Specific grav. Question? Please help!

Probably a stupid question, however, I've had a light ale malt extract brew in a primary for one week and checked the gravity and it was at 1.005. I know it's only been a week but that's really low, right? Should I get it into bottles or keep waiting?

1.005 is a little low (I normally finish out around 1.010); I wouldn't worry about it though ... let it go another week. What were your ingredients? Yeast? OG?

Did you add any other adjuncts to it? Usually 7-10 days is the mark, what kind of yeast did you use? What was the OG?

Wait at least another week before you bottle it. I have had a 1.083 barleywine go to 1.006, but that is after a much longer time period.

Well here's the thing being the noob that I am( this is my first of many brews to come) I was soooooo excited, I forgot to take an OG. Other ingrediants are Irish moss, DME, cascade hops( flavoring and aromatic) and Nottingham yeast. I had a lot of activity for a good three days and now it's bubbling every 30 secs, which is probably normal. Thanks for the responses

Let it go a few more weeks to settle down and mature before bottling. As long as your samples are at least ok, then you're probably ok, too!

B

Did you use a hydrometer or a refractometer?

Refractometers don't give a correct reading after fermentation, the alcohol causes the measurement to be off.

Please forgive my noobishness, but after doing a lot of reading on this site I've come to the conclusion that checking SG for a kit beer is probably a waste of time. Hear me out:

1.) A lot of folks recommend 3 weeks plus in the primary. In that time the beer is going to do what its going to do.

2.) Checking SG does nothing to the beer. It doesn't ferment it, finish it, etc.

3.) Every time you check SG you run the risk of infection and waste beer that could have gone in a bottle.

Now if you're not using a kit, probably would be helpful for learning purposes.

I'm I wrong here?

Nope, not wrong -
but one argument for using the hydro is just in case you have some bad yeast - or a stuck fermentation. If SG didn't drop after three weeks but the wort and environment was kept clean, you could re-pitch. If it stopped at 1.025, you could re-pitch. But only if you knew what your hydrometer reading was.....

Used a hydrometer. I just couldn't believe the S.G. was THAT low already. What could cause it to be that low

Well attenuating, floctuant yeast and proper fermentation conditions or higher than acceptable temps. Basically, you had a very good strong fermentation, possibly a bit too strong which made is throw off esters but anyway, good job on it. If you like the flavor of it, you did very well.

Strangelove said:

Please forgive my noobishness, but after doing a lot of reading on this site I've come to the conclusion that checking SG for a kit beer is probably a waste of time. Hear me out:

1.) A lot of folks recommend 3 weeks plus in the primary. In that time the beer is going to do what its going to do.

2.) Checking SG does nothing to the beer. It doesn't ferment it, finish it, etc.

3.) Every time you check SG you run the risk of infection and waste beer that could have gone in a bottle.

Now if you're not using a kit, probably would be helpful for learning purposes.

I'm I wrong here?

Click to expand...

+1 to this.

I do take a FG right before I rack to the keg but only to make sure my fermentation didn't get stuck and so I have a rough estimate on the ABV percentage. I don't do the 2-3 readings over 3 days thing. After 4 weeks in the primary or 2-3 weeks in a secondary it has already done everything it's gonna do.

I should deffinately leave it for a second week right?

ya, give it at least another week, and then feel free to bottle it. since it was an extract batch, you can calculate what your OG was supposed to be since its a known amount of sugar. if it was a kit, it'll be within a point or 2 of whatever the target was (given you hit the correct volume).

In my short but illustrious brewing career , I was a madman about checking OG and FG on my first two extract batches, then I read all the stuff abiout how it doesn't matter, so i didn't check on my next 8-9 batches, and, of course, they turned out just fine.

Once I went AG, however, I'm again a madman about OG and FG, because you can't DUPLICATE past recipes without hitting the same OG and FG. I would never tell a newbie that they shouldn't worry about taking gravity readings. I think this is a necessary skill that you need to have. However, once you have the basic skills of gravity reading down, you can certainly take a break from it as long as you are not concerned with trying to replicate batches consistently.

honest question about OG, FG... in a sugar water mixture, your reference is 1 because water is 1. however, when you mix water and ethanol, the density decreases slightly, and thus the reference(if all sugar is gone) would be less than 1. So isn't it possible, if you're getting a 1.005 reading that the actual sugar/water content is closer to 1.008 or more? I mean not that it's a huge difference, and maybe it's all figured in when people do these types of readings. I'm just curious.

Wisski - While that is absolutely true, we don't go to that trouble. When an expected final gravity is supposed to be 1.012, they mean 1.012 in the same way we all see it - (accounting for temperature, of course) - no tricks of .003 for alcohol content, etc.

So, scientifically speaking it is lower than the reading, but for all practical purposes, we use the same scale.

Thanks for all of the replies. Great feeling knowing your not alone. Much appreciation

Hang Glider said:

Wisski - While that is absolutely true, we don't go to that trouble. When an expected final gravity is supposed to be 1.012, they mean 1.012 in the same way we all see it - (accounting for temperature, of course) - no tricks of .003 for alcohol content, etc.

So, scientifically speaking it is lower than the reading, but for all practical purposes, we use the same scale.

Click to expand...

ok that's what i figured, but i see some people saying things like "take your og, and subtract your fg, then do some mathematical magic, and you'll get alcohol content." And that just doesn't seem like sound science to me.

Strangelove said:

Please forgive my noobishness, but after doing a lot of reading on this site I've come to the conclusion that checking SG for a kit beer is probably a waste of time. Hear me out:

1.) A lot of folks recommend 3 weeks plus in the primary. In that time the beer is going to do what its going to do.

2.) Checking SG does nothing to the beer. It doesn't ferment it, finish it, etc.

3.) Every time you check SG you run the risk of infection and waste beer that could have gone in a bottle.

Now if you're not using a kit, probably would be helpful for learning purposes.

I'm I wrong here?

Click to expand...

As a noob who is planning on bottling first batch this weekend, I think it's important to check gravity on kits so A) you know how to do so and B) to alleviate concerns you have about your batch. For example on my latter point, I had absolutely zero activity in the airlock so I got overly worried and posted messages here and all the advice was to check the gravity. And lo and behold, everything was fine.
But once you know how to do it the right way and if there are no concerns about your batch, I think your points are right on.

To be honest I only do an OG and FG readings. My setup is still pretty basic and never have the same efficiencies, sometimes I over shoot my mark (rarely) and many times have to adjust with sugar or extracts.

Like my last batch of "cream O' 4 squash" (might change the title) I just did, I boiled half of the squashes after watching Hair of the dog brewer explain how to get conversion with squash when he makes the Greg. Even though the reading on the hydrometer had a good reading after the mash, my mash was a little high (boiled and roasted squashes actually made the temp rise) So I mashed at 160 and so a lot of the sweetness should come through at the end and less fermentable sugars for the yeast. Although I can't really quantify this data easily, my OG and FG will tell atleast a generalized idea of what the end result will be. Since it should theoretically finish slightly higher than usual. So I'm not completely blind.

wisski said:

ok that's what i figured, but i see some people saying things like "take your og, and subtract your fg, then do some mathematical magic, and you'll get alcohol content." And that just doesn't seem like sound science to me.

Click to expand...

okay, as far as that goes, yes...there is a calculation.

the first calculator on this site does the math when you plug in the hydrometer readings.

as you get more advanced, you might want to check out Beersmith 2.0.
Good price for great software.