Heinous low FG

[bdleedahl]

I just bottled a kit from the Brew House called winterfest ale and it had an OG of 1.046, on bottling day FG was 0.990 for an alc% of about 7.2%... i've never heard of anyone getting a FG below 1.000, have you? do you think it will be possible to taste the 'thinness'?

 

[Hang Glider]

95% ethyl alcohol is 0.79, so yes, it is possible to get under 1.000

Cold vodka doesn't taste "thin" so, fingers crossed, it may be fine.

 

[Rushis]

Have your double checked the calibration of your hydrometer in distilled water?

 

[spaceboi13]

Your hydrometer may need calibration. What was the temp when you took a reading?

 

[Yooper]

I don't believe that FG reading is accurate. It's theoretically possible, but in order for the beer to be lighter than water, you must have a very high alcohol content, no residual sugar, etc. My wines finish that low, but I've never had a beer below 1.005 (and that was a beer designed to be highly fermentable).

I'd check the FG again, and check the hydrometer in water to see if it's off.

 

[glockentalk]

I've made three of those BrewHouse Winterfests in the last month. In every case, I have a very high fg: .020 in the first batch and .030 (so far) in the second after three weeks. I only added half the water (ie. 4 L), so the sg was pretty high, around .060. The primary fermentation is quite vigorous. The final product is very tasty (I add a spice tincture after fermentation). The high fg is what makes this a Christmas beer, giving it body and sweetness.

 

[osagedr]

Racked my Brew House Winterfest yesterday after 8 days in the primary; SG was 1.012. Your OG and FG both sound pretty low!

 

[bdleedahl]

I've made three of those BrewHouse Winterfests in the last month. In every case, I have a very high fg: .020 in the first batch and .030 (so far) in the second after three weeks. I only added half the water (ie. 4 L), so the sg was pretty high, around .060. The primary fermentation is quite vigorous. The final product is very tasty (I add a spice tincture after fermentation). The high fg is what makes this a Christmas beer, giving it body and sweetness.

yes i have checked checked my hydrometer in water and it is bang on 1.000, temp at time of reading is about 17C but that difference would be negligible.

i made the reading after 4 days in primary and then again on bottling day, 0.995 and 0.990 respectively... the readings have to be right, i tasted it and it still has a strong cinnamon and nutmeg flavour to it. *** this is now wrong see my next post vvvvv

did yours ferment violently like mine? after 2 days there was foam pouring out of the primary and getting all over the place in my house

 

[Hopheader]

I've made three of those BrewHouse Winterfests in the last month. In every case, I have a very high fg: .020 in the first batch and .030 (so far) in the second after three weeks. I only added half the water (ie. 4 L), so the sg was pretty high, around .060. The primary fermentation is quite vigorous. The final product is very tasty (I add a spice tincture after fermentation). The high fg is what makes this a Christmas beer, giving it body and sweetness.

Man, everyone I know that has done a Winterfest with the stock yeast has had blowups in the fermentation! I used a dry Safale yeast, so I'm curious about my final product---fermentation was quite quite light in comparison to other folks.

Added spice in the end on half the batch---wasn't keen on 'as-is' but we'll see when it is carbonated.

 

[bdleedahl]

all right never mind i think i was wrong, i had checked the hydrometer for correct readings before but it now is giving me very very low readings... (by had checked i mean like 6 or 7 weeks ago) ... i guess now my question is, how did it all of a sudden quit working properly? does using distilled water to check it make a significant difference?

 

[Yooper]

all right never mind i think i was wrong, i had checked the hydrometer for correct readings before but it now is giving me very very low readings... (by had checked i mean like 6 or 7 weeks ago) ... i guess now my question is, how did it all of a sudden quit working properly? does using distilled water to check it make a significant difference?

Sometimes that slip of paper inside slips down, and messes up the readings.

Using distilled water means that the SG would be exactly 1.000. Tap water, although very close, might have some dissolved things in it that could possibly make the reading different than 1.000 (like maybe 1.002 or something). That's why it's good to check it in distilled water.

 

[bdleedahl]

okay thanks, yeah on closer inspection of my hydrometer, its looks like there is some water inside of it... i guess i could have figured this all out by myself without posting. but i cannot see any cracks or anything in it, it is just a very small amount of water inside... i guess this makes it useless and i'll have to get another one

 

[glockentalk]

Just to continue on the subject of attenuation, I have noticed that in general the fresher my yeast, the lower is my attenuation rate. In other words, it seems to me that the more often I repitch a batch of yeast, the better it ferments. I think that this is because it gets used to conditions in my brewery. Of course, sometimes problems surface when you repitch too often. In the case of the Winterfest, I used a new packet of American Ale yeast.

Another thing that I have noticed is that a high fg doesn't really harm the taste at all. In fact, if you like a heavy body and a touch of sweetness, a high fg is a good thing, no? I was reading in 300 Beers to try before you die that some brewers are a little ashamed of their high gravity beers, but this seems to be where much taste and complexity can be found.

