beginner questions

[dawn_kiebawls]

Hey guys, I recently finished my second batch (an attempt at a belgian IPA) and got a lot of 'firsts' under my belt as well. Used a liquid yeast, made a yeast starter (3L using WY3522, shaken not stirred. heh heh), Altered an existing recipe to fit my own taste/desired style, and utilized a blowoff tube. Over all, the brew day went well. I would liked to have taken better notes throughout, but like everything, that will get better with time. The questions I have are basic but important.

1) At what point should I take take gravity readings? My airlock is still bubbling rather frequently so I know it is not close to being finished. My OG was 1.073 at 60F and I'm anticipating a FG of 1.013-1.015 to give me about 7.7% ABV.

2) I forgot to take my OG until after I pitched, will that affect my reading or not? Also, I have left my reading sample in the tube so I get to watch the fermentation happen. Its been pretty cool to watch!

3) I plan on giving this batch a generous dry hop but have read many conflicting things about this topic. Should I wait until fermentation has subsided before making the dry hop additions or toss them in while there is still more active fermentation going on in order to re-establish the CO2 blanket on top of the wort? Do I need to somehow sanitize the hop pellets or is it presumed the alcohol in the fermenter is sufficient enough to take care of that?

I should include I pitched on 7/1 and it is currently 7/5 so only 4 days in the fermenter but this batch took off like a bat out of hell! Thanks for the help, if there is any extra information needed to answer these questions I will reply as soon as I can!

 

[Gnomebrewer]

1) At what point should I take take gravity readings? My airlock is still bubbling rather frequently so I know it is not close to being finished. My OG was 1.073 at 60F and I'm anticipating a FG of 1.013-1.015 to give me about 7.7% ABV.

For a beer that big, I wouldn't take a gravity reading until 2 weeks.

2) I forgot to take my OG until after I pitched, will that affect my reading or not? Also, I have left my reading sample in the tube so I get to watch the fermentation happen. Its been pretty cool to watch!

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. If fermentation had started, your OG will have been affected.

3) I plan on giving this batch a generous dry hop but have read many conflicting things about this topic. Should I wait until fermentation has subsided before making the dry hop additions or toss them in while there is still more active fermentation going on in order to re-establish the CO2 blanket on top of the wort? Do I need to somehow sanitize the hop pellets or is it presumed the alcohol in the fermenter is sufficient enough to take care of that?

There are many different opinions on this. I prefer to dry hop when active fermentation is just slowing down (a few points of gravity left).
Hops are anti-bacterial - no need to sanitise.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. If fermentation had started, your OG will have been affected.

Thanks for the timely response gnomebrewer. I was trying to explain that I shook my fermenter to try and aerate, pitched yeast and realized I forgot to take OG so I did it with the yeast and everything. All within 2 minutes so there was no fermentation happening yet, other than the starter. I just wasn't sure if having the yeast cells in the sample would throw it off or not. Thanks again!

I'll wait about 10 more days to take a gravity reading and depending on the numbers either add in my DH additions or give it some more time. I'm thinking I'll DH for approximately 10 days based on what I have read to give me the bright/floral/citrusy character I'm looking for.