Labradork
Active Member
Folks,
This one confused me and I was hoping someone could shed some light on what happened. I'm brewing up an all-grain Scotch ale which started with an OG of 1.065. I aerated it for an hour, pitched two smack packs of Scottish Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1728) and at 68 degrees it took off like a bullet. I've seldom seen as vigorous a fermentation. I maintained the temp at about 66 degrees throughout, and after 9 days it was down to bubbling 1/40 seconds. At that point I racked it to secondary and midway through the racking process I took a SG. I came in at 1.009 - lower than I had hoped, but oh well. I considered adding some malto-dextrine later but haven't done so. Two weeks later I decide to rack it again and cold crash it to improve the clarity - which is already pretty good, but I want it to be very, very clear. Again, midway through the racking process I took a SG. I came in at 1.012. That's .003 HIGHER than it had been two weeks earlier. Temperatures were the same in both gravity checks. I couldn't make sense of it, so I took another sample. Same result. Now it's tempting to say that I just misread the first SG, and that the 1.009 must have been higher. I can't say that's impossible, but it strikes me as unlikely. I am a biologist by profession, know my way around lab equipment, and am meticulous with my brewing. I could not of missed a gravity reading, especially by that much. So what happened?
Labradork
This one confused me and I was hoping someone could shed some light on what happened. I'm brewing up an all-grain Scotch ale which started with an OG of 1.065. I aerated it for an hour, pitched two smack packs of Scottish Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1728) and at 68 degrees it took off like a bullet. I've seldom seen as vigorous a fermentation. I maintained the temp at about 66 degrees throughout, and after 9 days it was down to bubbling 1/40 seconds. At that point I racked it to secondary and midway through the racking process I took a SG. I came in at 1.009 - lower than I had hoped, but oh well. I considered adding some malto-dextrine later but haven't done so. Two weeks later I decide to rack it again and cold crash it to improve the clarity - which is already pretty good, but I want it to be very, very clear. Again, midway through the racking process I took a SG. I came in at 1.012. That's .003 HIGHER than it had been two weeks earlier. Temperatures were the same in both gravity checks. I couldn't make sense of it, so I took another sample. Same result. Now it's tempting to say that I just misread the first SG, and that the 1.009 must have been higher. I can't say that's impossible, but it strikes me as unlikely. I am a biologist by profession, know my way around lab equipment, and am meticulous with my brewing. I could not of missed a gravity reading, especially by that much. So what happened?
Labradork
