Pitch Yeast or Keg ASAP?

[TANSTAAFL]

Any advice or opinion is appreciated: I need to make decision on pitching more yeast, or kegging.

On Monday, I brewed my first all grain, an Imperial Russian Stout, with an OG of 1.103. The target FG, as per BeerSmith, is 1.023.

Last night, I took a reading and got a 1.030 specific gravity at 73F - should I use this as my Final Gravity, and keg, or pitch another packet of yeast?

BTW, my actual interim reading might be higher: my hydrometer reads 1.003 at 60F, so I guess my current gravity is 1.033 or so. IF I add the +0.0016 differential for 73F from Palmer's book, that takes it to 1.0346 .... a +11.6 difference from the target Final Gravity of 1.023.

QUESTION: Should I pitch one more packet of yeast?

Initially, I used four packets of US-05. I had a bit of slurry on the bottom of the blowoff tube bucket.

Again, any opinions are appreciated - I'm trying to figure out if I should keg or not.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

WAIT. For an RIS 1 week is definitely not long enough. You should give it at least 2 full weeks before even thinking about kegging it. Don't pitch more yeast, you already had more than required. They're still alive, it just takes longer for them to clean up those harder to convert sugars than the really simple ones they start with.

You want the same gravity for 3 days before considering fermentation finished. I would wait a week, then take a reading. Then take one 2 days later, then if those are the same, another the day after.

 

[afr0byte]

Actually, if your hydrometer reads high at 60 degrees in distilled water then your actual FG right now is 1.027, not 1.033. Anyways, I'd say it's probably done, considering the 4 packs of yeast. EDIT: Actually I suppose with temperature correction you're more like 1.029 instead of 1.027, but...

 

[LLBeanJ]

You just brewed this on Monday? As in 8 days ago? If so, don't do anything. Wait another week and check it again.

 

[FourSeasonAngler]

I'm assuming you mean LAST WEEK Monday, not yesterday?

Either way, for a beer to go anywhere close to FG FROM 1.103 you're going to need to wait a month before you should expect to see your gravity level off.

If I were you I would rouse the yeast, warm it up and see if you can get the FG down closer to 1.023 in the next 10 to 15 days.

 

[kh54s10]

Agreed that you need to allow it to ferment longer.

Also after kegging it put it aside for 6 months to a year to properly age.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[afr0byte]

I'm assuming you mean LAST WEEK Monday, not yesterday?

Either way, for a beer to go anywhere close to FG FROM 1.103 you're going to need to wait a month before you should expect to see your gravity level off.

If I were you I would rouse the yeast, warm it up and see if you can get the FG down closer to 1.023 in the next 10 to 15 days.

Eh, if he pitched the right amount of yeast (It seems like he did, at least if it's not a 10 gallon batch...but even then he's not far off, assuming he rehydrated) 8-10 days SHOULD be enough to get to FG even with a 1.103. My last barleywine (1.107) finished down to 1.022 in ~8 days, for example. I used 3 packets (since the yeast was about a year old), properly rehydrated.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

All, thank you for the responses and sharing your opinions, it has helped. Consolidated, I will wait another week. IF the readings are not improving, I’ll rack to a secondary, to, as I understand, to minimize problems with autolysis, etc.

My intent for choosing this beer was to age it for at least 6 months, so I have something when its colder and I won’t have a chance to brew as much.


BeerNutz (And others): Sorry, I did not post until Tuesday, but I meant to say that I brewed the previous Monday, so about one week.

afr0byte … thank you for catching that I applied the hydrometer correction in the wrong direction. I used to be in a part of the Army where our unofficial motto was ‘we don’t think and you can’t make us.’

Again, thank you. I attached some of my brew notes, and the BeerSmith recipe (With other notes), as well.

All, thank you for the responses and sharing your opinions, it has helped. Consolidated, I will wait another week. IF the readings are not improving, I’ll rack to a secondary, to, as I understand, to minimize problems with autolysis, etc.

My intent for choosing this beer was to age it for at least 6 months, so I have something when its colder and I won’t have a chance to brew as much.


