Specific Gravity

Hello everyone.... this is my first post but I have been reading the site for a few months now... so take it easy on me.

I brewed my first batch in November, it was out of a starter kit, of Mountain Spring Imperial Light. I thought is was good though a bit "hoppy" for the wife. So I looked around and figured this time I would use DME instead of corn sugar to try and smooth it out. I was reading up on how much to use in my "brew book" and came up with 6 lbs of DME. Well here comes the question My specific gravity reading was 1.086 @ 77 F giving my a starting gravity of 1.087. If I am figuring this all right I could end up with a PAC of 11%.... is this right or am I missing something?? thanks for the input.......

I am no expert, but that is probably high. I assume this was a 5 gallon extract recipe? You boiled around 3 gallons or so and then added water at the end to bring it up to 5 gallons?

If so, you probably just didn't mix it enough and got a incorrect reading. If you post the full recipe here there is probably someone smarter than me who could figure out what the OG should be.

yes, it's a 5 gal. receipt and I stirred the crap outta it before pulling the sample to measure it the specific gravity.....

6# of DME in 5g should give you an SG of 1.054 assuming no losses...

Each pound gives you 45 gravity points. 6x45 = 270/5 = 54 -> 1.054

Unless you added some other fermentables.

GT

Wait, did you use 6 lbs of DME in addition to the kit, or 6 lbs DME total, with no other fermentables??? If you used 6 lbs of DME by itself then there is no way your initial graivity reading was right. If you used 6 lbs DME along with a kit then I can see why you would have such a high gravity reading.

i used 6# of DME with the extract kit...no corn sugar just the syrup and DME. If i didnt measure right then, is there a way to tell my alcohol by volume at the end of fermentation??

Okay, so I just looked up the Mountain Spring Imperial Light extract kit. It looks like it is probably a 3.3 lb can of liquid malt extract (prehopped most likely), and in addition to that you added 6 lbs of DME. That was definately waaay too much DME. You probably wanted around 2 lbs. That does explain your extremely high starting gravity. Depending on the yeast that came with it, you are probably looking at a beer that is gonna be around 8-10% alcohol (this is just a guess, I'm at work so I can't do the calculations) The problem is that the kit probably doesn't have nearly enough hops to balance out the sweetness and maltiness of all the extract. How long has it been fermenting? You may end up having to make a hop tea to mix into it to balance everything out, but you won't know that until it is pretty much done fermenting then you can taste it. Also, this is a big beer that will most likely mature/smooth out quite a bit with age. You're probably going to want to age this bad boy at least 3 to 6 months before drinking.

This bad boy just hit the primary at 800pm EST. It was already pushing bubbles through the air lock at 1000pm. would pulling into a secondary in few days help or just hang on for some high powered beer?

Also, this is a big beer that will most likely mature/smooth out quite a bit with age. You're probably going to want to age this bad boy at least 3 to 6 months before drinking.

Click to expand...

After i bottle then i usually let it sit at room temp for three weeks then chill.. should i let it age for 3-6 months chilled or room temp? thanks for all of the help its really appreciated

If you have an extra carboy, you could take some dme, hops and water and make a weaker beer and blend the two products.

Helps if you use beersmith or promash for figuring this out.

It will make a nice string beer as is though. Were there any hop additions? If so what hop, how much and when in the boil. I could try and figure out your likely IBU etc. Also does the kit state what the est IBU will be?

Depending on the yeast, it might finish dry with a high alc (low FG), or it may finish a sweeter with a fairly high FG. What yeast came with the kit?

The extract has hops in it but the amount is unknow. Also it does not mention IBU?? not sure what IBU is but its not mentioned anywhere. The yeast is a small packet of Muntons active brewing yeast, 6 milligrams.

IBU stand for International Bittering Unit. It's a measure of how much bitterness you get from your hops. Most hopped extracts don't have much more the 5 to 10 IBUs even if brewed by the recipe instructions. Which would be fine for a nice light session beer. But like I said this is gonna be much bigger then that, and will need more bitterness. Unruly, do you have a homebrew store nearby where you could buy some hops if need be to add some bitterness?

Check the SG in about a week and if it stays pretty high then give the carboy a good swirl to rouse the yeast. Wait another week and check again.

Their is a brewstore near my home that sell hops. I just need to know how much and what to do with the hops...............

Well, if it needs them added (and you won't know 100% for sure until it's done fermenting, but I think it will need them) then you'll probably want to buy an ounce or two of hops (I'm thinking centennial hops would work well, and should be obtainable) then put them in a quart or so of water, and boil for an hour (basically making a hop tea) then add the "hop tea" to your beer.

Ooompa Loompa said:

Well, if it needs them added (and you won't know 100% for sure until it's done fermenting, but I think it will need them) then you'll probably want to buy an ounce or two of hops (I'm thinking centennial hops would work well, and should be obtainable) then put them in a quart or so of water, and boil for an hour (basically making a hop tea) then add the "hop tea" to your beer.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately that will NOT work. There has to be sugars in the solution to isomerize the hops.

Either just add some hops as a dry hop for a bit more flavor/aroma or mix dme into some water and boil with some hops for an hour if you need more bitterness.

Odds are this will be quite drinkable without making it more bitter. I would dry hop some hops though for aroma and a bit of flavor as the original kit is lacking in that department anyway.

OK i moved this beer to the secondary two days ago. it's specific gravity was 1.03 so its dropping nicely. it's still has some fermentation going on but i figured it should still be good to age for approx 3 months and i wanted to get it off of the yeast sediment. my question is the beer on top of the separation appears black?? is this normal???? the beer under that layer is a brown color... thanks for any help......

You shouldn't rack to a secondary until the fermentation is completely done, but it sounds like it's done anyways. The term 'secondary' really is a misnomer, it should be called a clearing tank. That dark color you're seeing is normal. It means the yeast is dropping out of suspension.