the beer is/is not fermenting. Always trust your hydrometer, especially with your FG. If you want more coffee flavor after you check FG a few weeks from now you could always add a few of those starbucks via instant coffee deals with your priming sugar. I'm sure it will come out great! The coffee doesn't always come through pre-fermentation because of all the sugar in there. Its easier to pick out post fermentation.
 
So, my beer has been fermenting for 8 days now and is still incredibly cloudy. I was thinking I didn't pitch enough yeast. I figured I needed to use 10.5 g. I just did a calculator online and it suggested 12g.

How much of an issue could this be? Should I just repitch more yeast?
 
Cloudyness has little to do with yeast.

You pitched enough. You saw the signs of initial fermentation (bubbling in the airlock). Fact is, your beer is probably nearing it's FG. At this point, the yeast are just cleaning up after themselves, and improving overall flavor for you.

If you're really worried, I'd take a hydrometer reading. Generally, I don't take any before the 12 day mark . . . but 8 days won't kill you. Just keep it sanitized :)

To eliminate the cloudyness, when you're ready to bottle, cold crash the beer for a day. This means to put it in a place where the temperature is in the mid 30's or so (degrees F). You're in Wisconsin, this shouldn't be hard to find :mug: Cold crashing will help settle out yeast and proteins that cause cloudyness. Don't do it for more than about 24 hours, though, else you might lose too much yeast prior to bottling.
 
Cloudyness has little to do with yeast.

You pitched enough. You saw the signs of initial fermentation (bubbling in the airlock). Fact is, your beer is probably nearing it's FG. At this point, the yeast are just cleaning up after themselves, and improving overall flavor for you.

If you're really worried, I'd take a hydrometer reading. Generally, I don't take any before the 12 day mark . . . but 8 days won't kill you. Just keep it sanitized :)

To eliminate the cloudyness, when you're ready to bottle, cold crash the beer for a day. This means to put it in a place where the temperature is in the mid 30's or so (degrees F). You're in Wisconsin, this shouldn't be hard to find :mug: Cold crashing will help settle out yeast and proteins that cause cloudyness. Don't do it for more than about 24 hours, though, else you might lose too much yeast prior to bottling.

Hey thanks for the reply. I'll research up on cold crash and go that route more than likely. What are your thoughts on a secondary for 2 weeks?

The main problem with WI right now is finding a place warm enough to cold crash my beer.
 
The general consensus on this forum is that Secondary Fermentation is not necessary. It's better to just leave it in the primary for the time you would have put it in a secondary. The reasoning behind this is that when you transfer the beer, you've got a better chance of getting an infection and/or oxidizing the beer.

That being said, transfering to a secondary is a good way to help clear the beer. If you're worried about clarity, you might want to do this . . . just be sure that (a) You are extremely careful about sanitation and (b) you transfer carefully, making sure the beer doesn't splash.

As for somewhere WARM enough . . . that's funny. if there's snow outside, consider a tub of water (one of those beverage tubs with rope handles from Walmart works great) filled with a snow/water mixture. It will cool the beer down quickly, but also not get it cold enough to freeze. Fill the tub when you go to bed. Add more snow in the morning, if necessary.
 
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