Did I mess up?

Brewing my first ever beer, an IPA.
Brewed Monday night, everything went well.
Took initial gravity reading and it was 1.04, I realized this was low and read that I probably hadnt mixed the top off water well enough, which I knew I hadnt, so I wasnt concerned.

Tonight (thursday) I noticed no bubbles in the airlock, at all.
I kinda freaked out and decided to take a reading, it was 1.018.
My recipe calls for dry hopping after fermentation has slowed, so I went ahead and added hops and sealed her back up.

So...did I dry hop to soon?
I have read it should be in the primary atleast 2 weeks, but also read it isnt good to dry hop for that long as you can get some funky flavors.
Should I rack to a secondary in 4 or 5 days?

Any advice?

ahhhhhhh!!!!!

You have a couple of options.

Could you post your recipe (including how much dry hops you added)? That would help us decide whether you should rack off the dry hops to a secondary fermentor or just let the beer sit for another week or two and bottle.

Recipe is as follows:

7lbs alexander light malt extract
1lb munich malt extract
1lb crystal malt
1/2lb carapils malt
1oz centennial
1oz warrior
1oz Cascade

Dry hop consisted of 1oz of cascade.

Too soon or too late you haven't screwed it up at all. You have simply diverted from the recipe a tad. It will be just fine unless you screwed something more important up!

Does it make sense for specific gravity to be that low after only 3 days?
I assumed that meant most of the fermentation had occurred and the recipe said to add the dry hops when fermentation had slowed.

ampsman said:

Does it make sense for specific gravity to be that low after only 3 days?
I assumed that meant most of the fermentation had occurred and the recipe said to add the dry hops when fermentation had slowed.

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Bubbles in the airlock is not always a sign of fermentation. One small gap in your airlock grommit, and you might not see it. 3 days is plenty of time to make a big dent if it had an early start.

You are fine with what you did. Check the gravity after a week and then if you get a consistent reading after another 2 days, you are ready to bottle or keg. If you can do a cold crash (a few days at near freezing temps) before the packaging go for it.

From reading OP, I assume he had bubbles - he was just surprised they went away so fast. What was the yeast? I've used some like S-04 that have been done in 2 days.

btw - don't fear off flavors from a few weeks of dry hop.

You're fine. The beer is only sitting on an ounce of hops anyway. You could probably leave it on there for two to three weeks with no noticeable off flavors. Give it a week and bottle.

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Bubbles in the airlock is not always a sign of fermentation. One small gap in your airlock grommit, and you might not see it. 3 days is plenty of time to make a big dent if it had an early start.

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When did Revvy change his avatar??

Anyway, you are doing fine. Maybe in a bit of a rush, but that's excusable. After a bit of experience you'll be able to stop playing with it so much. (TWSS!)

If you already added the hops for dry hopping, there really is no need to rack to a secondary IMHO. Just let it sit and do it's thing. Take a reading in a week and see where it sits.

Thanks for all the info!
You guys have put my mind at ease.
Hopefully my second batch I'll be a little more relaxed, I sware that I stared at the airlock for 15 minutes one night.

My question is one of temperature.
At what temperature did you ferment?

Fast fermentations are usually caused by higher than recommended temperatures.

It will still be fine, it will still be beer, but try to keep fermentation temps within the range recommended by the yeast manufacturer. Keep in mind that active fermentation raise the temp inside your fermenter anywhere between 5-10F above the ambient temps around it.

My temps have been around 72, I dont have a basement so I have been using a dark closet in my garage as it has the most consistent temps I could find.

depending on your yeast and beer styles, that may be a bit warm. You might consider getting a large cooler (large enough to hold bucket/carboy and filling with cool water. Frozen water bottles can be swapped out from time to time to keep it at your desired temperature range. Water baths have the advantage of being good thermal conductors, so the temp of the water is very close to the temp of the beer inside.

Worst case scenario is you don't get as much flavor from the dry hop. Taste it after a week and if there is not enough for your taste then add some more hops to the primary and check it in another week!

For really big hop flavor you may want to look into late hop additions! Dry hopping is great for aroma and a little flavor but I noticed it tends to fade a lot faster than late additions. This is just my recomendation!

Good luck and keep on brewing!

Hang Glider said:

depending on your yeast and beer styles, that may be a bit warm. You might consider getting a large cooler (large enough to hold bucket/carboy and filling with cool water. Frozen water bottles can be swapped out from time to time to keep it at your desired temperature range. Water baths have the advantage of being good thermal conductors, so the temp of the water is very close to the temp of the beer inside.

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I was thinking about that, temps are borderline for my IPA but will definitely be to high for other styles.
Do you recommend also putting a damp towel or something over the bucket?
Should I try to bring down my temps for this batch? Or not bother at this point.

after the first few days, temps are not as critical: as the yeast activity slows, it contributes less to the thermal dynamic of the batch.

A damp towel draped over fermenter and fan provide evaporative cooling, which is effective in low-humidity climates.

I didn't pay attention to temps for the first couple of years of brewing - you'll be pleasantly surprised at your quality as you can incorporate this important factor.

Just an update.
I ended up leaving in the primary for about 3 weeks.
I bottled on 9/1 and decided to give it a try last night just to make sure carbonation was coming along.
OMG...its freaking delicious!!
Thanks everyone for calming me down.