first brew using the beer bug

[brewshki]

I received a beer bug as a graduation present and finally got to use it in a batch of Janet's Brown. I pitched the yeast at 7 p.m. on Saturday and my beer bug is currently reading that it is sitting at about 1.020 with an expected final gravity of 1.016. If this is a correct reading, what I thought I knew about fermentation is way off and may be rooted in my early days of not pitching enough healthy yeast. I am going to take a hydrometer test later to hopefully confirm this reading.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

I keep reminding myself that there are other reasons that just producing alcohol to keep the beer on the yeast, but this is could end up changing the amount of time i keep my beers in the fermenter. I definitely need to read up on these reasons again though!

 

[ChelisHubby]

Please continue to post the progress of the beer bug I am interested in how long it takes to hit final gravity also. I have suspected that I am there in 4 days many times. I still wait 2 weeks on most everything, but the second week there is nothing going on. I understand that the yeast has a clean up phase but I had read that is 2 days or less. I believe that if I am kegging my beer sometimes it could hit the keg in a week.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

A lot of people on here have pretty quick turn arounds for their beer. I've heard many say that they are grain to glass in less than a week. Your beer sounds right on schedule. Wait until your readings stay the same over a few days. Personally, I don't take readings until at least three weeks in the fermentor. This allows ample time for funky flavors to be chewed away by the yeast and then for the yeast to sink to the bottom and the beer to clear up. Don't be surprised if your beer goes lower than 1.016.

 

[brewshki]

A lot of people on here have pretty quick turn arounds for their beer. I've heard many say that they are grain to glass in less than a week. Your beer sounds right on schedule. Wait until your readings stay the same over a few days. Personally, I don't take readings until at least three weeks in the fermentor. This allows ample time for funky flavors to be chewed away by the yeast and then for the yeast to sink to the bottom and the beer to clear up. Don't be surprised if your beer goes lower than 1.016.

I normally don't ever take readings until about 2 weeks, but now I get readings every twenty minutes with my beer bug and I really want to compare it to a hydrometer so I can see its accuracy. The beer will have a week of dry hops, so it will definitely be in there for a while. It is just kinda cool to see it all.

I'm basing the FG assumption on the recipe given in Brewing Classic Styles. I mashed at 154 so it should stay pretty high, but it will be interesting to see.

 

[Buc_Nasty]

I used to leave my beers in the fermenter for 3 weeks back in the days. Then I started taking gravity readings more often and realized that some beers are done fermenting in less than a week sometimes. So now after they're done fermenting I only leave them in the fermenter for a couple of days more. It's like Jamil said, taste the beer, if it's done fermenting and you don't taste any off flavors than its ready.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I'd estimate 85% of my recipes reach FG in 4-5 days.
Perhaps some of those actually have hit FG even earlier but I've never bothered to check.

A cursory Google says the OG of Janet's Brown is in the mid-70 point range with an expected FG of 18 points.
I would be surprised if you're that close to FG in ~43 hours, but a significant over-pitch and warm fermentation temperature might do it.
I'd be checking the gravity with a hydro at this point just to see if the BB is lying...

Cheers!

 

[brewshki]

fwiw, I'd estimate 85% of my recipes reach FG in 4-5 days.
Perhaps some of those actually have hit FG even earlier but I've never bothered to check.

A cursory Google says the OG of Janet's Brown is in the mid-70 point range with an expected FG of 18 points.
I would be surprised if you're that close to FG in ~43 hours, but a significant over-pitch and warm fermentation temperature might do it.
I'd be checking the gravity with a hydro at this point just to see if the BB is lying...

Cheers!

Intersting. The recipe provided in brewing classic styles put Janet's Brown at 1.066 with a finishing at 1.016. Im sure there are different versions out and about nowadays. I am definitely going to take a hydro sample later. Ill make sure to post back here with what I get. Give me a few hours though haha, Im studying for my CPA and am trying to use the chance to do a hydro reading as a nice little break during my day.

 

[brewshki]

fwiw, I'd estimate 85% of my recipes reach FG in 4-5 days.
Perhaps some of those actually have hit FG even earlier but I've never bothered to check.

A cursory Google says the OG of Janet's Brown is in the mid-70 point range with an expected FG of 18 points.
I would be surprised if you're that close to FG in ~43 hours, but a significant over-pitch and warm fermentation temperature might do it.
I'd be checking the gravity with a hydro at this point just to see if the BB is lying...

