Help?

[ChadChaney]

So I brewed my first attempt at a high gravity beer yesterday. A late summer Saison type, mostly extract. I pitched 2 dry packs of T58 yeast and had great action overnight, but seems to have really mellowed now. I checked the hydometer today, and it says 5% ABV and it was 10% when I started, is this possible? I used Hopville calculator and it says I should end up w a final ABV of about 8%. Am I being paranoid?

3lbs dry bavarian wheat
3.3 lbs Munich LME
3.3 lbs Pils LME
1 lb Belgian candy sugar
1 lb steeped honey malt
grains of paradise
2 dry pkts Safale T58 yeast

Help?

 

[Double_D]

You're checking potential alcohol it sounds like. Do you have a beginning specific gravity reading? This would help a lot. What is the current specific gravity?

 

[Ravenshead]

It sounds like he started at 1076 (10% potential alcohol) and now he's reading About 1038 (5% potential alcohol). I get 1077 in Beer Smith so the OG sounds right.

OP, your reading your hydrometer wrong. The %alc reading is the %alc the wort could potentially reach if it fermented all the way down to a specific gravity of 0 (0% alc on your scale). The %alc in your wort right now can be found by subtracting the current reading from the first. You're at about 5% right now (10%-5%=5%). The yeasts have eaten up about 50% of the available sugar. They'll do more over the next few days and you'll likely end up with around 8% alcohol in your final product. That will be a SG of around 1016.

Typically we work in specific gravity readings around here not %alc. You should probably learn to as well. It'll make both posting and understanding other posts easier.

 

[ChadChaney]

Yes, I know about the hydrometer, mine broke, wife washed it, and had to get one from a friend quick, and his was a cheap one with half the numbers unreadable. I live in a small town, no LHBS to get supplies in a hurry. Should have one soon though. I am just worried the fermentation slowed really fast, if that makes sense. I would have preferred to use an actual Saison yeast, smack pak or liquid, but all I could get my hands on at the time and I wanted to brew in the last bit of summer heat. Trying a little warmer fermentation this time, in the high 70's to mid 80's to really get all the goodies out of the yeast. How long do you think I should let her sit... Wait, I know, check the hydrometer, but when do we think it will be close to time for secondary fermentation?

Thanks for the replies.

 

[LakewoodBrew]

dont touch it for at least a week.

no reason to secondary, unless you really want to. i would just let it sit in there for 3 weeks and let the yeast do it's thing.

 

[Ravenshead]

That's a really high temp. I used that yeast before I knew what I was doing. It's a good yeast in it's place but it adds a very peppery flavor to the beer.

Fermenting that hot will increase the pepper flavors. If that's what you're after, go for it but I think you'll find it a bit much.

 

[ChadChaney]

Yeah, I backed off the temp a bit, I don't mind the peppery notes, thinking I might dry hop for a little bit too, depending on aroma and taste when I move to secondary. I hope I did not loose all the nice citrus notes of the yeast by fermenting that warm, I only left it that hot for about 24 hrs. Now settled in nicely at 77 degrees. I added a minimal amount of Grains of Paradise about 1 gram, to 11 lbs of malt, so some pepper for spice should work out well. Did a little research, and the consensus seems to be the fruity esters and spice both develop with the increased temp, so we will see.