Gravity Question

Hello, all. Just got back into homebrewing (its been over 20 years since I was in undergrad). Its nice to see there is alot more info (and interest) in this than there was 20 years ago. In fact, no offense to Al Gore, but I suspect this is why the internet was invented in the first place.

No interest in all-grain or partial-mash yet. I figured I'd start out "easy". One of the other nice things in the last 20 years is the proliferation of ales. I particularly like the really 'floral' IPAs (to me, the paragon of this style would be Bell's Two-Hearted from just down the road from me in Kalamazoo). So I figured to start out I'd make a light ale (but more reddish in color) with a nice hoppy finish. Just by luck, I chose Cascade hop pellets, which seem to be spot-on since I was infatuated simply by their smell coming out of the packet.

I have a 5 gal glass carboy as a fermenter (primary only right now). Partial boil.

Here's my recipe:

Steeping:
1/4 cup of roasted barley (forgot to crush)
Boil (60 min):
3.3 lbs. Briess Sparkling Amber Liquid Malt Extract
2 lbs. Briess Sparkling Amber Dried Malt Extract
16 oz. corn SYRUP (vanilla and all... I know, I know... I bought it before I
remembered the difference between corn syrup and corn sugar... but I
figured it would be less of an issue since I was boiling it with the wort)
boiling hops: (pellets) 1 oz cluster (7.3 alpha) + 1oz cascade (said 3.4
alpha only?)
Last 10 min: another 1 oz cascade (+ a Whirlfloc pellet)
Right before straining into carboy: a 3rd packet of 1 oz cascade
Yeast: dry Safale US-05

Its been in the fermenter for 2 weeks now, and still kicks a CO2 out every so often but looks to be finally winding down. The bubbles smell pretty hoppy, which is fine by me. I am planning on moving it into the basement to lower the temp and let it mellow for up to another week before bottling. BTW - this is looking like it may have a darker color that what I was aiming for, but thats also okay.

My question is.... my original gravity read at 1.028 which seems low to me. I have pretty close to 6 lbs. of fermentable sugars, so I figured I was going to be brewing a higher-gravity beer (I had added the corn syrup for the specific purpose of bumping up the EtOH level, after all). I should also mention that I only brought the level up to between 4-4.5 gallons total, so its not even the full five gallons. Plus, there's clearly enough sugar in there to keep it going for over two weeks now. But now I'm worried because I'm starting out so low. Is it going to taste really watery? It seems like from the various recipes that I read that I was going to have enough malt extract for a more substantial beer.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like the extract and top off water didn't get mixed well and your gravity reading had more of the water than the extract.

Yeah you should be around 1.045-1.050 range with that. Those cascade numbers seem low to me too. Beers always look much darker in the carboy than they do in the glass...more light absorption. Don't worry about the bubbling, that really doesn't mean too much, just off gassing, it was probably done in the first 5-7 days.

Times have changed though, don't worry about buying a secondary, no real need for them for most all brews.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I never thought of that... but it totally makes sense (especially in light of the fact that I never stirred it once I had added the wort to the water in the carboy). I had heard some people talk about the coriolis (?) effect. Anyway, I definitely need to buy a long spoon that will fit into the carboy rim.

No need for that. Once you put the wort and top off water in, close off the top and shake until your arms feel like they are going to fall off. That will mix it all together and aerate it which you need to do as well. Then you can take your OG reading and then pitch the yeast.

Agree with the secondary comment above. Very few use it. Even for dry hopping I just drop pellets into a sanitized bag and throw them into my primary. Some do use secondary when racking on top of fruits or the like.

Welcome back! I just moved from Kalamazoo out here to Montana and Two-Hearted is one of my absolute favorite brews. I used to work at Bell's (not as a brewer, I sold stuff to home brewers). Some of the guys that work there put together an excellent recipe for a Two-Hearted clone. Ive got an extract version that will perfectly fit your needs

8# Light DME
.5# Caramel 60l
1oz Centennial 45min
1oz Centennial 30min
3.5oz Centennial Dry Hop (7 days)
California Ale Yeast (White Labs 001)

The guys at the home brewing store at Bell's can help you put this together too! I brewed this one up a few months ago and I'm brewing it again this weekend.

