Help: Hydrometer Reading

Ok so I a new brewer and haven't been paying much attention to hydrometer readings until I started reading some threads on here. My dilemma:
I brewed a batch (5 gallons) 5 days ago and completely ignored the OG when I sealed the fermenter bucket. I opened today to dry hop and decided to take a reading. It was about 1.060. The recipe I used said the OG should be 1.065, however I tweaked the recipe slightly. I've read that my FG should have dropped 25% from what my OG reading was. I'm very concerned nothing has happened. I had a lot of froth when I added the yeast and moved in from bucket back and forth to aerate. Here's my ingredients.

1 lb crystal 40
9.9 lbs of LME
5 oz hops

Do I just have no understanding on how to read a hydrometer or if what I said is accurate, should I be concerned? Because basically I think it's moved from 1.065 to 1.060. Thanks so much.

BeerSmith says your OG should be 1.072! How "slightly" did you tweak this recipe? After 5 days of fermentation, 1.065 doesn't sound unusual.

Don't forget if your had lag time, which can be as much as three days, your beer has actually only been fermenting conceivabley for 2 days. So yeah if the captain's calculation is right, a 12 point drop in a couple days is nothing to panic about.

The original recipe called for 9.3 lbs of LME. So I guess it makes sense my actual OG would be a little higher than 1.065. Please tell me if my logic is flawed (which I think it very well maye be), I was just going to go about my merry way after 7 days and automatically transfer to my 2nd fermenter because that's what I have heard (loosely) one should do at that point in time. What kind of FG reading should I be expecting, in a perfect world of course, before I transfer to the secondary? Thanks for your help.

Your FG (when the beer is completely fermented) should most likely go below 1.020, maybe as low as 1.014 or lower just gauging by the 'typical' for LME; it'll depends on the yeast and the qualities of the LME.

Whether you actually transfer to a secondary fermenter is up to you. Many don't use a secondary and instead let the beer ride in the primary for at least 3 weeks, then bottle or keg it (assuming fermentation has been done a while).

BeerSmith says your FG shoudl be around 1.018.

What's the math behind that? Was it simply 75% of 0.072

Deskjockey894 said:

What's the math behind that? Was it simply 75% of 0.072

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depends on your yeast strain and your fermentation temperature. 75% is pretty average but i have over attenuated as high as 88%. as long as youre around the 75% mark and your gravity doesnt change for 3 or 4 days you should be alright.

Thanks guys, appreciate the help, talking me down from the ledge.

I think your OG should have been 1.075 with those ingredients.

After 5 days it's only 1.060. Unlike other's who are trying to be nice, I think something is wrong.

What yeast, what temperature?

If the gravity is 1.060 it would indicate you have some activity from the yeast, but it is very sluggish. Either you way underpitched, killed most of the yeast off (added at too high temp, or rehydrated at too high temp), or you are fermenting too cold.

Check the yeast capability (temperature wise). Google it. If that's not the problem, I would suggest re-pitching. NOTE: I have found in basements, wort temperature takes on the temperature of the concrete floor rather than the air temperature, and that can be 5 or more degrees lower.

I used a smack pack of Wyeast American Ale II 1272. It lists attentuation at 72-76% and temperature range from 60-72 F.

It's about 6 1/2 days since I pitched my yeast and now I'm getting a reading of about 1.034 and the temperature is about 61 F with lots of krausen on top (the airlock is bubbling about once every 5 seconds if that means anything). Sadly I was out of town right after I pitched the yeast last sunday so I have no idea when I started getting bubbles until I looked at it 5 days later on friday.

Sadly (again), I may have pitched the yeast before the wort was cooled. What I typically do is put the wort in a small ice bath and then afterwards I pour into my bucket and add 2 more gallons of refrigerated water. As I think back, I'm not confidant that I didn't pitch the yeast first before I added the cool water, which brought the temperature down to 65 F within 2-3 minutes later. If I have screwed up, was the yeast shocked and dead in the short time before I added the cool water?

It's fermenting. You are fine. Give it at least another week or preferably 2.

Calder said:

I think your OG should have been 1.075 with those ingredients.

After 5 days it's only 1.060. Unlike other's who are trying to be nice, I think something is wrong.

What yeast, what temperature?

If the gravity is 1.060 it would indicate you have some activity from the yeast, but it is very sluggish. Either you way underpitched, killed most of the yeast off (added at too high temp, or re-hydrated at too high temp), or you are fermenting too cold.

