Gravity reading, fermenter, and color

[Shoultzy]

Alright guys, so I went ahead and took a gravity reading of my beer and also took some picture of the fermenter.

This is my first batch, I'm a full week in, and was just curious about some things.

This is a speckled heifer because I love spotted cow and don't want to drive to Wisconsin for some haha. Partial mash

1. The OG according to recipe is supposed to be 1.042 and I was around there. Now I'm reading 1.010. Should I expect this gravity to change? Recipe doesn't have a final gravity. And how much alcohol is that, I don't know how to do the formula.

2. I'm assuming the chunks on the bubbles are yeast? From the pictures I've seen, this looks like a healthy fermentation.

3. All that build up on the sides, is that always going to happen? I'm worried that it's a bunch of yeast and hops being wasted on the side instead of in the wort.

And will the cloudiness of the beer go away after bottling? Or should I cold crash it. I like the light Golden look of beers, and from what I understand I can cold crash any beer I want to change the color but not change anything else about the beer, right?

 

[Rxbrewer16]

1) it may drop a few more points depending on the yeast you used and temp at which it is fermenting. The formula for abv is (OG - FG)*0.131 so in this case (42-10)*0.131=4.192%.
2) yep, just looks like healthy yeast ( post binging on delicious maltose.)
3) yeah that will, and should happen after each healthy fermentation, depending on how vigorous it occurs. It is residual of the krausen, or the foam that is created from the Co2 being released through the sugar and protein and any solid in the fermenter.

Looks good, and congrats on the first batch!

 

[Shoultzy]

1) it may drop a few more points depending on the yeast you used and temp at which it is fermenting. The formula for abv is (OG - FG)*0.131 so in this case (42-10)*0.131=4.192%.
2) yep, just looks like healthy yeast ( post binging on delicious maltose.)
3) yeah that will, and should happen after each healthy fermentation, depending on how vigorous it occurs. It is residual of the krausen, or the foam that is created from the Co2 being released through the sugar and protein and any solid in the fermenter.

Looks good, and congrats on the first batch!

Thanks man! I'm going to bottle it Sunday

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks man! I'm going to bottle it Sunday

You can choose a date that you would like to bottle but once you pitch the yeast they are in charge of setting the bottling date, not you. Utilize your hydrometer to verify the fermentation is over by getting identical readings a day or 2 apart that are near the expected FG before you decide to bottle. I've had a beer stall out and restart when I had planned to bottle it. That would have caused me to have bottle bombs had I not waited. Waiting won't hurt your beer and instead will improve it as it gives time for materials in suspension to settle out instead of going into your bottles. I have bottled beers early and know how much sediment ended up in my bottles. I normally will wait 2 to 4 weeks so that sediment isn't in my bottles.

 

[Rob2010SS]

The yeast you used will give you your target FG. For instance, Safale US-05 has an apparent attenuation rating of 81%. With your OG of 1.042, you're expected FG should be approx. 1.008. The way you would figure that is 42 x (1-.81) = 7.98. Rounded up, this gives you your FG target of 1.008.

Not sure what yeast you used, I just used US-05 as an example. There are yeasts however that don't always give you that percentage and you'll have to do as others suggested - take a gravity reading, wait 2-3 days, take another gravity reading and if it is the same as the last one, your fermentation is complete.

In regards to clearing your beer, I just used the cold crash/gelatin method the other day and gotta say it worked like a charm! Check out clarity in the hydrometer reading. My method was start the cold crash for 12 hrs, add gelatin and finish crashing for what ended up being about 15 hours more, then transfer to keg. I plan to implement this method all the time it worked so well.

Good luck.

 

[ericbw]

The only thing I would add is that you'll get a lot of clarity in the next week before you bottle. I usually ferment for 3-4 weeks and then keg or bottle. If you bottle sooner, you generally need to wait an additional week for clarity and so it conditions properly. Everyone has different opinions (including ferment for a week, bottle, and drink it in 2 more weeks).

I find that no matter what I do, you can get drinkable beer in as little as 2 weeks, but it takes about 6 weeks for good beer. I prefer to ferment 3-4 weeks, then keg and cold condition for 2 weeks.

 

[jan_b19]

I don't bother with formulas myself. There are enough calculators like this one that give you a pretty good estimate. That site also has a lot of other useful tools that I liked when I started and I still use some of them in combination with beersmith

 

[Gagunga]

Congrats on your first brew