hey everybody whats up? i am brewing my first batch of beer (American Lager kit) and i kinda partook in some other home grown things and forgot to take a reading with the hydrometer. now since my hydrometer has an alchohol % marking can i just use that to measure the % or will i not really ever know? also should i take readings about every other day to see if fermentation has stopped or just wait until after like day 5 and start taking readings then. thanx for your help everybody and sorry for the long post,
new brew
- Thread starter jimithing
- Start date
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A lager for your first beer. That's great! What temperature do you have your fermentation fridge set to? 50-55˚F? When are you going to do your diacetyl rest? How long are you planning on lagering at ~34˚F?
treehouse
Well-Known Member
Since you didn't take an initial reading with your hydrometer, you will never know what the exact alcohol percentage it, but who cares? After the beer has stopped fermenting, start taking readings. It is hard to know what your target final gravity is going to be since you didn't include the recipe, but below 1.012 probably. Probably well below if it is an Amercian Lager Kit. Let it go until you don't see a falling gravity (two subsequent readings that don't change over a period of time) and bottle it. Just don't bottle too early. Be patient.
If it's an extract kit and it finnishes at the specified gravity and you used the stated volumes then it'll be as stated with the recipe.
If not you can work it out if you need to.
As for taking readings you should only take a reading when you think fermentation is done, before you bottle or you think you have a problem?
Leave 5-7 days or until the krausen drops or the bubbles stop or allmost stop?
Are you using a secondary?
If not you can work it out if you need to.
As for taking readings you should only take a reading when you think fermentation is done, before you bottle or you think you have a problem?
Leave 5-7 days or until the krausen drops or the bubbles stop or allmost stop?
Are you using a secondary?
first off thanks for the replys and help. the weird thing is that i didn't see on the recipe what the specific gravity would be when done but i figured it really wouldn't matter anyway. it's my first batch and to be honest i would rather have the beer come out tasting half decent than high in alchohol. i am not using a 2nd fermenter either. i thought let me try this out for a couple of batches and see how things go before i invest more into it you know. my thought was to stick with the kits for a little too before i start making real recipes like the ones i see alot of. sorry for the ramble again but this is the only place i get to talk about this and i'm pretty excited about the whole thing. i have always wanted to do this.