Check the yeast capability (temperature wise). Google it. If that's not the problem, I would suggest re-pitching. NOTE: I have found in basements, wort temperature takes on the temperature of the concrete floor rather than the air temperature, and that can be 5 or more degrees lower.

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I think this is a bit premature, I have had several non-starter smack packs take 3 days to start up, the OG of around 1.075 and no starter made would have a slow start while the yeast multiply, 2 days of actual fermentation would put the beer to where it is at currently, and is still dropping, there is nothing going on here but normal fermentation.

Those who posted giving advice to RDWHAHB are spot on, no need to panic the OP.

I do agree that the carboy can drop to the floor temp as opposed to the air temp, that is something that many may not take into account, and is a very good bit of advice.
Maybe put the carboy up on a table or at least up on some 2x4s to insulate it from the cold floor.

Sounds like you had a slow start to a very normal fermentation. This was probably due to underpitching yeast, and the yeast taking several days to build up their numbers to start fermentation. My advice is to check out http://www.mrmalty.com/

There is information about yeast starters there; the purpose of a yeast starter is to increase the number of really healthy yeast that you pitch into your brew so it produces the best product possible.

For a comparison with your batch where you pitched just the smack pack... on Thursday night last week I made a 1.5 quart starter for a special bitter I was going to brew on Saturday (yesterday). The starter had fermented out by Friday night, and on Saturday after brewing I decanted the clear liquid off the starter and pitched the yeast on a 1.040 brew. The airlock started bubbling really slowly about 6 hours later. I just took a gravity reading an hour ago, and it is at 1.015 (almost to the FG). It has only been 30 hours of fermentation. It's really typical for me when I pitch a proper starter to have fermentation start within 4 to 12 hours and fermentation starting to slow within 3 days of pitching the yeast. (edit: ales only, and in the 65 to 70F range)

Thanks for the link Frodo. Based on the calculator, I should have pitched 2.7 packets of the yeast without a starter or 1 with a starter. Aside from the longer time, are there any negative effects on the beer from underpitching?

And based on my OG, the calculator said I need to use 0.95 gallons for my starter, which would require almost 12 oz of DME. If I were to make this starter, would adding this much more DME to my wort have any noticeable effect on the taste of the beer?

There are other negative effects from underpitching beside a longer amount of time, but honestly I can not tell you exactly what they are offhand. I can tell you the yeast will be "stressed" and the beer will not taste as good as when you do pitch the right amount. For my first few batches I didn't realize that I was underpitching by just using one pack of liquid yeast, and I remember the beers being decent but often having an underlying taste that I can not describe (solventy doesn't seem to fit but along those lines); however I think some of those tastes were a result of higher than ideal fermentation temps (fermentation temps are probably even more important than pitching the right amount of yeast). Fermentation will take hold much faster with the proper amount of yeast and proper aeration of the wort (very important as well), so it gives any bacteria less time to take hold and spoil your brew - that's a big plus I think. So making starters is fun anyway (it's like brewing a tiny little batch and smells great when you're boiling, so why not?) and I see no reason not to make them if it's going to make the beer ferment quicker and better.

For wort in the OG 1.070 range a 0.95 gallon starter sounds about right, being a moderately high gravity brew. I prefer not to pitch the whole starter into the wort myself (even for smaller starters like 1 to 2 quarts) - I like to wait until the starter is starting to clear and there is a decent yeast layer on the bottom of the starter (if you have time putting it in the fridge for a day or two after it's done will help the yeast flocculate out), then pour most of the clear liquid off ("decant"), then shake the yeast into suspension with the remaining liquid and pitch into the wort. You don't have to leave a whole lot of liquid but there has to be enough to get the yeast shaken off the bottom of the starter. You can pitch the whole starter, but it's often pretty nasty tasting (ideally you'll be aerating it throughout the fermentation of the starter, so it'll be highly oxidized and will taste nasty) so I prefer to wait til the yeast is flocculated and decant the clearish liquid off the starter.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: Note that a starter is recommended for liquid yeast only. Dry yeast should only be rehydrated, and the dry yeast packets (11 grams) have much more yeast in them already than the liquid packages. Unless it's a really high gravity brew usually one packet of dry yeast is recommended. Dry yeast is much cheaper and easier to use than liquid but is considered inferior.