I'm brewing right now...issues and concerns

[Rhoobarb]

Sparged with enough water to bring it to exactly five gallons. We used almost two gallons of purified drinking water...

Unless you just rinsed the grains (which you wouldn't do at this point), you didn't sparge - you topped off.

As for missing the OG by .010 - BFD! I've only hit an expected/published OG once in 30+ brews! Sometimes I'm a bit high, sometimes I'm a bit low. As long as I'm not way off, say .030 - .040, I don't sweat it.

Unless you're doing all-grain (hell - even if doing AG!), it's hard to get an exact reading, IMHO. There are too many variables:

How well mixed was the wort after you added water?
How much water did you have to add/how much did you lose during the boil?
Did you take temperature into account?
How good are your eyes at reading a hydrometer right now?
Too many Homebrews?
Didn't get that Lasek surgery?

Also, different extracts will yield different SGs. Different brewing techniques will change your SG as well.

Just my dos centavos!

 

[rewster451]

Still haven't left for the bar, damnit. My eyes are ok for reading, I do this everytime.

I've had about six, but two of them were pretty high ABV, and not homebrews.

I'm not too worried about the gravity differences.

Like I said, temp was 68. What we read was about 1.054. Maybe temp would make a slight difference, 1-2 degrees, but I'm happy with this estimate.

All in all, good brewday. I think we've got a good one on our hands. We will dry hop with fresh centennials in secondary. The boilover was fairly easy to clean up too.

Edit: We "topped off" I guess, although we poured the water through the hop residue in a strainer, guess that's not a sparge, into a sanitized bucket. Then we took hydrometer readings, pitched yeast, and siphoned into the 6.5 gal carboy. I think it is sufficiently mixed.

Maybe you're right though. Perhaps we should have given it a stir before taking hydrometer readings. Live and learn, right?

 

[rewster451]

Back from the bar. Ate mexican with too much hot sauce, drank cheap bar beer, lost at pool. Good day.

Thanks to anyone who was here with me.

 

[usmcruz]

Something I forgot to mention, because it happened before I had the idea to do a live brewlog:

My roommate went to smack the smack-pack, and smacked it so hard the entire package exploded. It only spurt out a little bit of its contents, and we put the rest of it in a ziplock bag. Right now it is showing some signs of activity, which is good, but I am a bit worried.

Ziplock bags are sterile on the inside when you buy them, right? If there are any major concerns with this, we might be able to locate some new yeast, but the chances are slim.

Its sterile on the inside of a ziplock baggy. dont worry. Dont buy more yeast, even with a little liquid escaping which probably was dme or nutrient your yeast will still thrive. Pitch it when its done and it will ferment fine. keep it out of the light though.

 

[justbrewit]

sorry, i just saw this thread. is the kit you made the 3 hearted ale from northern brewer?? sounds like it and if it is, its great!!! mine wnt into the bottle and 6 days(couldn't help myself) later i had one, IT WAS GREAT!!! i think my gravity was more into the 1.070-1.074 range for mine though. i loved it, i don't even think it lasted 2 weeks. just thought i'd put my .02 in here!!