Bottling Day Questions

[Justin Harmon]

Hello All,

I just have a few bottling day questions that I was wondering about.

This is my first time brewing with my new fermentation and bottling buckets. Both of them have spigots on them. I am no longer in possession of my old racking cane and siphon tubing. I was planning on simply transferring from the spigot on the fermentation bucket straight to the bottling bucket right on top of the priming sugar solution in the bottling bucket. Are there any pitfalls to not using a racking cane and siphon to transfer the beer this way? The spigot is about 2 inches off the bottom so I do not anticipate a great deal of sediment being transferred with the beer.

My other question has to do with final gravity. My Red IPA recipe was supposed to have an OG of 1.066 but it actually came out to more like 1.058. The final gravity is supposed to come out to 1.018. Given my actual lower OG, how should I adjust my expectations for the actual FG? I am embarrassed to say I don't even know what variables come in to play here.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Cheers

 

[jschein]

You can use a hose from fermenter to botting bucket. As far as the FG, have you check it? Are you sure it all fermented out? If you are a few points off your expected FG it's not a big deal. Was this extract?

 

[VikeMan]

Given my actual lower OG, how should I adjust my expectations for the actual FG?

Start with you recipe's OG and FG and do this...
(OG - FG) / (OG - 1)
That gives you the predicted apparent attenuation %

Then take your actual OG and do this...
((OG - 1) - ((OG - 1) x (Predicted Apparent Attenuation))) + 1
That gives you a new predicted FG.

 

[Justin Harmon]

You can use a hose from fermenter to botting bucket. As far as the FG, have you check it? Are you sure it all fermented out? If you are a few points off your expected FG it's not a big deal. Was this extract?

OK great. I figured that would be ok to just use the spigot from the fermentation bucket. I finally got a chance to check the FG and its now at 0.013 so I feel pretty good that its done fermenting. Tastes pretty good to boot. Maybe a tad more watered down than I expected but not too shabby. Yes it was all extract. Thank you.

 

[Justin Harmon]

Start with you recipe's OG and FG and do this...
(OG - FG) / (OG - 1)
That gives you the predicted apparent attenuation %

Then take your actual OG and do this...
((OG - 1) - ((OG - 1) x (Predicted Apparent Attenuation))) + 1
That gives you a new predicted FG.

Sweet! It took me a good 15 minutes to calculate it but it looks like my predicted FG is 0.015. My actual FG is 0.013 so I'm assuming I'm more than done at this point. Thanks so much!

 

[RM-MN]

OK great. I figured that would be ok to just use the spigot from the fermentation bucket. I finally got a chance to check the FG and its now at 0.013 so I feel pretty good that its done fermenting. Tastes pretty good to boot. Maybe a tad more watered down than I expected but not too shabby. Yes it was all extract. Thank you.

Beer that is not carbonated will always feel more watery. So will beer that has carbonated but not had time to mature. Be patient with your beer and you will be rewarded.

IPA's are special because without special treatment to avoid the introduction of oxygen you will lose the flavor/aroma that you want. Once bottled, wait a week to try one. Wait another week to try the second. At the third week the IPA will probably be at its prime so enjoy. By the end of the third month much of the aroma will be missing. It will still be good beer, just not the prime you expected.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Pragmatic home brewing tip: express OG / FG as whole numbers to simplify calculations

• OG 65 for hydrometer measurement of 1.065
• OG 13 for hydrometer measurement of 1.013

apparent attenuation = (OG - FG) / OG

• (65 - 13) / 65 = 80%

 

[Justin Harmon]

Ahh.. Brilliant. I think I will use that next time. I appreciate it!