Another Newbie ? about Hydro readings

[CheCulo]

I'm brewing an IPA, a Dogfish Head Clone (I hope) I took a preboil reading and it was 1.037 at roughly 150 degrees. After the boil and coming out of my counterflow chiller it was 1.058. Today when I transferred to secondary after 8 days it is 1.010. What does all of this mean? Is it progressing like it should? Also, being a newbie, I did not strain my wort when it was going into the fermenter. The amount of hops I had to strain going into the secondary was incredible. Will this ruin my beer?

Thanks!! I had to taste it, and I thought it tasted good.....just flat!

 

[bob1852]

Most hydrometers are calibrated to give an accurate reading of 1.000 with 60*F degree distilled water...

1.058 seems a little low for a DFH clone, but not too bad.
1.010 as a final gravity seems reasonable after 8 days.
Hop sludge and break material going into the fermenter isn't really a concern.

You made beer!

 

[TopherM]

Hydro readings look normal.

Lots of people dump the whole contents of the boil kettle into the primary fermenter after cooling, including the hops sludge. It will all settle into the yeast cake, so a careful racking will not pick up much.

You seem to have done everything pretty well!

Did you work off a recipe? What were the target OG and FG? It looks like you pretty much hit them. I'd be surprised if they were off by more than a few hundreths.

You can use your OG and FG to figure out your alcohol content. Here's a calculator. Looks like yours is going to be at a healthy 6.4% ABV:

http://www.rooftopbrew.net/abv.php

Now, just be patient after you bottle/keg and carb. Give it about 3 weeks to age from that point and you'll have good beer!

 

[CheCulo]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer.....glad to hear the hops shouldn't ruin the beer, it was quite a bit.....seems like it produced more in the fermenter.

 

[ChillWill]

How did you strain it into secondary? Siphon it off or through a sieve or something? I'm just thinking oxidation here....