Another taking FG question

[zookeeny]

So I’m one week into the 14-day fermentation process (according to my instructions) for my first brew attempt (Northern Brewer starter kit - Block Party Amber), and since I haven’t seen any bubbling for a couple of days decided to take a sample and measure the current F.G. I read the previous thread about measuring, and that answered a few of my questions, but I have couple of others to add:

• The beer is very cloudy… so much so that I can barely see the gravity tester in the testing vial. Is that normal?
• When I took the sample from the spigot, it never occurred to me that the airlock would work in reverse to allow additional air in. Is this a problem?
• Someone had mentioned that it was critical to sanitize the spigot after taking a sample. Why is that? If I sanitize just before bottling is that not sufficient?

FWIW my current F.G. Is 1.014, but I know now that my initial O.G. measurement was probably inaccurate, so don’t know how useful that is. Also, as mentioned in another thread, I had a LOT of trouble getting the wort to the boiling point because the thin kettle bottle warped while heating, and failed to maintain contact with my glass-top stove surface. If the wort was at 200 degrees instead of 212, would that cause any problems? Thanks!

 

[kartracer2]

@zookeeny Welcome to the hobby!
While "active" fermentation may be done there are still important things going on. A cloudy test sample is common at this point and a sure sign that your beer needs more time alone, let it "sleep" some more. You should notice your brew start to clear soon and a layer of "stuff" gather on the bottom of the fermenter. Trust me, the hardest thing to do right now is to just let it sit there but it is what it needs. Give it another week before testing again it's the right thing to do.
Air lock suck back,,,been there, done that. You will probably be OK just refill it and not worry. (and not let it happen again LOL)
It is important to keep every thing clean and as sanitary as possible. While taking a sample is not like draining the fermenter at packaging time, it's a good habit to get in to. (p.s., never return the test sample back into the fermenter after testing)
Don't be afraid to ask any more questions, somebody here will help.
Cheers,
Joel B.

 

[zookeeny]

Trust me, the hardest thing to do right now is to just let it sit there but it is what it needs. Give it another week before testing again it's the right thing to do.

Thanks Joel for the advice! Like the previous poster I assumed that when the bubbling stopped the magic was complete. I will let it sit another week.

One additional question: on bottling day, should I discard the first pint or so from the spigot to avoid getting the "stuff" you referred to into the bottles? Or is it heavy enough that it won't enter the spigot at all?

 

[kartracer2]

Discard? blasphemy! (LOL)
It kind of depends on how you plan on priming your beer.
Me, I batch prime, draining the beer into a bottling bucket and mix in the priming solution and fill the bottles then cap. If I get a little gunk from the fermenter it disperses so no one bottle gets a "glop" of junk.
Others just put a dose of sugar into each bottle, fill from the fermenter and cap. I could see some bottles getting more sediment than others a possibility. (probability?)
There is no "right way" although many will argue for their favorite method.
I will add that the longer you wait now the clearer your beer will be going into the bottling phase. That layer on the bottom will become more compacted the longer you wait, thusly harder to stir up. Also different yeasts will settle out (flocculate) differently, some yeast cakes stay a bit fluffy and others get quite firm.
Hope this helps and not confuse you, lots of things to deal with the first time or two, don't worry, it's natural.
Cheers,
Joel B.

 

[RM-MN]

The beer is very cloudy… so much so that I can barely see the gravity tester in the testing vial. Is that normal?

Your beer just finished (probably finished, fermentation goes pretty fast) and your beer has a lot of material that is nearly the same density as the beer itself. It takes time for this material to settle out. That's one reason we suggest you leave your beer in the fermenter for 2 weeks or more. The longer you leave it the less suspended material you get into the bottles. I like to let my beers have 3 weeks but sometimes the supply is low and I bottle sooner to get beer to drink, knowing that I will have more material in the bottles.

When I took the sample from the spigot, it never occurred to me that the airlock would work in reverse to allow additional air in. Is this a problem?

Certain beers are quite susceptible to oxidation. Hop aromas will be the first to be affected. Your beer won't normally have a lot of hop aroma (like a hazy IPA) so it isn't anything to worry about, especially since you only got a little bit of air in the fermenter.

Someone had mentioned that it was critical to sanitize the spigot after taking a sample. Why is that? If I sanitize just before bottling is that not sufficient?

Beer can be attacked by bacteria and you want to avoid that. Cleaning and then sanitizing the spigot right away will prevent the bacteria from getting a start in the spigot.

 

[redrocker652002]

Greetings, I have the same NB setup as you I believe. The "stuff" you have in your test tube is ok. I let it settle a bit before I actually do the test. Depending on how you did what you did, settlement on the bottom of the bucket is ok. Usually it is spent yeast and other stuff. In all my fermentings, the settlement has never gone above the spigot. Gotten close, but not above. LOL. Like was mentioned before, let it sit. Once it all settles, you should have a fairly clear beer going into your bottles. You will still have a small amount of sediment in the bottles as well. Don't freak out on that either. I package my beer in bottles after about 2 weeks after I start fermentation. Also, I put the bucket on the counter and leave it sit for at least a couple of hours before I start bottling. When you move the bucket you stir up all the sediment and it takes a bit to settle back down. I use a gravity method when filling my bottles. The bucket goes on the counter and the bottles on the door of the open dishwasher. Make sure you sanitize the tube and the bottle filler before you start. The bottle filler in the kit, while it looks pretty cheap works really well. I just kinda look in the open end of the bottle while it is filling to see it getting close then I ease up on the filler. It tends to let a small amount of beer go before it closes all the way, so that "tops it off". You should have a small amount of head space in the bottle, once you pull the bottle filler out. Leave that, it is supposed to be that way. I fill about 12 bottles at a time and cap them. I have gotten about 40 to 44 bottles out of a bucket, but your results may vary. Any spillage of the beer when filling goes on the inside of the dishwasher and will be cleaned up when my wife runs it. The bottles then go back in the closet for a week or so to settle and carb up. Once the week or so is over I set one or two in the fridge and then check them the next day to see if they are ready. The one piece of advice I was given is "be patient". And believe me, that is not a virtue I have LOL. Keep at it, and you will find your groove. Rock On!!!!!!

