Specific gravity reading 1.000 - help please

I'm new at this and completed brewing an IPA a few days ago. The OG was 1.041 and the yeast seemed to be fermenting normally. I checked the SG yesterday, as the foam had subsided, and the SG was at 1.000 (same as water). The brew smells and tastes fine but the numbers aren't adding up. What should I do? Buy a new hydrometer? Pitch it and start over? Add new yeast?

How long has this been in primary? Starting at 1.041 and finishing at 1.000 would yield a 5.4% ABV brew.

Did you use a kit? If you did, did the directions predict the final gravity?

All that the final gravity of 1.000 means is that the density of the beer is the same as water; that all of the sugars have fermented out.

There is absolutely no reason to repitch yeast or pitch the beer! The yeast did its job! Relax, don't worry, have a home brew (or if you're new to this, a craft brew).

Gravity is a measure of suspended solids in relation to water. Another way to think of it is how thick it is as compared to pure water at roughly room temp.
In a nutshell, beer is sugar ( thicker than water = value greater than 1.000), water( water = 1.000), and alcohol ( thinner than water = value less than 1.000).
When you take a measurement in fermented beer you are measuring the result of all of these things. Therefore it is quite possible to have a 1.000 and have absolutely nothing wrong with anything.
That being said, it is kind of unusual to have a beer that is that close to 1.000 unless you added sugar or other adjunct grains that would ferment compleatly out, or if the wort was very weak to begin with.
Malt extracts and malted grains will usually ferment out to somewhere between 1.020 to around 1.005. Unless it was something unusual. I would think a FG would fall in that range.

Cheers

DOn't forget to correct the reading for the temperature of the beer. Hydrometer's are calibrates to read 1.000 in water at a certain temp. Usually 60*F or 65*F and have a correction factor of something like 0.002ish per 3-5*F. You'll have to look at your hydrometer or the info that came with it to see what the correction factor is for yours.

ps I agree w/ the other posters. Your beer is probably fine. Try not to fret.

DGibb said:

How long has this been in primary? Starting at 1.041 and finishing at 1.000 would yield a 5.4% ABV brew.

Did you use a kit? If you did, did the directions predict the final gravity?

All that the final gravity of 1.000 means is that the density of the beer is the same as water; that all of the sugars have fermented out.

There is absolutely no reason to repitch yeast or pitch the beer! The yeast did its job! Relax, don't worry, have a home brew (or if you're new to this, a craft brew).

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the quick response and great info! I feel a whole lot better about the situation now. It has been in the primary for 4 days now. I used a Cooper's IPA kit and added some additional Cascade hops (2oz) in the form of an 8min boil hop tea. The prediction in the kit stated an initial of 1.042 and Final of 1.006; so I guess we're not that far off. I'll do exactly what you said.....relax for another week or so and then bottle my new brewed IPA.

One more question....I'm planning on doing bottle carbonation, so how long should an IPA be bottled before trying. I was thinking in the neighborhood of about 4 weeks.

Thanks again for the good advice!

Three to four weeks is pretty much the standard amount of time for carbonation to take place. It may happen quicker or slower depending on the beer. I'd give it three weeks and then sample it.

BTW, it is possible to end up with a FG < 1.000. I haven't seen it with a beer yet, but I get it fermenting cider all the time because it completely ferments out all the sugars leaving essentially ethanol mixed with water.

Wcampbell said:

I used a Cooper's IPA kit and added some additional Cascade hops (2oz) in the form of an 8min boil hop tea. The prediction in the kit stated an initial of 1.042 and Final of 1.006;

Click to expand...

Hop tea? How much volume was the kit for ( I'm assuming 5 gal) and how much did you have when your fermenter first filled ?

1.042 is not a big beer at all and If there was any additional water added from the hop tea to the 5 gal volume you probably do have a 1.000 FG beer. Good job.

DGibb said:

All that the final gravity of 1.000 means is that the density of the beer is the same as water; that all of the sugars have fermented out.

Click to expand...

under normal circumstances (no bugs or brett), you will almost never (maybe in a saison) get a gravity of 1.000 in an ale. malt is not made up of 100% fermentable sugar

Brewskii said:

Gravity is a measure of suspended solids in relation to water.

Click to expand...

you mean dissolved. suspended solids have no effect on a hydrometer

Did you try calibrating your hydrometer? Fill up the sample jar (distilled is preferred over tap). Try to get the water right at 60. It should read 1.000. If not, you know how much to adjust your future readings.

I've had beers with added sugar that approach 1.004, but the only thing to go sub 1.000 was the Apfelwein that ended at 0.997. It does sound like your hydrometer might be off .002-.005. I'd check it.

dcp27 said:

under normal circumstances (no bugs or brett), you will almost never (maybe in a saison) get a gravity of 1.000 in an ale. malt is not made up of 100% fermentable sugar

you mean dissolved. suspended solids have no effect on a hydrometer

Click to expand...

OK, dissolved.
As I said earlier, FG less than 1.005 are rare except in certain circumstances ( I mentioned one or two) it would be wrong to think a gravity the same as water means Anything about the fermentability of what made it.
If you had a weaker wort (1.040 was target) and had a healthy yeast, you could easily hit 1.000 with no odd yeast or adjunct.

My .02 TIFWW

im sorry, but this is all wrong.

Brewskii said:

As I said earlier, FG less than 1.005 are rare except in certain circumstances ( I mentioned one or two)

Click to expand...

if you mean adding the hop tea, it wouldnt bring it to 1.000. adding something that is 1.000 will never bring a higher gravity to 1.000. if you meant that theres water, ethanol, and sugar in a finished beer and you could get an uneven mix and skew your reading, thats just wrong.

it would be wrong to think a gravity the same as water means Anything about the fermentability of what made it.

Click to expand...

thats precisely what it is telling you. the higher the attenuation, the higher the fermentabilty of the wort.

If you had a weaker wort (1.040 was target) and had a healthy yeast, you could easily hit 1.000 with no odd yeast or adjunct.

Click to expand...

absolutely not. having a lower OG doesnt remove the fact that a normal wort has unfermentables. if you mashed really low and long, you could get close tho.

Just to add my 3cent , I had a .039 OG down to .002 And my beer taste supper :fro: Wish it would have hit .000

Just wanted to give an update on the final product. The beer turned out perfect! Final ABV of 5.9, great balance of malt and hops for a clean finishing middle of the road pale ale. Actually, it's the best beer i have made so far. Thanks for the advice from everyone!

starsailor said:

BTW, it is possible to end up with a FG < 1.000. I haven't seen it with a beer yet, but I get it fermenting cider all the time because it completely ferments out all the sugars leaving essentially ethanol mixed with water.

Click to expand...

Wooow, thank you for this! Just took a reading of my cider prior to racking it to a couple of demijohns, and it's 1.000 already, 9 days after start fermenting. Now I can't see any bubbles coming out of the airlocks, that's normal, right?