Specific Gravity, help!

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potosky36

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I am currently brewing my first home-brew. I accidentally forgot to take an original gravity reading before i began fermentation. It has been fermenting for almost ten days. According to the recipe the original gravity should have been between 1.040 and 1.045 (since i never took the initial reading i have no clue if this is what it actually was). For the first 4-6 days the airlock was bubbling almost every 5-15 seconds. The bubbles began to slow to every 30 seconds to 60 seconds in the following days. I took a hydrometer reading on the 8th day and it was about 1.010, i took another reading over a day later and got the same result. the recipe says that the final gravity should be between 1.012 and 1.020. This is causing me to think that my gravity is too low.

What does this actually mean?
Do I have a lower than expected gravity because my initial gravity (which I never took) was probably lower than expected?
What should I do now?

btw the samples i tasted after taking the reading were very good and tasted surprisingly close a finished beer, does this mean its time to bottle?
 
Relax...don't worry...have a homebrew (or commercial in your case).

No big deal on not taking a gravity reading. A lot of us failed to do this for our first few beers. It's really only important if you're trying to duplicate a beer, use brewing software, or determine alcohol strength. When you get into all grain brewing, then it becomes a big deal.

It's VEEEEERY hard to screw up your original gravity when doing extract (I'm assuming you started with extract). As long as you used the right amount of water and boiled for the right amount of time, you should be good.

As for the final gravity... being a few points under isn't a big deal either. All fermentations will act a bit differently, and there's nothing we can do about it other than monitor temps as closely as possible. Yeasts are tricky little things.

I'm actually suprised that you're final gravity was that low, though. Extract beers usually finish a bit higher. Did you adjust the hydrometer reading for the temp of the beer?

Either way...you'll be fine. Check it in another few days, and if it's still the same, go ahead and bottle.

A little tip though.... letting the beer sit for another 2 weeks will do wonders for the final product. Just leave it where it's at and forget about it. I know it's hard with your first beer...but if you have the patience, trust me.
 
The OG from kits are just estimates. That's why they give you a range. Obviously, without knowing your starting point, it's impossible to tell exactly how much alcohol you have in your beer, but it should be a fair assumption that it was close to what the kit said it should be. I would just take a middle number, like 1.042. I am also assuming you did top off the volume to 5 gallons like most kits call for. They can roughly predict FG by previous batches, but every batch will be different and have different attenuation. Being below the predicted FG means nothing.

As far as bottling goes, that's up to you. Time is your friend. If you are happy with the way it tastes now, then go for it, but remember, aging some more might make it even better, but it also might not. I can say that it shouldn't get worse. So when to bottle is kind of up to you. Enjoy!
 
Thanks for the tips. Yes, I used extract and topped the water off to 5 gallons. the only problem i had in the entire process was a slight boil over, not sure if this could have contributed to a lower gravity though. Depending on my mood tomorrow I will either bottle or wait until it reaches the 14 day mark, or maybe even the 21 day mark....I am just impatient since this is my first batch, and I am ready to start the next one asap I am going to go with a partial grain dunkel weizen.
 
Thanks for the tips. Yes, I used extract and topped the water off to 5 gallons. the only problem i had in the entire process was a slight boil over, not sure if this could have contributed to a lower gravity though. Depending on my mood tomorrow I will either bottle or wait until it reaches the 14 day mark, or maybe even the 21 day mark....I am just impatient since this is my first batch, and I am ready to start the next one asap I am going to go with a partial grain dunkel weizen.

Yea, I know what you mean. We all needed to fill our pipeline at one point. It will get easier with exp. The more you do, the easier it will be to wait. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the tips. Yes, I used extract and topped the water off to 5 gallons. the only problem i had in the entire process was a slight boil over, not sure if this could have contributed to a lower gravity though. Depending on my mood tomorrow I will either bottle or wait until it reaches the 14 day mark, or maybe even the 21 day mark....I am just impatient since this is my first batch, and I am ready to start the next one asap I am going to go with a partial grain dunkel weizen.

Technically, a boilover will decrease your OG and hence your FG (as long as you were still making up with water for a set end volume of wort).... but it would have to be a pretty significant boilover for you to be able to measure the impact.
 
Your gravity is what it is, using extract you really can't do much to affect your OG. As far as the lower than expected FG, that is not unusual as most of my beers end up with lower than expected FG's, it just means that your yeast did a little better job of attenuating your beer. For some styles this may be a concern as some might percieve a slightly watery taste since there is less sugar to add to the percieved body, but there is nothing you can do now to change that. As far as bottling that is more of a personal decision. I used to rush my beer to bottles but am now letting them set in primary for a month before bottling and have seen a much better cleaner and clearer beer because of it. Have fun, relax and welcome to your new obsession.
 
hector said:
What do you mean exactly by that ?!

Hector

I'm pretty new but I'm going to take a stab at this. From what I understand brewing with extract is kind of like taking the basic root. Like if you were installing a program on the computer. It comes in a nice little package ready to go. Not much varience possible in that aspect. All grain is like installing a program on advanced. You can customize out however you like. Get your beer exactly how you want them how you want it
 
What do you mean exactly by that ?!

Hector

Simply put, the two things that affect your original gravity are 1) the amount of water and 2) the amount of stuff in the water. What he means when he says you can't affect your gravity much with extract brewing is that if you follow the recipe as far as your final volume of water after any topping off, your gravity will end up where its supposed to.

In all grain brewing, your efficiencies will affect how much sugar etc you get in your wort, and therefore your gravity could be quite different from predicted if you were well off on efficiency. But in extract brewing, as long as you put all of your extract in and use the right amount of water, you will hit the gravity you're supposed to.

of course, if you decide to use more or less water, or if you don't use all of the extract, those things would affect your OG.
 
Are you rdy for it?... Yep... I hope so... Cuz now.......... Your .... Addicted...... Welcome to HB.... Btw...20bucks says u get into kegging after u bottle that 5 gallon batch ;) cheers
 

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