I just kegged my first brew!

[rshortt]

Hey all, I just racked my first brew into a keg! My original gravity was 1.049, I left in in primary for 1 week, secondary for 4 weeks, all at a temperature of about 65-68 F. It came out real clear and I also "cold" crashed it for a couple of days in my garage. From looking at it, and since it was up for 5 weeks I swore it would have been finished so I took my hydrometer sample as I was racking it into my keg.

BTW I HATE racking tubes and hydrometers!! Every time I do this I make a mess! A refractometer just went on my shopping list.

My gravity read at 1.020 - fail. I just spent time cleaning/sanitizing/lubing my keg, cleaning and sanitizing the racking tube, and by the time I read the hydrometer my keg was 1/4 full. I decided that I was already all in and kept going.

Here's a pic of the sample in a glass. I drank it and it tasted great. According to my math the beer is 3.9% which is a little light for my taste but oh well.



It's on the CO2 now. I think I'll just give it time to carb up and drink it.

-Rob

 

[NorCalAngler]

If this was an extract batch then the 1.020 finish is quite common. It happened to me on two of my batches and I think I narrowed it down to poor quality LME from my LHBS. It will be lower ABV than expected and might be a little bit sweeter, but if it tastes great then congrats on a successful batch.