Climbing Gravity ?????

[edkittley]

Okay, this is a little strange.

I brewed an Irish Red Ale on Nov. 16th and my OG was 1.065, a little higher than the estimate on brewsmith.

After a week, I checked the gravity and it was at 1.016, I was going to rack to secondary that day, but figured what the hell, I'll give the whole primary only thing a try. So between laziness and other issues, I ended up bottling yesterday and before I added the priming sugar, the gravity was 1.019. I went back and looked at my notes and every time I corrected for temp and even double checked using brewzor to take human error out of the math calculations and sure enough it climbed. How did this happen? The beer tastes fine and everything, just curious as to how this happened exactly.

 

[brboland]

bad hydrometer or evaporation are my only guesses

 

[ILuvIPA]

My guess is air bubbles on the hydrometer - will lift the hydrometer slightly giving a false reading. Always spin in the test container to knock the bubbles off. Only takes a tiny air bubble or two to lift the hydro a couple points.

Yeast won't give back sugar so the grav reading can't possibly go up. . .unless your kids are dropping M&Ms in through the airlock hole!

 

[jgln]

bad hydrometer or evaporation are my only guesses

My guess too and logical.

 

[MattCharleston]

I back up IluvIPA. This has happened to me too, then I took very carefull notice of the bulb on the hydrometer. Just tiny little bubbles can make a big diff in your reading....even just a few. I let my hydro sit for 10 minutes or so to settle out, then i give the "stick" a good spin to get the bubbles off.

 

[edkittley]

I spun and even bounced it a few times because I noticed a lot of tiny bubbles rising up, I'm assuming CO2, I only let it set a few minutes though, so I probably should have let it go for a while and checked. Don't think the hydrometer is bad because I haven't had this happen before, but I'll calibrate it just to be sure.

 

[Frodo]

. . .unless your kids are dropping M&Ms in through the airlock hole!

A chocolate irish red then? ... sounds like you mention this from experience!

I always wondered about brewers with kids, especially older teenagers, whether the volume in the fermenter suddenly seems less, or the beer is kinda "watery" more often... Or the keg is suddenly almost empty... so I guess "the irish red tastes like it has chocolate in it" kinda fits in that category.

 

[bf514921]

angles puked there share back up?, no wait maybe thats whiskey

 

[ILuvIPA]

LOL, not a personal experience. But I was recalling a post this past year about someones young-un dropping crayons through the airlock hole. I can see a kiddo with a fistfull of M&Ms going to town.

OTOH, just happens I'm planning an oatmeal stout this weekend. . . Oatmeal M&M Stout? May have potential.

Ok, enough hijacking Ed's thread. I'm sticking with air bubbles on the hydro giving a false reading. Cheers & hope everyone has a good brew weekend!

A chocolate irish red then? ... sounds like you mention this from experience!

 

[woodstone]

I heard there was a shift in the magnetic poles this past week? Hmmm.

 

[hotrodtrash]

has there been a temp change?