Cheers!

If you are using extract, you really don't even need an OG reading. If you use the correct amount of water, your OG will match the recipe.

If you really like floral IPAs, grab 3oz of cascade or centennial hops and dryhop for the last week. (Bells 2 hearted is 100% centennial)


For color, LME darkens as it boils. Amber starts off darker, so I would expect and amber beer rather than something in the pale range. If you want something lighter, you can start with light extract and then just steep a half pound of crystal malt in the water before boiling. If you add just a bit of the LME at the start and save the rest to add for only the last couple minutes of the boil, you'll keep the lighter color.

Thanks fellas.

@h22lude: I think I probably would be able to hoist and shake that carboy since I still am making it to the gym these days, but I would need to take precautions to make sure I have a good dry grip (having the carboy slip on me would pretty much wreck my day, I imagine). But I also just ordered a long spoon mail-order [along with a hydrometer vial... the case mine had came with had spilled, and further vexed me that day], so I'll see which way is easier. As you say, its a good idea anyway since you want the wort aerated at that point.

@a6ladd and billl: Wow, I could have sworn those Cascades were a dead-ringer when I smelled them in the pack. At the same time, I haven't yet encountered the Centennial though. Aren't they like a suped-up (e.g. higher-alpha) Cascade anyway? Thanks for the recipe - I'll definitely be getting to that one.

And I'm glad to hear you guys confirm that you can get good results from a single fermenter. Makes my life easier. For my next one, though, I am going to try a Hefeweizen with actual bananas, so I AM thinking about trying out a secondary setup since I'm going with fruit. We have a home water cooler and I saved one of the plastic (#7) 5-gallon bottles, and found some stoppers at the local supply place to fit it. I figure I'll use that as the primary and the glass carboy as the secondary. I'm thinking of using fresh -> frozen bananas pureed with '99 Bananas' liquor to kill the undesirables, then adding it to the primary after the initial free-for-all dies down. Then do a secondary later, mainly to try and minimize eventual floaters/globules in my bottles.

Actually, one of the stoppers I bought was drilled so I also bought some tubing for that in case I wanted to do a 'blow-off' setup. I haven't yet decided whether I want to try it that way or else keep it to 4-4.5 gallons like I did with my first batch (which has been in the primary now for over two weeks and is still kicking out CO2).

Aha. That makes sense.

So IDEALLY I should buy a 6.5gal glass carboy for the primary and use the 5gal glass as the secondary.

I'd say keep it down to 4 gallons if you are going to use the #7 bottle as your primary. Things will get pretty hairy if you filled it up and tried to ferment in it. What I would recommend is investing in one of these:

https://bellsbeer.com/store/products/Ale-Pail-%2d-6.5-Gallon-Primary-Fermenting-Bucket.html

I do all of my primary fermentations in the Ale Pail. Ive got 2 going at home right now. And for right around $12 why not buy a couple?

Its a beautiful thing. :rockin:

Two things:

#1 - You don't have to pick up the carboy to shake it (when you are mixing in the top-off water and aerating). You can just lean it a bit to the side so it is standing on edge, then shake it back and forth while it is still on the floor. As long as you aren't on a concrete floor, that should be a relatively safe technique. Just a quick search on this forum can show you some pretty graphic pictures of what can happen if you drop/break a glass carboy. No reason to tempt fate by picking it up to shake it while it is full.

#2 - If you are a fan of Bell's Two Hearted, here is a kit that can make things easy for you. It is called Dead Ringer. I just bottled a batch of this and the taste I took before adding the priming sugar was right on. The recipe is slightly different than what was posted earlier in this thread. You could brew a batch from each recipe and decide for yourself which is closer to the original.