Fermentation times for an ale

[RidingDonkeys]

I just did my second batch last week. I did a West Coast Blonde extract kit from Homebrew Heaven. Everything went great, but I got an initial gravity reading of 1.090 at 73 degrees. That seems a bit high to me. But fermentation went great: fast and furious.

Now, fast forward a week later and I've got almost no action going on in the primary fermenter. After seeing the need for a secondary fermentation debunked on here, I've decided to leave it in the primary. I'm getting a bubble about every three minutes now.

That seems a bit too fast to settle down. Am I overthinking this?

 

[hoppymonkey]

What's the recipe for that beer? regardless you should leave that beer alone for at least a couple months if the gravity is really that high. The only way to really tell the end of fermentation is through gravity readings.

 

[Stankonia]

Leave it another 2 weeks or so. Even after fermentation appears to be done; extra time on the yeast will help clean up and finish the beer. I leave all mine in primary for 3 weeks.

But, that OG seems high for a blonde ale..I would consider checking what the gravity is currently at..at least to put your mind at ease if you're worried about a stuck fermentation.

Not trying to go off topic, but what OG did the kit tell you to expect? Was it a partial boil or full boil?

 

[BrewKnurd]

I had a russian imperial stout go from 1.100 to 1.030 in just over 3 days. So yes, its very possible for your fermentation to be done in a week. The vast majority of ales are done fermenting in 3-4 days. As other's have stated, leaving it longer than just achieving final gravity is a good idea. There is plenty of disagreement about how long after reaching final gravity is best.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

The predicted original gravity reading from the kit was 1.038 - 1.054. I did do a partial boil, but I took my reading after I topped it off with water in the primary fermenter. The kit says the final reading should be about 1.008 - 1.013.

So what I'm thinking is that I should take a reading now and again in a few days to see where I'm at.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

So I opened the valve to take a sample. I was excited to find that the beer smelled wonderful, and the gravity reading was low. 1.011 is where I'm at now.

This blonde didn't come from Vogue, it obviously came from Muscle Fitness.

 

[unionrdr]

Wait 2 days & check it again. If the numbers match,you can bottle. But I usually wait 3-7 more days to give it time to settle out clear or only slightly misty. Then bottle. Less dregs in the bottles that way.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

I finally got it settled out at 1.010 and bottled today. This was my first time using a bucket with a spiggot, so I hooked the bottling hose up to the spiggot and fired away. Looked a bit cloudy but tasted like gold.

 

[BrewKnurd]

I finally got it settled out at 1.010 and bottled today. This was my first time using a bucket with a spiggot, so I hooked the bottling hose up to the spiggot and fired away. Looked a bit cloudy but tasted like gold.

Using carbonation tabs, then?

I would recommend transferring to a bottling bucket regardless of if your primary has a spigot.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

Yep, I had a pack of brewer's best carb tabs around so I figured I would give them a shot. I need more buckets. I wanted to bottle on Friday and brew a new batch on Sunday, but the wife insisted I wait to bottle so she could help. I succumbed to doe eyes, and we brewed yesterday. After finishing up, I started getting ready to bottle and realized that I had no more buckets. DOH! So that is what spurred bottling straight from the primary.

 

[Jayhem]

So I guess you made an error when you originally checked the OG as 1.090. I wonder what it actually was. My current beer up next for bottling is an Imperial Blonde Ale that had an OG of 1.071. It's down to 1.016 after 14 days but I'm sure it was done fermenting after 1 week.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

I'm sure that OG measurement was accurate. I took it several times, and took temp readings with each measurement. The number was so high that I just kept measuring thinking something was wrong. I've even put another hygrometer side by side with mine to check the instrument.

I'm several beers into brewing and I've found that my OG is consistently higher than predicted for extract kits. I'm anxious to get out of the kits, but right now I'm using them as somewhat of a baseline to figure out how my OG's are so big.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,it's either less water or high efficiency caising the higher OG's. Mine are a couple points higher sometimes. I figured I just got everything really well mixed at testing time.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I'm sure that OG measurement was accurate. I took it several times, and took temp readings with each measurement. The number was so high that I just kept measuring thinking something was wrong. I've even put another hygrometer side by side with mine to check the instrument.

I'm several beers into brewing and I've found that my OG is consistently higher than predicted for extract kits. I'm anxious to get out of the kits, but right now I'm using them as somewhat of a baseline to figure out how my OG's are so big.

Well,it's either less water or high efficiency caising the higher OG's. Mine are a couple points higher sometimes. I figured I just got everything really well mixed at testing time.

was it an extract kit? cuz you really don't play around with efficiency with extracts, efficiency is a mash thing, it's how much starch is converted to sugar in the mash. you'll get 98-100% efficiency in extract beers because the mash is already done when making the extract.

if your OG is high when using extracts, you either didn't top up with enough water, or didn't mix in the tops off water thoroughly. (although the latter usually results in low OG readings.)

