Bad Batch/ Gravity Readings

I have brewed about ten batches of beer lifetime and got my first bad batch on my last attempt. In the past I have never taken gravity readings and with this batch it was the first time I have been hurt by that fact.
I brewed a Nut Brown Ale using a starter. I had tons of activity the following morning with my starter at about 70 degrees, it was still bubbling like crazy when I pitched it into my wart (which was at 70 degrees). I let the beer ferment in my basement which was about 60 degrees; it was in the primary for ten days and another ten in the secondary. I saw almost no activity in either the primary or the secondary, the krausen was barely half an inch up my six gallon carboy and I saw no bubbles coming from my airlock.

I guess that leaves me to my question, does anyone have a guess to what went wrong?
Since I haven't the foggiest what my gravity reading was (not historically taking one because I don't want to waste any beer) what is the proper technique for taking a gravity reading?

First, I don't think anything went wrong, you just had a stealth ferment. With extract, the final gravity is really what is important. For a Nut Brown, I would expect a FG around 1.010-1.016. How you get a sample depends on your fermenter. For a carboy, you have to use a wine thief or a siphon. Ditto, for a bucket without a spout.

Sanitize whatever you use, slip it into the fermenter and remove the sample. Let it settle & check the reading.

Some people bad mouth hydrometers, but they are the only way you can be certain the ferment is done.

If you pitched an active starter into 70 F wort you definately had fermentation.
No airlock activity is probably the result of a leak, maybe a bucket lid that didn't seal.
Shouldn't pose a problem since the offgassing of CO2 creates positive pressure in the primary, keeping out the beasties.
No bubbling in the secondary is pretty common.

To take a SG reading you need to fill the thing your hydrometer goes in, float the hydrometer in the wort/beer (give it a spin to knock off any bubbles), and read your SG. Don't forget to adjust for temp, most hydrometers are calibrated for 60 F.

I wouldn't worry about this batch, it should be fine.

I'm still learning, but isn't 60deg.F a bit low for an ale? I'm currently brewing at about 70deg.F.

I vote a leaky top as well.

Don't worry about wasting beer, you WILL drink what you use in the hydrometer. I like tasting very green, warm, uncarbonated beer you know it will only get better.

Also, you will need to check the temp of the sample, then make a correction for the temp. Check the hydrometer in water before just to make sure it reads 1.000.

smithmikeg said:

I'm still learning, but isn't 60deg.F a bit low for an ale? I'm currently brewing at about 70deg.F.

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it's a bit low and may slow fermentation, but also the temperature inside the carboy will be slightly higher than the ambient temp outside due to heat created by the fermentation.

i prefer to brew on the colder side...it generally gets better flavors. for instance, wlp 300 (hefe yeast) is listed as optimum 68-72 F, but i prefer to go a bit lower than that to mellow some of the banana flavor.

Check out white labs and their listing of optimum temperatures to get some idea:

http://whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html

TSac didn't say he's fermenting at 60F, I said most hydrometers are calibrated for 60F.

TSac said:

I let the beer ferment in my basement which was about 60 degrees

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i believe this is what he was talking about

Oops, my bad.

I'd like to jump in here if I can because I was all for taking gravity readings and racking to a secondary, but ran into troubles. Sanitizing is kind of laborious but having done so with the tubing I intended to siphon with I still ran into trouble getting a siphon started if I put much emphasis on cleanliness. Can you detail how you guys actually sanitize and start the siphon? Also, when I lost siphon halfway to racking to a secondary I think it was because my siphon tube was too short so I just used the small sample for a gravity reading and put the airlock back on. Now I have a big fermentation activity going all over again in the carboy. Does that mean fermentation on my IPA was "stuck" and I agitated it into going again? Gravity was at about 1.018. NOw I'm looking at about 1/4 inch of foam on the wort and a bloop every 20 seconds.

Accoustiknoyz said:

I'd like to jump in here if I can because I was all for taking gravity readings and racking to a secondary, but ran into troubles. Sanitizing is kind of laborious but having done so with the tubing I intended to siphon with I still ran into trouble getting a siphon started if I put much emphasis on cleanliness. Can you detail how you guys actually sanitize and start the siphon? Also, when I lost siphon halfway to racking to a secondary I think it was because my siphon tube was too short so I just used the small sample for a gravity reading and put the airlock back on. Now I have a big fermentation activity going all over again in the carboy. Does that mean fermentation on my IPA was "stuck" and I agitated it into going again? Gravity was at about 1.018. NOw I'm looking at about 1/4 inch of foam on the wort and a bloop every 20 seconds.

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For siphoning, I suggest an auto-siphon or FlyGuy's DIY siphon starter.

Sanitizing is sometimes a pain. What do you use? I have found that I can make a quart of iodophor in seconds. Get a pan that you can put 1-2 inches of sanitizer in and that should be enough for your tubbing. Some suggest a wallpaper tray. I use a drawer from and old refrigerator. Put it all in, 1 minute contact time, hang it up on the shower curtain rod until I am ready for it.

Also, do you siphon to get a hydrometer sample? You don't have to. Get a wine thief, turkey baster, or the end part of the auto-siphon will grab a small sample (this is what I use; it is a little messy).

Thanks for the siphoning ideas, a turkey baster is a great idea. The air leak theory could be a possibility but my bottle conditioned beer tastes very sweet, almost like unfermented wart. I used 3/4 cup of sugar to bottle but there is absoluetly no carbonation in the bottles after a month of conditioning.

If I took a reading on a bottled sample right now would the sugar throw off the reading?