BeerNutz (And others): Sorry, I did not post until Tuesday, but I meant to say that I brewed the previous Monday, so about one week.

afr0byte … thank you for catching that I applied the hydrometer correction in the wrong direction. I used to be in a part of the Army where our unofficial motto was ‘we don’t think and you can’t make us.’

I uploaded the recipe with notes, and some notes about my learning curve on my first all-grain experience.

Again, thank you for the assistance.

= = = = =

CALCULATING VOLUMES AND UNDERSTANDING WATER

I tested my boil-off rate, to verify what BeerSmith had for the default, and, yes, it is about 3.2 gal an hour when using a Blichman burner with 72,000 BTU.

In the end, I was left with an excess 1 gal of usable wort. This probably happened for several reasons I induced:

• During mash-in I used the recommended amount of water from BeerSmith, 34.47qt.
• I ended up at 154F in the mash tun and it did not go down to 152F. Knowing that the first 5-10 minutes are critical, I added 1 gal of water to cool it down, and it did.
• I ended up with 9.5 gallons of wort pre-boil and added another gallon to get to the estimated pre-boil volume.
• BeerSmith somehow estimated 6.24 gallons for post-boil. After a 75-minute boil, I had a post-boil volume of 6.5gal of usable wort
• .

I don’t understand how BeerSmith got to a post-boil volume estimate of 6.24gal.

GRAVITY UNITS/HITTING TARGET OG

Targeted Total Gravity/Original Gravity: I designed the 5.5 gallon batch recipe in BeerSmith 2.2 (BS), which calculated a target original gravity (OG) for the wort at 1.103. This would make my targeted Total Gravity (TG) to be 566.5 gravity units (GUs): 5.5 x 103 = 556.5 GU.

• Pre-boil Specific Gravities/actual Total Gravities: I took a specific gravity of the 9.5 gallons pre-boil wort using two methods:
• Refractometer: The pre-boil SG was 1.061. So, 9.5gal x 62 = 578 GUs
• Hydrometer: The pre-boil SG was 1.060 @ 130F = 1.073. I applied the +).13 correction for the temperature from Palmer’s How To Brew. So, 9.5gal x 73 = 700.8 GU

I took the hydrometer/temperature readings twice, with the same results. Since the refractometer was closer to the target of 566.5 GUs, I used this.

Question/Issue/Discussion:
1. Why the bid difference in readings using the two different devices?
2. Which should I use?

Post-Boil: I again applied both the hydrometer and refractomer for my post-boil volume of about 6.5gal (actually, I only used 5.5 gal); see water calculation problem.

Hydrometer: The SG was 1.099 @ 79F, which corrects to 1.103 OG.
Refractometer: The reading was 1.099

Final GUs: Since I ended up with 5.5gal in the fermenter and another 1gal excess, I ran both calculations:
Total 6.5gal x 103 = 669.5 GUs (Refractomer of 1.099 comes to 643.5)
5gal x 103 = 566.5 (Refractomer of 1.099 comes to 544.5)

Questions/Issue/Discussion:
1. Why are the hydrometer and refractometers the same after the boil but not before?
2. Given this situation, how do I best estimate how many GUs are really in the fermenter. I assume that the 5.5gal is the right value, so I am generally in the right neighborhood.
3. I did not know what to do with the excess 1gal wort, did not have the equipment for a small test batch.

View attachment Stone Imperial Russian Stout 3.bsmx

 

[cjgenever]

There is a lot going on in a beer that big.It needs at least two weeks on the cake to clean up. I'd give it three myself. Autolisis isn't a concern for that amount of time.

 

[cjgenever]

Hydrometer can be temp corrected, but the further from the calibrated temp the further off the readings. Don't use a hydrometer on anything beyond 20°f from calibration. With a refractometer you can pull boiling wort and get a proper reading. The small volume of wort is quickly cooled as its heat is conducted into the glass plate of the refractometer. Don't forget that if your refract is not atc you must adjust for ambient air temp.