So I did my third batch with borrowed, on hand ingredients plus a few extras. A friend had a 2 month old liquid yeast from "Escarpment Labs" - Irish Ale Yeast which he was not planning on using... so I thought I would use it with some roasted barley and cara 85 I had on hand. I used an Irish Red recipe and modified it.
1 lb of Maris Otter Pale Malt (grain)
1/2 lb of Cara 85 Malt (grain)
1/2 lb of Roasted Barley
3 lbs of Pale DME
3.3 lbs of Light LME
1 lb of Caramelized Table sugar
Escarpment Labs Irish Ale Yeast (2 qt starter - on stir plate for 18 hrs)
45-50 mins grain mash at 145-160 range (dont have the equipment to hold the temperature precisely) - to get a "grain tea"
60 mins boil with 1 oz East Kent Golding (4.7 AA) (~ 3 Gallons)
Whirlpool Hop Addition @170 of Amarillo Hops (12.7 AA)
I had some challenges cooling the wort down... even after leaving it in a snowbank @ 30F for 30 mins - my wort was still hovering around 90+F. I added approx 2 Gallons of RO water to bring the wort to 5 Gallons... this brought my temp down another 10F.
I used a cheap refractometer as I couldnt find my hydrometer. As far as I can read (eyes arent as good as they used to be ) ... the OG was 15 Brix (approx 1.065) - which would be fairly close to the expected value.
I pitched the yeast starter at a wort temp of 80F... ambient temp of yeast was around 68F. Almost within the hour - I had vigorous bubbling in my airlock.... but 24 hrs later there was almost no activity anymore.
After almost 10 days - I finally got around to taking the SG reading using the same refractometer. It is reading approx 9 Brix... I used the refractometer reading calculator with a wort correction factor of 1.040 to get an ABV of approx 5.2%.
My fermenter was sitting in my basement @62F - so I have brought it upstairs with ambient temp @ 68F. So - all good - looks like I am in the range of what an Irish Red should be. BUT - I had expected that my ABV would be around the 6.2% range based on an online calculator.
Question:
- I hear that the refractometer is fairly accurate for OG readings? Is that correct or should there be a Wort Correction Factor applied?
- I had aerated the wort, added yeast nutrients, created a starter etc - so I was expecting fairly healthy yeast... Still - why is my ABV still 1% lower than the expected value?
- Can I expect the SG to drop further over the next week or so?
Thoughts/ advice greatly appreciated - THANKS All !!
1 lb of Maris Otter Pale Malt (grain)
1/2 lb of Cara 85 Malt (grain)
1/2 lb of Roasted Barley
3 lbs of Pale DME
3.3 lbs of Light LME
1 lb of Caramelized Table sugar
Escarpment Labs Irish Ale Yeast (2 qt starter - on stir plate for 18 hrs)
45-50 mins grain mash at 145-160 range (dont have the equipment to hold the temperature precisely) - to get a "grain tea"
60 mins boil with 1 oz East Kent Golding (4.7 AA) (~ 3 Gallons)
Whirlpool Hop Addition @170 of Amarillo Hops (12.7 AA)
I had some challenges cooling the wort down... even after leaving it in a snowbank @ 30F for 30 mins - my wort was still hovering around 90+F. I added approx 2 Gallons of RO water to bring the wort to 5 Gallons... this brought my temp down another 10F.
I used a cheap refractometer as I couldnt find my hydrometer. As far as I can read (eyes arent as good as they used to be ) ... the OG was 15 Brix (approx 1.065) - which would be fairly close to the expected value.
I pitched the yeast starter at a wort temp of 80F... ambient temp of yeast was around 68F. Almost within the hour - I had vigorous bubbling in my airlock.... but 24 hrs later there was almost no activity anymore.
After almost 10 days - I finally got around to taking the SG reading using the same refractometer. It is reading approx 9 Brix... I used the refractometer reading calculator with a wort correction factor of 1.040 to get an ABV of approx 5.2%.
My fermenter was sitting in my basement @62F - so I have brought it upstairs with ambient temp @ 68F. So - all good - looks like I am in the range of what an Irish Red should be. BUT - I had expected that my ABV would be around the 6.2% range based on an online calculator.
Question:
- I hear that the refractometer is fairly accurate for OG readings? Is that correct or should there be a Wort Correction Factor applied?
- I had aerated the wort, added yeast nutrients, created a starter etc - so I was expecting fairly healthy yeast... Still - why is my ABV still 1% lower than the expected value?
- Can I expect the SG to drop further over the next week or so?
Thoughts/ advice greatly appreciated - THANKS All !!