 

[glockentalk]

did yours ferment violently like mine? after 2 days there was foam pouring out of the primary and getting all over the place in my house

It wasn't violent. Vigorous, though. I do my primary in a carboy with a blow-off tube. I had a fair bit (a couple of ounces maybe) go through the tube into the water jug at the other end.

 

[osagedr]

My fermentation with this kit went nuts too. Standard Cooper's yeast that came with the kit, hydrated and pitched into well-aerated wort. Only brew I've done that blew out the top of a 10 gallon wine fermenter!

 

[GrizlyGarou]

I just decided I'm going to check my hydrometer in tap water everytime I use it. When I got it, it read .004 low. I tapped the paper up enough so it only read .002 low, then I got bored with it so I stopped. Now I wonder if it's been moving around everytime I pick all my stuff up to brew or not.

Your problem has taught me a lesson. Thanks!

 

[hibbleton]

I just brewed an Irish Stout kit that was produced at my LHBS with fresh malt, hops, and yeast. Everything went as normal during brew day, the only difference from usual was that now I'm using a new 6 gallon Better Bottle as the primary. When I topped it off with water to the 5 gallon mark and took a reading the OG was 1.022 (the instruction sheet says it should be 1.042).

This was my first use of a blow-off tube, but I don't think fermentation was normal. There was tons of yeast blow-off and now that it's settled down 2 days later, I've lost half a gallon of beer! Then I took a reading from the wort/beer from the blow-off and its gravity is 1.002. It's all liquid, but probably has a lot of yeast in it. What could be going on here? This is my 10th extract/grains batch and I haven't seen anything like this. Here's the recipe:
6 lbs Pale LME
0.75 lbs Roasted Barley
0.25 Carafoam Malt
0.25 Acidulated Malt
1 oz Nugget Hops
1 pkg (7g) Cooper's Ale Yeast

Any ideas?

 

[amh0001]

hibbleton you should create a new post for your question, not jump into someone elses.

The only thing that comes to mind (being a newer brewer as well) is: you added too much water by accident from using the new vessel. Try measuring how much liquid your new BB holds by adding 1gal at a time, and then marking that level.

Cheers

 

[hibbleton]

I considered a new topic but thought my situation might fit here and might help others figure out what was wrong with the OP. And I did measure the liquid, the 5 gallon mark is right where the top of the bottle starts sloping upwards, probably having a gallon of headspace.

 

[amh0001]

I considered a new topic but thought my situation might fit here and might help others figure out what was wrong with the OP. And I did measure the liquid, the 5 gallon mark is right where the top of the bottle starts sloping upwards, probably having a gallon of headspace.

Yeah this is true. Although I dont think your question is going to be seen by as many people hidden in this thread =P.


I just went to take a look at my BB. I have the 5gals marked right at the top "rib" (how the BBs have bulges).

Another thing you might want to look into, I usually soak my container of LME in warm water to let the syrup loosen up before I pour it in. I doubt that you could have lost that much gravity from that, but still an idea.

 

[GrizlyGarou]

I just brewed an Irish Stout kit that was produced at my LHBS with fresh malt, hops, and yeast. Everything went as normal during brew day, the only difference from usual was that now I'm using a new 6 gallon Better Bottle as the primary. When I topped it off with water to the 5 gallon mark and took a reading the OG was 1.022 (the instruction sheet says it should be 1.042).

This was my first use of a blow-off tube, but I don't think fermentation was normal. There was tons of yeast blow-off and now that it's settled down 2 days later, I've lost half a gallon of beer! Then I took a reading from the wort/beer from the blow-off and its gravity is 1.002. It's all liquid, but probably has a lot of yeast in it. What could be going on here? This is my 10th extract/grains batch and I haven't seen anything like this. Here's the recipe:
6 lbs Pale LME
0.75 lbs Roasted Barley
0.25 Carafoam Malt
0.25 Acidulated Malt
1 oz Nugget Hops
1 pkg (7g) Cooper's Ale Yeast

Any ideas?

You should start a new thread.

But!

When you top off, if it's not mixed well enough the heavy extract sinks to the bottom, away from your hydrometer. That'll make it read lower than it really is. Given that most of your fermentables would come from the LME, you can just assume the OG was within a few points. Unless you put in too much water.

I've never checked the gravity of blow-off, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was different from the actual beer you're trying to check.

Ride this one out, I'd bet it will work out just fine.

 

[hibbleton]

Another thing you might want to look into, I usually soak my container of LME in warm water to let the syrup loosen up before I pour it in. I doubt that you could have lost that much gravity from that, but still an idea.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I did do that and scraped every little bit out with a spoon. Like I said, in 9 previous batches nothing like this happened. I'm mostly concerned with the gravity readings. I just checked my hydrometer in tap water and it was off by 0.002 but that's probably just b/c it's tap water.

All in all it's probably nothing to worry about, I'll just see how it ends up. It's not like I can do anything about it now anyway.