 

[zookeeny]

Beer can be attacked by bacteria and you want to avoid that. Cleaning and then sanitizing the spigot right away will prevent the bacteria from getting a start in the spigot.

Thanks RM-MN, that makes sense. Just curious - are these bacterial infections potentially dangerous (i.e., send you to the hospital) or just irritating (i.e., ruin a batch of beer)?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

If the wort was at 200 degrees instead of 212, would that cause any problems?

There will be some reduction in the amount of bitterness that was extracted from the hops.

Block Party Amber has a single (60 min) addition of Willamette - so it's not a hop forward beer.

The beer will likely turn out fine.

 

[zookeeny]

In all my fermentings, the settlement has never gone above the spigot. Gotten close, but not above. LOL.

Thanks for the advice! I'm just planning to follow the instructions that came with the starter kit, so I will be doing the same approach you're using - primer in the bottling bucket on the floor, fermentation bucket up on the counter. The instructions don't mention waiting for the detritus to settle after moving the fermentation bucket, so I will include that step. The dishwasher idea is quite clever... if only I had one.

 

[zookeeny]

There will be some reduction in the amount of bitterness that was extracted from the hops.

Block Party Amber has a single (60 min) addition of Willamette - so it's not a hop forward beer.

The beer will likely turn out fine.

Ah, ok, so the boiling process is just to extract the flavor from the hops, not to sanitize or anything like that. Good to know!

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks RM-MN, that makes sense. Just curious - are these bacterial infections potentially dangerous (i.e., send you to the hospital) or just irritating (i.e., ruin a batch of beer)?

Impossible to tell what can grow in the spigot. The beer itself is safe, nothing that can harm you can survive in beer but...when you are counting on 5 gallons of beer and instead get 5 gallons of malt vinegar, it is a little disheartening. Cleaning the spigot is simple and should be done before and after you dispense beer from it.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Ah, ok, so the boiling process is just to extract the flavor from the hops, not to sanitize or anything like that. Good to know!

Boiling is important for both sanitizing the wort AND extracting bittering flavors from the hops.

As for worrying about infections being dangerous, I would say just annoying, because they will typically ruin a batch, and you're only going to get seriously ill if you somehow convince yourself to just power thru and consume quite a bit of of something that WILL look nasty, smell nasty, and taste nasty.

 

[jschein]

Wort does not need to be sanitized. Pasteurization is all that is needed, in my opinion and experience. Although some prehopped extract instructions say to just add hot tap water., not my thing. Boiling wort will create a hot break which separates the proteins.
Hop utilization increases/decreases by time and temperature. Hop utilization is about 50% at 194F.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

All the advice above is good. Mine would be to use the bucket without a spigot as your fermenter, and the one with the spigot as your bottling bucket. Get yourself two things, a thief, and an auto siphon.

The thief is a plastic tube with a gravity valve at the bottom. After you sanitize it, dip it into the beer, let it fill, then pull out and drop your hydrometer into it to take your reading. After you get your reading, put the valve on the bottom of a glass to drain the thief, and taste your beer.

Use the auto siphon to drain the fermenter into the sanitized bottling bucket with the priming sugar already in it. Then use the spigot to gravity fill the bottles. It helps if you have a bottling wand, which I believe your kit came with. That way you have an easy way to fill your bottles. This method does introduce oxygen into your finished beer, but if you drink them quick enough, the oxidation will be minimal.

I like the dishwasher door idea, that's brilliant.

 

[hotbeer]

I assumed that when the bubbling stopped the magic was complete.

That's a common misconception. Actually it's two misconceptions. Bubbles are only a indicator that fermentation might be taking place. But a beer might bubble after fermentation is over. Such as it does when poured in your glass. There are bubbles there, but the beer is not fermenting. So to in the FV it might bubble for other reasons besides fermentation. Temperature and atmospheric pressure changes being a part of that picture.

The other really big misconception is that beer needs to be removed from the FV as soon as it if done fermenting. And that is not true as yeast don't just stop working when they've made all the alcohol they can. Off flavors that get created during fermentation need a chance to gas off or be converted back to something more desirable.

Fermentation is usually over and done with in a very short time. Four days or less for the last dozen batches I've done since getting a raptPill and knowing what the beer's specific gravity is in the FV constantly. But still it needs time to clean up, clear up and adjust those off flavors and maybe take some of the harshness off that ethanol it created.

Even two full weeks is sometimes not enough to allow that to happen and many times 3 weeks is the norm. Sometimes I've gone 5 to 6 weeks in the FV and wound up with some of my favorite tasting, smelling and sparkly clean when held up to the light, beer.

 

[Ramjet]

For bottling without the dishwasher I used an old dish pan and set the bottle in there before filling. Also set the dish pan on an old towel.