First batch complete and now bottled

[redarmy990]

Yesterday I finally bottled my first homebrew batch, American pale ale

I missed final gravity by a whole 1 percent, should have come out at 5.7% but if i read hydrometer correctly its come out at 4.7%

Im guessing I did something wrong in the process, but hey ho this was my first batch
Now just waiting for carbonation, 2-3 weeks.

Already purchased my next kits a peanut butter stout and a IPA

If any of you guys have any tips on why i missed final gravity would love to here, You have all been a huge help so far. So thank you in advance.

 

[ericbw]

Can you post the recipe and process? Then you'll get 1,000 different opinions on what went wrong.

Was it all grain or extract?

Was the gravity correct when you put it in the fermenter (OG)? Or was the final gravity (FG) off when you bottled? It might have started out too low, or it might have ended up too high.

If it was too high - are you sure it was done fermenting? If not, please get those bottles in a box or something in case they explode.

If it was an extract batch, it is hard to get a good read on the gravity when you start, because extract can sink, so you take a reading from the liquid at the top that has less sugar in it, even though it's all in the fermenter.

You'll get lots of advice on this.

 

[redarmy990]

It was an extract recipe the starting gravity was spot on the reccomended 1.054. Actually it should have come out at 5.2%, so 4.7% is still off but not as bad.
Checked gravity twice and definatley finished fermentation, also left it another 4 days to make sure.
Recipe
7.2 pale liquid malt extract
1lb cara pils/dextrin
1lb crystal malt
1oz us northern brewer boil hops
1oz willamette flavour hops
1oz willamette aroma hops.
Safale 05 dry yeast. no starter just pitched onto wort surface.

 

[ericbw]

What was the final gravity?

 

[redarmy990]

final gravity was 1.018 at around 72 degrees.

 

[Norselord]

Yesterday I finally bottled my first homebrew batch, American pale ale

I missed final gravity by a whole 1 percent, should have come out at 5.7% but if i read hydrometer correctly its come out at 4.7%

Im guessing I did something wrong in the process, but hey ho this was my first batch
Now just waiting for carbonation, 2-3 weeks.

Already purchased my next kits a peanut butter stout and a IPA

If any of you guys have any tips on why i missed final gravity would love to here, You have all been a huge help so far. So thank you in advance.

Post your hydrometer reading and ... the temperature at which you took the readings...

 

[ericbw]

Do check your hydrometer and see what it's calculated at.

That is high for a final gravity. It was supposed to be 14?

 

[redarmy990]

Every thing i have was brand new first time using but i will definatley check hydrometer.

Thank you and i know 72 degrees is a little warm for readings, but with limited space in a condo I am trying to make the best of it.

 

[Biscuits]

I haven't brewed extract in about 5 years but I do recall hearing something about extract batches stalling at 1.020...might have something to do with it.

 

[ericbw]

Every thing i have was brand new first time using but i will definatley check hydrometer.

Thank you and i know 72 degrees is a little warm for readings, but with limited space in a condo I am trying to make the best of it.

I mean that 1.018 is high for this kind of beer. That's why the alcohol is low, because it didn't run down as much as it was expected.

The hydrometer will say somewhere (probably really, really small print so people like me have a hard time) what temperature it's set for. They are usually 60 or 70 degrees. So you can check the temp and then use a hydrometer correction calculator (Google that and you'll get several) to determine the actual gravity at that temp. (The warmer it is, the lower the reading, the cooler, the higher it is. SO if you check it when the wort is cooling and it's 120 degrees, your gravity READING is way off. You have to calculate it to see the right number.)

But even at 72, if it is a 60-degree hydro, that's close enough. It might be 1 point difference maybe.

You're close, though. The real test will be in 2-3 weeks!

 

[ncbrewer]

Since this is your first batch, I wouldn't get too worried about attenuation being a little low. As long as you're sure it was finished fermenting, it's not a really big deal. I added 12 oz of table sugar to each 5 gallon batch when I was having poor attenuation - it compensated pretty well. If you continue having this problem, here are some things I tried:
Maintain constant temperature while rehydrating (without stirring) [This didn't help]
Minimize time between starting rehydration and pitching (less than 30 minutes)
Added ~3/4 oz wort after attemperation if waiting too long to pitch.
Keep max of 18 deg temp drop per cool-down step during attemperation
Reduced rehydration water from 8 oz to 6 oz before boiling [This didn't help]
Pitch dry [This didn't help]
Varied pitching temperature
Yeast hydration temperatures (may be strain dependent)
Yeast nutrients
Yeast hydration - water problems (tried using spring water w/o chlorine)

I greatly improved the attenuation using a combination of several of these.

 

[ericbw]

I have also tried jumping rope after pitching [didn't help].