Did I hit my final gravity in three days? (No, but...)

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grasseriver

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I recently purchased one of the True Brew IPA kits (as noted in my sig below) and brewed away this past Friday night. I made the mistake of not taking the Original Gravity reading.

Saturday night: checked the brew. Fermenting away.

Sunday afternoon, I checked it again and saw that the airlock was quiet. I luckily had homebrewtalk.com to help me figure out that I shouldn't equate bubbly airlock with fermenting. Figuring it was still fermenting, I didn't worry.

Today I went and bought a wine thief so I could get a sample out of the carboy without tipping it over, and took a reading -- 1.015. The problem here is that this should be the final gravity, not the original gravity -- and I'm comfortably sure I did everything right when it came to brewing this beer.

I did give the carboy a little shake after this reading, and the airlock started up again -- which at least gives me the impression it's still fermenting. So I know it's not done with the process yet.

Having done more reading, I'm wondering if it's possible that I bought a kit with older yeast, which could be the problem? Should I just test the gravity again tomorrow, or in a couple of days? Should I plan to introduce more yeast to the brew?
 
What's the problem? Do you have an expected FG? I think everything sounds completely fine. It has been fermenting.

Those bubble could be from yeast or just outgassing CO2 built up in the wort. I suggest letting it sit until ready to bottle, then take another hydro sample. It's hard to leave it alone, but 1.015 after 3 days sounds right on and the more samples you take, the less beer you have. If it makes you feel better though, you can check it in a couple days.

BTW, I (and pretty much everybody) recommend leaving it in that primary for at least 3 weeks before bottling.
 
Hey, didn't we talk about you relaxing? ;) If I remember correctly, that brew is supposed to finish around there (1.016ish). So it sounds like things are going swimmingly now that you've checked your gravity.

Deep breath my friend. Let it do it's thing.
 
What's the problem? Do you have an expected FG? I think everything sounds completely fine. It has been fermenting.

Those bubble could be from yeast or just outgassing CO2 built up in the wort. I suggest letting it sit until ready to bottle, then take another hydro sample. It's hard to leave it alone, but 1.015 after 3 days sounds right on and the more samples you take, the less beer you have. If it makes you feel better though, you can check it in a couple days.

BTW, I (and pretty much everybody) recommend leaving it in that primary for at least 3 weeks before bottling.

My concern was the the OG (which I didn't take) was supposed to be around 1.050 or so, and the FG (according to the kit) should be 1.015. The fact that the wort is reading 1.015 so soon is what's throwing me here. I figured it'd be a while longer before I hit that.

This could just all be chalked up to being a very green homebrewer.
 
Hey, didn't we talk about you relaxing? ;) If I remember correctly, that brew is supposed to finish around there (1.016ish). So it sounds like things are going swimmingly now that you've checked your gravity.

Deep breath my friend. Let it do it's thing.

I know! I just didn't expect it to hit that gravity so quick. I thought it was rather suspect.

I'm leaving it alone until Sunday. I swear.
 
fermentation can happen very quick. I had an IPA finish in three days. But - give it at least 10 days in the primary (better yet, 2 weeks -- 3, even better). You'll be fine.

As folks on this board say all the time. Let the yeast do their job. They've been doing it for a long time. And, they're good at it!
 
Depending on the yeast strain you used, it is not uncommon to have a beer finish out that quickly. My last IPA finished out in 3 days.
 
Gotcha. You are fine. I assume this is an extract kit (?). As long as you added all your extract and are using the right volume of water (doesn't have to be perfect), you can't miss your OG by much. It's just simply X amount of sugar in Y amount of water.

All is well! Congratulate your yeastie beasties for a job while done! Oh, and do you know what you fermentation temps were? (in reference to what flyangler18 said)


"I'm leaving it alone until Sunday. I swear."

It's hard on the first brew.
 
Yep to all that was said fermentation can happen quickly, this however doesn't mean that you should be racking it off into a secondary or into a bottle let the yeasties do their thing they will clean up all of the nasties in the beer. If you can, depending on the beer, let it sit for 3 or 4 weeks.
 
Gotcha. You are fine. I assume this is an extract kit (?). As long as you added all your extract and are using the right volume of water (doesn't have to be perfect), you can't miss your OG by much. It's just simply X amount of sugar in Y amount of water.

All is well! Congratulate your yeastie beasties for a job while done! Oh, and do you know what you fermentation temps were? (in reference to what flyangler18 said)

Extract and grains. Steeped Crystal Malt for 25-30 minutes, followed by the cans of malt extract.

The wort's been on the high end of ale fermenting, from what I understand: it's currently around 74 degrees.
 
Yep to all that was said fermentation can happen quickly, this however doesn't mean that you should be racking it off into a secondary or into a bottle let the yeasties do their thing they will clean up all of the nasties in the beer. If you can, depending on the beer, let it sit for 3 or 4 weeks.

Oh, definitely. I won't be bottling anything yet -- I know I've got a while for that. I was just under the impression that the estimated FG wouldn't be hit for at least another week.
 
Yeast rapidly multiply. If you pitched a healthy population of yeast in an ideal environment then they can multiply and use up the available supply of food in a very short time. Even 24 hours is not uncommon for a beer to mostly be complete fermenting.

HOWEVER
you should still leave the beer in the fermenter for 2 to 3 weeks. During this rapid orgy the yeast produce alot of byproducts. Once the good stuff is gone they start using up some of these byproducts which removes some of the off flavors and improves the beer. Then you have to give the multitudes time to settle out of suspension into the trub.

Craig
 
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