Having a Hard time reading hydrometer

[sportscrazed2]

it floats at the 10 mark but what does that mean?

 

[devilishprune]

It means that you have a specific gravity of 1.010 at that temperature. This would make sense if the situation is that fermentation has finished.

 

[sportscrazed2]

it's a newcastle clone. is that a good final gravity for that range? also beer smells kind of sour. is that bad? i just want to get this one in bottles and forget about it for awhile and start my next batch

 

[Malintent]

how does it taste, though? Since you should be pulling beer out of the fermentor to measure, why not take a swig?

If you are smelling the fermentor (and not a clean sample of beer), then who knows what yeast cake / soaked hops / krusen odors you are getting.

 

[sportscrazed2]

yeah it tastes a little sour but in a good way if that makes sense. kind of fruit which is what i was expecting because we had a couple freak hot days and i never turned on a/c. will carbonation only bring out the sourness more or what?

 

[devilishprune]

I'm sure you have nothing to worry about. How long has it been in the primary?

 

[sportscrazed2]

edit it's been about 3 weeks to the day i put it in primary. i plan to bottle this weekend if i can find the time. there is still a little yeast floating in there is there a way to filter it out?

 

[Germelli1]

I always have some "yeast rafts". If you shake the fermentor gently or stir the top gently they will break apart and fall. If not I just rack the beer as normal and let it pull the beer out from under it without sucking any of the yeast rafts in.

 

[baystatebrew]

just put it in the priming container and bottle it

 

[Dynachrome]

Yeah, I go to a second pot to bottle out of. Te last couple bottles I put an X onthe top and keep an eye on them. They can get wild and pop the tops if there is a little extra yeast in there (may also be a tad heavy on priming sugar because I don't like to over stir.

I bought "250 Best BYO Recipe Magazine last week The Guiness Extra Stout recipe has a special souring step. You make a pint of sour - pastuerize it and add it in to the mix for flavor.

Sounds interesting. Good luck.

 

[sportscrazed2]

alright heres another question. should i carry fermenter to where i will bottle it tonight so that everything settles before siphoning?

 

[baystatebrew]

you can but it won't really make a difference. you can move it just before bottling and as long as you just carry it slowly you'll be fine.

 

[baystatebrew]

fyi you never need to ask anyone what a "good FG" is for any beer. you have FG for any beer when you have three consecutive days of constant SG. 1.01 is probably done or very close to done, but you never know unless it stays constant for 3 or more days. hope that helps!

 

[Malintent]

alright heres another question. should i carry fermenter to where i will bottle it tonight so that everything settles before siphoning?

That is what I used to do.. now I just rack from the fermentor in place (unmoved). And then carry the full bottling bucket to my bottling area... the jostling of moving the bucket is a good enough way to mix the sugar (I whirlpool as I rack, though, as well).