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GloHoppa

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I finally moved back to school and used this past Sunday and then Monday morning to do some brewing. I did a 5gal batch of the Bass Ale clone kit from Midwest on Sunday evening and an Apfelwein in my Mr. Beer.:ban:

I have been trying to keep a photo log of everything I've been doing in addition to my brew journal so I can keep solid track of everything. You can check em out here.

One question though. I wasn't given a target gravity for my Bass clone, so I have no idea how well I did in the brew process. It also seemed a little high for an initial (1.071 when adjusted for temp) but I'm assuming my target final gravity will prolly be around 1.020 or something but I was wondering is my initial gravity high? and what should I be shooting for as a target?

As far as the Apfelwein I was almost spot on the gravity, 1.065 vs the target of 1.063, the difference was probably attributed to my substitution of brown sugar vs corn sugar (which apparently doesn't exist in NH?:confused:

I just wanted to share with you guys my happiness in completing my first 5gal batch and get your input on my hydrometer questions with the Bass clone!

Thanks guys and gals!
 
Are you sure your wort was well mixed when you took the reading.

Give us a run down of the ingredients, and we can plug it in to come up with an estimated OG.
 
I don't know what the starting gravity should of been, but how did you read your hydrometer? If I hadn't looked at the picture on the instructions with mine from Midwest, I would have read it wrong.

The hydrometer should be read at the upper meniscus. That means you don't read it at the flat level of the liquid but at the top of the point where the liquid kinda hills up around the hydrometer. On my picture it shows the flat level at 1010, but the upper meniscus, where the reading should be taken, at 1000.

Just a thought.

:mug:
 
I mixed it pretty well, and got a pretty good reading on my Apfelwein, but maybe I did accidentally read it at the upper meniscus, in which case D'OH!

Recipe (Taken right off their site):
6 lbs. Light DME
1 lb. British Crystal 50-60°L specialty grains
1 oz. .Target bittering hops
1 oz. Challenger aroma hops
1 tsp. Burton water salts
1 tsp. Irish moss
Munton's 6 gm dry yeast.

I also followed the directions that came with the recipe to a T since it was my first 5gal brew and first real brew outside of Mr. Beer.

Also on a related issue, I got bubbles in the airlock about 3 hours after pitching, and yesterday had real good bubbling (~2-3 a second) but today it has just about slowed/stopped. I assume that's fairly normal, verdad? I just got some nice eager yeast?
 
I believe the Target OG according to Midwest on this one is 1.058, so basically, what BM said. :D I've made this kit before and it turned out great. 1.071 seems extremely high, but I don't think you can really overshoot much using mostly extract. I would assume your sample was heavy on wort and light on top-off water.

I can't picture pulling that much extra sugar from the steeped grains.

All in all, RDWHAHB. :mug:
 
BierMuncher said:
I come up with 1.057 based on 6# of dry extract and 1# of steeped grains.

Any chance you took the reading before topping off to get to 5.5 gallons?

I have a feeling what I did was get a gravity reading before it fully mixed (only did a partial boil) and I prolly also took a reading at the upper meniscus..:insert smiley bouncing head off of wall here:

what should my target final gravity be?


Oh and big john, I have an internship so I can be on all day:ban: :tank:
 
shunoshi said:
I believe the Target OG according to Midwest on this one is 1.058, so basically, what BM said. :D

I was a bit off here. Checked my beer journal and according to Midwest the OG was supposed to be roughly 1.042-1.046 (not sure how accurate that is). Mine ended up at 1.051.

GloHoppa said:
I have a feeling what I did was get a gravity reading before it fully mixed (only did a partial boil) and I prolly also took a reading at the upper meniscus..:insert smiley bouncing head off of wall here:

what should my target final gravity be?


Oh and big john, I have an internship so I can be on all day:ban: :tank:

FG is supposed to land around 1.010-1.012 (again, according to Midwest).
 
GloHoppa said:
I have a feeling what I did was get a gravity reading before it fully mixed (only did a partial boil) and I prolly also took a reading at the upper meniscus..:insert smiley bouncing head off of wall here:

what should my target final gravity be?


Oh and big john, I have an internship so I can be on all day:ban: :tank:

Cheers, sounds like the interns around here. :mug:
 
I just read this on another thread:

malkore said:
partial boil extract batches take at least 10 minutes of constant stirring to become a homogenous mixture..

I think that was my problem, I stirred but nowhere near that thoroughly.

It stopped bubbling a couple days ago after about 40 hours of hardcore airlock activity but I am going to take a grav reading tonight and tomorrow to see if its okay to rack to secondary on sunday (that would be a full week and be spot on on the 1-2-3 method)
 
I got a reading of 1.024 @ 68F Since mine is calibrated @60, its 1.025, but hasn't really fermented in a couple days (no real bubbles) Tastes absolutely delicious though...Should I still plan on racking to secondary on Sunday if I don't get any fermentation or give the pail a light shake to wake the yeast up?

This has been fermenting in a closet at a fairly constant 68F by the way...
 
GloHoppa said:
...or give the pail a light shake to wake the yeast up?

That's the ticket.

I always make sure to rock my fermenters 2-3 days into fermentation, not only to rouse the yeast on the bottom, but to knock down the thick krausen which has "trapped" a lot of yeast up at the top.

Two nights ago, my American Wheat was stuck at 1.015 after five days. There was still a very thick, gummy krausen on top. I gave the buckets a good rocking back and forth and 24 hours later I'm down to 1.008.
 
BierMuncher said:
That's the ticket.

I always make sure to rock my fermenters 2-3 days into fermentation, not only to rouse the yeast on the bottom, but to knock down the thick krausen which has "trapped" a lot of yeast up at the top.

Two nights ago, my American Wheat was stuck at 1.015 after five days. There was still a very thick, gummy krausen on top. I gave the buckets a good rocking back and forth and 24 hours later I'm down to 1.008.

boo ya! thanks for the confirmation:mug:

I should just RDWHAHB but I'm on call for the college rescue until Sunday morning...
 
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