Cheers!

I'm currently fermenting at 67 F, as measured with a probe taped to the outside of the carboy. I pitched one pure pitch of WLP001 into a 900 ml starter that according to beer smith gave me 250 billion cells which seems pretty in line with what I have heard. thoughts?

 

[day_trippr]

I'm currently fermenting at 67 F, as measured with a probe taped to the outside of the carboy. I pitched one pure pitch of WLP001 into a 900 ml starter that according to beer smith gave me 250 billion cells which seems pretty in line with what I have heard. thoughts?

Seems proper.
So, lacking more data, it's all about the BeerBug at this point...

Cheers!

 

[brewshki]

Seems proper.
So, lacking more data, it's all about the BeerBug at this point...

Cheers!

if thats not exciting, idk what is

 

[brewshki]

Well, this is interesting. Sorry about the bad photo of the hydrometer, but it is sitting right about 1.030. Very different than what the beer bug is telling me. 15 points is huge difference. I am wondering if I am not using the bug correctly. If anyone has any experience with them, please comment and help me out haha.

On the other hand, that hydrometer reading is much more in line with what I would expect at this point in the process. It tastes pretty good as well!

 

[brewshki]

As it is fermenting, there is definitely some dissolved CO2 in solution. Could that account for the 15 point difference? Does anyone have any resources regarding this?

 

[day_trippr]

So that's also more in line with my experience - at least wrt fermentations that haven't run amuck

As for CO2 vs the Beerbug, I would have thought bubbles adhering to the probe would cause the SG reading to be off on the high side, not the low side, so I guess I don't know what's going on with it...

Cheers!

 

[brewshki]

So that's also more in line with my experience - at least wrt fermentations that haven't run amuck



As for CO2 vs the Beerbug, I would have thought bubbles adhering to the probe would cause the SG reading to be off on the high side, not the low side, so I guess I don't know what's going on with it...



Cheers!

I was thinking maybe it was affecting my
Hydrometer reading.

 

[brewshki]

Something is definitely off. The bug is now reading at .997. No way there is a possibility of this beer going that low

 

[MX1]

is there a calibration protocol?

 

[MX1]

try here as well

https://www.thebeerbug.com/forum/post/?postID=287

 

[brewshki]

is there a calibration protocol?

there is, and i thought I followed it correctly. It said you can calibrate it to your wort if you knew the gravity. As I had taken a hydrometer reading before pitching, I used that. It says to leave it in the beer for an hour before you calibrate which I didn't do. That just seems like a huge difference.

 

[ChelisHubby]

there is, and i thought I followed it correctly. It said you can calibrate it to your wort if you knew the gravity. As I had taken a hydrometer reading before pitching, I used that. It says to leave it in the beer for an hour before you calibrate which I didn't do. That just seems like a huge difference.

Interesting! I thought it was like plug and play! Maybe not!

 

[DNKDUKE]

try here as well

https://www.thebeerbug.com/forum/post/?postID=287

This url takes you here...

www.brewperfect.com

 

[augiedoggy]

This url takes you here...

www.brewperfect.com

yup.. I believe the beerbug went defunct and after everything went dark for a while now theres the next latest version of the same type of device with a new name.. The real question is does the owners of this "beer perfect" support the old beer bugs? and are they from the same people?

 

[brewshki]

I honestly gave up on it. tough to do, but you can't win them all.

 

[micraftbeer]

I recently got a couple Tilt hydrometers and am working up a detailed review. I never used the Beer Bug, but these Tilt work great. They're wireless (Bluetooth), so you just toss them in your fermentor and you're off and running. I don't think the absolute gravity number is accurate enough to throw away your refractometer/hydrometer, but for tracking fermentation progress and knowing when something has stalled out or is finished is awesome.

So far, I've seen that things finish fermenting much faster than I expected, and have been able to know when to bump the temperature up because things are slowing. I also have a lager that would not start, and I could tell it wasn't doing any "hidden fermentation" activity and I needed to intervene (kept raising the temperature and gave it a shake).

I got them through Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076P4GKL7/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20)

 

[augiedoggy]

I have looked at the tilt device myself. I figured they werent super accurate but they are pretty cool.