OG/FG Question (oh, and hello)

[Ozmo]

Hey guys,
I've been reading threads for about a month now to help make my first brew better informed so thought this would be a good opportunity to make my first post:

I brewed an IPA two Thursdays ago (11/18) using Muntons Gold dry yeast, and it was my first batch. Things seemed to go okay (outside of the normal contamination, boil time, boilover, and temperature over reactions for the first time). After about 20 hours I noticed some fermentation by watching it through the glass carboy and seeing bubbles through the airlock. There was a good amount of bubble action, but only about 3 inches of krausen. Initially, I had considered turning the airlock into a blow-off valve, but it never got close. After about 3 days, things started really calming down. The krausen started to reduce and the bubbles stopped in the airlock.
My concern right now is that my gravity is 1.016 (which isn't too far off the 1.010-1.014 the recipe calls far), but the OG seemed really low at 1.040.

I don't know if I'm being too picky, but is this thing fully fermented? I meant to buy some amylase enzyme to toss in when I started but forgot in all the brewing craziness. Is it too late to add amylase enzme to see if I can get the gravity a little lower?

Any advice? reactions? thoughts on life?

 

[Dunerunner]

What was the temperature of the wort when you took your OG reading? If over 70 did you compensate for it?

I'm taking it you are 3 days into fermentation. Your grav is 1.016. You essentially have 11 more days of fmt left so relax, until then.

 

[wonderbread23]

Don't add any enzymes! Your beer is likely done, and probably pretty tasty as it. You probably have an inaccurate OG reading due to non-sufficiently mixed wort and topping water. What was the recipe? It is pretty much impossible to miss your starting gravity on an extract kit unless you over shoot the amount of water you add.

 

[frazier]

The best thing to do in such situations is to ride it out, stick with the plan. Then, while you are enjoying what will almost certainly be an excellent homebrew, you can contemplate what you have learned, and plan for your next batches. But above all, don't panic.

Oh, and welcome to HBT!

 

[passedpawn]

Don't add any enzymes! Your beer is likely done, and probably pretty tasty as it. You probably have an inaccurate OG reading due to non-sufficiently mixed wort and topping water. What was the recipe? It is pretty much impossible to miss your starting gravity on an extract kit unless you over shoot the amount of water you add.

ditto on all

 

[Ozmo]

Don't add any enzymes! Your beer is likely done, and probably pretty tasty as it. You probably have an inaccurate OG reading due to non-sufficiently mixed wort and topping water. What was the recipe? It is pretty much impossible to miss your starting gravity on an extract kit unless you over shoot the amount of water you add.

Recipe:
Muntons Amber Extract - 2 cans
Crystal Grain - 1lb
Pilgrim Hop Pellets - 1oz
First Gold Hop Pellets - 1oz (added for last 2 minutes)
Muntons Gold Dry Yeast Packet
Toasted Oak Chips (added to primary)

I guess I need to look over my notes or just make sure I don't somehow top it off too much...or get better at using my hydrometer.
Thanks for the reassurance! I'll let you know how it turns out (or will be back soon if bottling goes awry)


Oh, and one more quick thing as I'm thinking about my next batch: do any of you ever add amylase as a precaution? A few books I've been reading mention it like it's a standard practice.

 

[jigidyjim]

I've never had to add anything to get my beer to ferment properly. This would be especially true for extract brewing, I would think.

 

[Dogphish]

i'm a noob, but unless i'm a mistaken noob, amylase enzyme is only supposed to be used in all grain brewing, not extract brewing. as a matter of fact, at the end of the mashing process you raise the temperature to 169 degrees to deactivate the amylase enzyme... and that enzyme would only been needed for undermodified grain, or when using adjuncts that don't have their own enzymes (which is usually compensated for by using enzyme rich 6 row malt).

 

[lumpher]

i've used amylase in my wine-making, but have never used it for beer. it's job is to break down unfermentables into fermentables. if you use it in almost any beer, you might get it too dry.

 

[wonderbread23]

Plugging your recipe into Beertools gives me 1.049 for a starting gravity...I'm guessing you weren't quite mixed right. Anyways, attenuating down to 1.016 is 67% attenuation and about 4.32% ABV. I'm guessing you're probably done if you used the kit yeast that may or may not have had good viability depending of the storage circumstances.

 

[dpittard]

If you're wondering if the beer is done fermenting, check the gravity every few days. If it stays the same over a week, fermentation is done. That doesn't necessarily mean that the beer is ready to be kegged/bottled. Flavors really mellow out and mesh together if left in the fermenter an extra week or two.

You may also want to test your hydrometer if you haven't already. Make sure to test it in water that is at the temperature the hydrometer is calibrated to. And when you test your beer, take a temp reading of test beer and adjust your gravity reading if necessary.

 

[Ozmo]

Plugging your recipe into Beertools gives me 1.049 for a starting gravity...I'm guessing you weren't quite mixed right. Anyways, attenuating down to 1.016 is 67% attenuation and about 4.32% ABV. I'm guessing you're probably done if you used the kit yeast that may or may not have had good viability depending of the storage circumstances.

Perfect. Thank you!
And thanks for all the info about amylase.

 

[Hang Glider]

Alpha amylase and beta amylase are not additives - they're IN the grain we buy. When we heat our mash water to 148-152, we activate the alpha enzyme which breaks starch chains randomly along the chain, while the beta is activated at 156-162 and converts the starch chain by acting on the end molecules of each chain. Warmer temperatures leave longer chains intact, creating more mouthfeel. Cooler temperatures break more chains, creating more alcohol. We typically go for a 154F conversion temp for an hour, and get a decent mouthfeel and good starch conversion....

Doing this from memory, some of the temps might be off a bit...