Is sg higher at bottom of fermenter?

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conal

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I started a brew house pale ale with a og of 1.052 in a new primary fermenter bucket that has a spigot at the bottom. I thought it would be easy to take a sample to measure sg with my hydrometer. After fermentation began, I measured after a day of great activity and the sg was down to 1.028. Great start, but after day 2 it ha moved to 1.026. It has stayed there a few days since. Am I getting a bad read because I am sampling from the bottom ? Would it be a higher sg down there after a few days of ferm and settling? Suggestions?
 
Maybe in a fresh-topped-off extract batch, but after several days of fermentation, probably not -- you're probably at about 1.026 all the way through.

A couple questions:

* What temperature are you fermenting at? If you're around/below 60 for an ale yeast (dunno the numbers for a lager, sorry), the yeast might settle out instead of finishing up; you can warm it up to the low 70's or so, then give it a few swirls (swirl the closed fermenter around, don't open it up and stick a spoon/mash paddle/yer finger in!) to get the yeast back into suspension, and fermentation may start up again.

* Was this an all-grain batch, and if so, what was your mash temperature? Anywhere above 155 or so and you're making a lot of unfermentable sugars, in which case, your beer may be done.

* Was your beer well-aerated? Was your yeast relatively fresh? If it's liquid, did you use a starter? Answering "no" to any of these could mean didn't start out with enough healthy yeast in there to finish up fermentation quickly.
 
Temp at steady 70, well aerated, fresh yeast. The brew house is bagged microbrew wort with only a clearing agent and yeast to add. There is a good two inches of sediment at the bottom after the first 24 hs. Supposed to be foolproof but I guess I'm special.
 

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