1st brew comments/questions

As the title says, I am 72 hours into my first brew. I am brewing a German Alt. Unfortunately a friend of mine who had a hyrdrometer he was going to let me borrow, had to go out of town unexpectantly. So therefore, I have not been able to take any readings. I steeped some grains, then boiled 6lbs total of extract in 3.5 gallons of water. I cooled, then transfered to primary and pitched my yeast (dry). Started fermenting aout 8 hours later. Within 24 hours I had about 1 inch of foam. (Never more than that, with a 6.8 gallon carboy). By the 48th hour the airlock only had about 1 bubble every 2 minutes and the foam had subsided. I moved to secondary fermenter at that point, and now 24 hours later (72 total) I am getting about 1 bubble every 2.5 minutes.

Does this seem normal? I thought I would get fermentation for about a week total.


Any comments/concerns about the comments above would be apreciated.

Thanks

6lbs of extract in 3.5 gallons of water? Seems like a lot. Did you top it to 5 gallons with cold water? Maybe it was too high a gravity for the yeast. What was your original gravity reading and what is it now? It could be just done.

Sorry, I forgot to mention, but yes, I did top it to 5 gallons total. Unfortunately I was not able to get any initial readings.

I am going to stop by the home brew supply store and pick up a hydrometer tomorrow. What is the best way to get a reading once it is in the secondary fermenter?


Tim

I use a winethief to take a sample and then put it in a test cylinder. You could probably siphon some into a cylinder as well. I wouldn't, personally, put the hydometer in the carboy because if it broke, well, that would be bad...

As long as you're seeing bubbles, it's fermenting. It won't hurt anything to put it into the secondary a little early. As long as you wait for it to stop bubbling before bottling it. I would wait at least another week in secondary, then take a hydrometer reading. If it's where you think it should be, then bottle.

Siphon is the best way to take a reading once you've got it in the carboy.