Bitter american pale!!

[lovebrewin]

I am on day 8 of the ferment.
Starting gravity of 1050 pitched 2pks of rehydrated us-05 and it's still bubbling away nicely at about 19c deg and gravity is down to about 1025. The beer has quite a lot of what I think is diacetyl in it so I have a few questions

1. Should I rack it to the secondary or leave it on the yeast cake?

2. If I leave it on the cake I don't need to raise the temp do I?

3. Question a bit off topic. The pale has 48ibu's can I pull the ferment up a bit earlier to balance out the bitterness a bit??

 

[ncbrewer]

1. I would leave it on the cake - I don't see racking to secondary as serving any purpose, and gives an opportunity for oxidation or contamination.
2. You could raise the temperature after fermentation has pretty much stopped.
3. I don't know if I understand the question. If you are thinking about bottling before fermentation is complete, that's a no-no. Even for kegging, it will ferment out anyway.

Other opinions may vary.

 

[lovebrewin]

Ok mate got it thanks heaps for the reply...

 

[beernut70]

If it's diacetyl the yeast should clean it up with time. It may be from over pitching 2 pks for 1.050 seems like a lot.

 

[sparkeee277]

Only to 1.025 after 8 days? Are you using a refractometer or a hydrometer to take your reading? You're at 66 degrees f, which is good for ale, but if you truly are at 1.025 you should warm it up a bit to help it attenuate down. I'll typically go from the 1.050 range down to 1.012ish in about 4-5 days. Slowly raise it to 68- 69 and hopefully it will finish. What was your grain bill like?

 

[lovebrewin]

Only to 1.025 after 8 days? Are you using a refractometer or a hydrometer to take your reading? You're at 66 degrees f, which is good for ale, but if you truly are at 1.025 you should warm it up a bit to help it attenuate down. I'll typically go from the 1.050 range down to 1.012ish in about 4-5 days. Slowly raise it to 68- 69 and hopefully it will finish. What was your grain bill like?

Yeh using a refractometer!
Hope the pic works below.

 

[normnmiles]

If your using a refractometer for your final gravity you will need to use a calculator to figure out the true specific gravity. Google "refractometer calculator". Sean Terrill has a good one. You will need to convert the specific gravity you measure to Brix though. Using Sean's calculator I get
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.0118 (3.02°P)
Alcohol by Volume: 4.7% (3.8% ABW)

 

[sparkeee277]

Normnmiles is right. The presence of alcohol throws off the refractometer reading, that's why I asked. Looks like you are using BeerSmith mobile, right? There should be a refractometer tool built into that software that will make the "alcohol present" correction for you. If you started at 1050 and your current refractometer reading is 1025 (5.4 brix) the BeerSmith correction tool says you're actually at 1010. The bubbles you are getting are probably just the beer de-gassing. Just leftover CO2...... You're done fermenting..... Leave in on the trub for another week so the yeast can finish cleaning up then bottle or keg......

 

[lovebrewin]

Normnmiles is right. The presence of alcohol throws off the refractometer reading, that's why I asked. Looks like you are using BeerSmith mobile, right? There should be a refractometer tool built into that software that will make the "alcohol present" correction for you. If you started at 1050 and your current refractometer reading is 1025 (5.4 brix) the BeerSmith correction tool says you're actually at 1010. The bubbles you are getting are probably just the beer de-gassing. Just leftover CO2...... You're done fermenting..... Leave in on the trub for another week so the yeast can finish cleaning up then bottle or keg......

So using the beersmith tools i get a final gravity of 1010. then i use the alcohol attenuation tool and put in 1050 as my sg and 1010 as my fg. boom 5.2% abv is that right or am i missing a step.
P.S really appreciate the help..

 

[thadass]

Spot on! If your initial reading was 1.050, that's about 12.4 Brix.
Since you thought your current gravity was 1.025, that's ~6.4 Brix
Original Brix 12.4 Current Brix 6.4 = Current gravity 1.010

OG 1.050 FG 1.010 = 5.2% ABV!

Refracs are very convenient but you gotta do the calculations

 

[lovebrewin]

Ha yeh i like the refract cos ya dont have to pull a big sample to check ya gravity.
now i know about the calcs i will be set!!!

 

[GASoline71]

If it's in a bucket, you don't have to pull a sample... you can just drop the sanitized hydrometer in the brew.

Gary

 

[lovebrewin]

Thought I'd show ya'll the finished product.. Quite cloudy as I forgot to cold crash before I kegged but it's not to bad!

 

[sparkeee277]

Looks good to me! Clarity is a little overrated..... If it tastes good that's usually all I need.....

 

[wilserbrewer]

Thought I'd show ya'll the finished product.. Quite cloudy as I forgot to cold crash before I kegged but it's not to bad!

Never to late, you're cold crashing now, should be clear in a few days.

 

[E-Mursed]

Fine looking beer!!

I'd tap it.....