gravity of 1.002 and falling?

[zach_palmer]

my recipie is as follows:

2.5 lb crystal 40L
2 lb pale 2-row
combine above and toast .5 lb 15 min. @350 degrees
place all in 2 gallons of water for 90 min @152 to 160 degrees.
sparge with 3 gl. @165 then add
3 lb golden light briess DME
2.5 lb amber DME
bring to boil then add

.5 oz Magnum "fresh hop" @ boil
.5 oz Chinook "fresh hop" @ 30min
.2 oz chinook "fresh hop" @1 hour
.3 oz magnum "fresh hop" @ 1 hour

turn off heat
after 15 min move to water bath 20 min. remove then leave covered to cool over night.
top up to 5.5 gallons with clean water at pressure to aerate.
pitch wyeast 1056 @ 70 degrees

primary for three weeks

add .25 Magnum "fresh hop" to secondary

it has been in secondary for 1 week.

So other things to note just moved to a new apartment and fedex had a difficult time finding me so the the liquid yeast was warm and swollen when it arrived on a Monday. I got off work at six and decided my only option was to brew immediately. by the time i was finished it was late for me and i didn't want to wait for the wort to cool. so i finished up in the morning which is not normal for me. In the morning before work i did the rest but forgot to pull an OG. the yeast says it is good for up to 1.060 og which is probably close to where i was.

so my question is when i transferred to my secondary i took my first gravity measurement and i got 1.004 at 73 degrees which is at the low end of what i have ever gotten. but it keeps dropping and is still burping the airlock at a rate of every 15 seconds. my reading today is 1.001 @73 degrees but it is hard to read because it bubbles like a carbonated beer (more like a soda) and raises the hydrometer.

well that still wasn't my question. is everything ok? it tastes toasted and ok but a little like a "saison" very bubbly. should i do anything? or just let it ride?

 

[Yooper]

With that recipe, it's seemingly impossible for ale yeast to ferment that beer that low. That leaves either two possibilities- infection, or misreading the hydrometer.

Since you mentioned it's saison-like, I would lean toward infection.

 

[zach_palmer]

copy should i do anything different next time or this?

 

[Yooper]

copy should i do anything different next time or this?

I think the overnight cooling was probably the issue. Next time, cool the wort rapidly and pitch the yeast immediately upon cooling. That really minimizes the risk of infection.

 

[ron,ar]

Well, something is eating the wort down that low and I don't think it's the 1056, probably an infection. How did it appear when you transferred it to the secondary? Is it now in a clear glass carboy? Do you see anything "growing" in it or crawling up the side? What does it smell like? If it has an infection it had to already be there before you transferred it as the reading was at 1.004 . Are you sure your hydrometer is ok? Hate to see you dump it out over something as easy as a faulty hydrometer.

 

[theveganbrewer]

A little crack in the hydrometer would be all it took to completely garble that reading. If you haven't already, put it in a tube of water and make sure it reads 1.000.

 

[phoenixs4r]

I've had the dry equivalent of 1056 take both my last pale ales down to 1.002

/shrug

Recipe was 22 pounds 2 row, 4 pounds cheery wood smoked.

 

[afr0byte]

I've had a cream ale go down to 1.004 with US05. I've made the same beer again twice, both times it only went down to 1.009. Now that I think about it, though, the first one may have started at 1.047 instead of ~1.052

 

[E-Mursed]

Next time, cool the wort rapidly and pitch the yeast immediately upon cooling. That really minimizes the risk of infection.

Amen to that....and make a starter so the yeast has a jump on the fermentation.

I pitched a 2 liter starter of Nottingham on a Imperial IPA that I am fermenting in a keg yesterday, and it was blowing off after 4 hours.
No time for bugs to get a foot hold when you toss a big colony of hungry yeast at your wort.

 

[zach_palmer]

it looked good at tranfer and now it is in a clear glass carboy and looks normal the dry hops are floating on top due to carbonation. my hydrometer does read .994 for water at 71 degrees. does this mean i need a new hydrometer?

 

[TyTanium]

I've had the dry equivalent of 1056 take both my last pale ales down to 1.002

/shrug

Recipe was 22 pounds 2 row, 4 pounds cheery wood smoked.

Exactly...you didn't have 2.5lbs of C40, plus amber extract, plus golden extract. For the OP's recipe, I'd expect some significant residual sweetness.

OP - Taste it. Does it taste like 1.002? (dry, and maybe thin).

Check your hydrometer in water....close to 1.000?

EDIT: Missed your last post. Yes, it means you need a new hydro.

 

[afr0byte]

it looked good at tranfer and now it is in a clear glass carboy and looks normal the dry hops are floating on top due to carbonation. my hydrometer does read .994 for water at 71 degrees. does this mean i need a new hydrometer?

It means you're actually at about 1.007

 

[phoenixs4r]

Exactly...you didn't have 2.5lbs of C40, plus amber extract, plus golden extract. For the OP's recipe, I'd expect some significant residual sweetness.

OP - Taste it. Does it taste like 1.002? (dry, and maybe thin).

Check your hydrometer in water....close to 1.000?

EDIT: Missed your last post. Yes, it means you need a new hydro.

I still had a bit of specialty malt, just sayin'

It means you're actually at about 1.007

LOLWUT? How did you get that from .994@71?

You don't need a new hydrometer, you just need to calculate the your OG based on how far your hydrometer is off. Buying a new one would be less of a headache.

With that recipe, it's seemingly impossible for ale yeast to ferment that beer that low. That leaves either two possibilities- infection, or misreading the hydrometer.

Since you mentioned it's saison-like, I would lean toward infection.

Your new avatar is creepy!

 

[afr0byte]

LOLWUT? How did you get that from .994@71?

His hydrometer reads .994 in plain water at 71. The temp correction for 71 would be about .001 (so .995). So, his hydrometer is reading .005 low. 1.002 + .005 is 1.007. What's so hard to understand?

 

[duckredbeard]

You acknowledged part of your problem in your original post. If carbonation is screwing with the hydrometer, get rid of the carbonation. Pour your sample rapidly back and forth between two glasses several times then let it rest until the head has settled. Repeat this a few times to release your carbonation. Ideally, you want a large enough sample that the submersion of the hydrometer pushes some sample out of the jar. As this happens, gently blow away the bubbles on top of the sample. You won't be able to remove all of the co2, but you want to remove most of it. Especially if bubbles are forming on your hydrometer.

 

[phoenixs4r]

His hydrometer reads .994 in plain water at 71. The temp correction for 71 would be about .001 (so .995). So, his hydrometer is reading .005 low. 1.002 + .005 is 1.007. What's so hard to understand?

Your jump to 1.007 without explaining you accounted for his hydrometers inaccuracy. All I read was a 10* shift netted him 11 points.

 

[afr0byte]

Your jump to 1.007 without explaining you accounted for his hydrometers inaccuracy. All I read was a 10* shift netted him 11 points.

Um, OK. Normally I'd interpret LOLWUT as an insult. You could have just said "Care to clarify how you got that number?".

 

[pabloj13]

um, ok. Normally i'd interpret lolwut as an insult.

+1

 

[theveganbrewer]

Well, he could also be bottoming out the hydrometer too, it only goes down so far, it might be even more off than .994. Just get a new one, there's probably a crack in it somewhere and water probably got in.