 

[unionrdr]

I had to go back & look at the 1st post again. Musta had the wrong one in my head. So many posts,so little nurons...
But that's the rub,I top off to the right mark,strain,stir,etc & can still go a couple points higher sometimes. But this one sounds like too little top off. Lacking that,something else had to be added being all extract.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I had to go back & look at the 1st post again. Musta had the wrong one in my head. So many posts,so little nurons...
But that's the rub,I top off to the right mark,strain,stir,etc & can still go a couple points higher sometimes. But this one sounds like too little top off. Lacking that,something else had to be added being all extract.

yep, either his OG reading was way off, or he used way to little top off water. those are the only ways you can miss OG on an extract brew if you add all the extract.

OP, did you correct the OG reading for temp?

 

[RidingDonkeys]

A normal batch yields me 52 12oz bottles. This batch only yielded 47, so I must have been about a half gallon off on the topping. I'll chalk that up to my own idiocy.

Can a half gallon make a .040 difference in readings?

I always take a temperature measurement with my gravity measurements. I generally use the floating thermometer and an infared, ensuring that they are within one degree.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

A normal batch yields me 52 12oz bottles. This batch only yielded 47, so I must have been about a half gallon off on the topping. I'll chalk that up to my own idiocy.

Can a half gallon make a .040 difference in readings?

I always take a temperature measurement with my gravity measurements. I generally use the floating thermometer and an infared, ensuring that they are within one degree.

i don't think the half gallon would account for 40 gravity points, but it would definitely push your OG up there.
i have my carboys marked at the 4,5,and 6 gal marks. i used measured gals of water, filled it up and marked with a sharpie. every few batches i have to fill in the lines as they start to fade, but i find them very helpful when filling my fermenters, even if i'm doing a full boil with no topping off.

 

[BrewKnurd]

Can a half gallon make a .040 difference in readings?

Not unless you were making gallon batches. i.e. if you were targeting a gallon of 1.045 wort, and were a half gallon off, then yes, that could lead to you ending up in the 1.090 range. but on a 5 gallon batch, half a gallon is 10% of your volume, so your gravity is only going to be off by around 10% based on difference in volume (its not exactly the same percentage, because volume is in the denominaor of SG calcs and yadda yadda yadda but its darn close if you're 10% off or less).

Are you sure you didn't read the brix/plato scale? a 9 there would be around 1.036.

How much extract was in the recipe?

 

[RM-MN]

SMy current beer up next for bottling is an Imperial Blonde Ale that had an OG of 1.071. It's down to 1.016 after 14 days but I'm sure it was done fermenting after 1 week.

I'm even more certain that is wasn't done fermenting after a week. The fast part where it is putting out CO2 and making alcohol might have been over but the yeast do a lot more that takes more time.
given time to finish the job they convert acetaldehyde that was produced in that fast part to alcohol too but that process goes much slower and produces no CO2 so you don't see it happening. There are other chemicals that are consumed during that phase too, ones that give off flavors if the yeast don't have time to take care of and give us "green beer" in the bottles.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

Are you sure you didn't read the brix/plato scale? a 9 there would be around 1.036.

How much extract was in the recipe?

Definitely didn't read the wrong scale. Wifey was pretty shocked at the number too and verified to make sure I wasn't reading the wrong scale. The tasting at bottling has me fairly convinced, this beer has some serious alcohol.

I'm going to look at the recipe when I get home and report back on that.

 

[Sacreddog717]

Did you take your sample from the spigot? If so the thicker wort would be on the bottom if not fully mixed with the top off water.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

Nope, I used the thief since the bucket was on the floor.

 

[BrewKnurd]

I'm going to look at the recipe when I get home and report back on that.

btw, the reason there are so many questions about how the measurement was taken is that you would have to add something like 13 pounds of extract in a give gallon batch to get a 1.090 og.

 

[RidingDonkeys]

btw, the reason there are so many questions about how the measurement was taken is that you would have to add something like 13 pounds of extract in a give gallon batch to get a 1.090 og.

Understood. That's why I asked in the first place. This OG makes no sense to me.

 

[BrewKnurd]

Understood. That's why I asked in the first place. This OG makes no sense to me.

Best advice I can give if you're confident on how you sampled and how you read the hydrometer is checking your hydrometer against distilled water and solutions you mix up to be 1.050 and 1.100.

As for trying to make sense of the og, don't. Because if you didn't add that much sugar, you simply did not have that og, there was just some sort of measurement issue somewhere. :-D

 

[AdamPag]

umm, .09 is wicked high for a blonde, whats the recipe? in any case, you cant see if its settled in the bucket thats why we wait 3 weeks. My belgian pale started at .06 with a wild and crazy ferment on saturday and just today is the 1st 1/4 of the carboy beginning to clear. I dont check gravity usually for alteast 14 days. you're usually safe there