Gravity Reading Low after 6 days.

[Mookie]

Brewed an Aussy Ale Sat. Today is Fri.

Beer Smith said OG 1.052 and FG 1.014.

My actual OG was 1.052.

After 6 days in the bucket I have FG of 1.006.

Gravity testing done with hydrometer.

My Mash was at 154F Just as Beer Smith wanted.

My question is......I took the FG from the top of the fermenter without any disturbance, is there any chance that the alcohol content is higher near the top due to alcohol being "lighter" than water (ie lower sg), or at this point should the beer/water mixture be uniform throughout.

I understand that an ionic solution will not separate, but a homogeneous mixture will. Just not sure if alcohol and water is ionic or homogeneous. I have always assumed that the mixture was held together using hydrogen bonds and therefore would have uniform distribution at all times similar to ionic solutions.

Chemistry Geeks please teach me.

Thanks,

Mookie

 

[daksin]

After the initial top off, your beer churns like a sonuvagun while fermenting from all the CO2 being released by the yeast. The only difference a top off makes to the hydrometer is that the water and wort are very different densities (gravity!) so they don't want to mix all that well. After a week of fermentation, your beer is totally homogeneous.

Ionic and chemistry and hydrogen bonds doesn't come into it- that's a totally different thing, so just forget whatever part of you is remembering that (and you're remembering it correctly, either). Alcohol is totally soluble in water, plus it's being produced evenly throughout the solution.

It sounds like your beer is pretty much done fermenting at 1.006; sounds like your yeast attenuated really well and ate even more sugars than expected. THAT SAID, give them at least another week or two to clean up after themselves.

Congrats! You made beer!

 

[Mookie]

I knew I had beer.....I tasted the sample before dumping....and it was, might I say, PRETY DARN GOOD. I am just curious about FG expectations. In my opinion, with that low of a gravity, the beer will be really light bodied. I mashed at 154 to shoot for a medium body beer.

 

[Yooper]

I knew I had beer.....I tasted the sample before dumping....and it was, might I say, PRETY DARN GOOD. I am just curious about FG expectations. In my opinion, with that low of a gravity, the beer will be really light bodied. I mashed at 154 to shoot for a medium body beer.

Yes, it might be pretty dry, but it shouldn't be thin bodied (depending on ingredients). Some ingredients give a fuller body, or at least a perception of fuller body, while some ingredients (like corn, sugar, rice) give the perception of thinner body. While mash temperatures are important, so are ingredients and play just as big of a role in body.