Hydrometer reading WAY off! Need help!

[Joeneugs]

when you say 1.036 for FG is too low and your target is like 1.018 or whatever it is...what you mean is too high. the sg is dropping throughout fermentation (toward 1.0, the SG of water).

Yes thank you! I was confused about how to measure the gravity. I was gauging everything on the potential ABV scale (falling back on something that I can quantify) Newb mistake.

 

[Hang Glider]

Easy mistake. try this for something to quantify:

dissolved sugars makes the water "thicker" - giving you a gravity higher than water.

yeasties eat the sugar, adding alcohol - moving your gravity back down toward plain water.

 

[Joeneugs]

Hey guys, I have an update!

I waited six days and just took another hydrometer reading, and I got 1.012!!!
This is a good .006 below my target! Is it possible for it to drop that much in one week in the secondary? 1.036 to 1.012 seems like a huge drop. Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good now. The beer even tastes pretty good at this point. I'm planning on leaving it alone for another week or two and then bottle.

 

[Docjowles]

Nice! Was it at roughly the same temp (both in the fermenter and in your hydrometer flask)? I guess it's possible the yeast was just slow as hell to get started. I don't want to freak you out, but the other possibility is it got infected and wild yeast and/or bacteria ate the remaining sugar. Did you by chance taste the hydrometer sample? If it was clean and not sour you are in the clear.

 

[wyzazz]

It's certainly possible, remember the yeast don't work on your schedule, the do their thing when THEY want to! I'm guessing that the transfer to secondary roused up enough yeast to get them active again.