Question about my IPA

[hinke]

We brewed an IPA (made up my own recipe) 1.5 weeks ago. According to beer smith OG was supposed to be 1.068, we measured 1.060. Now after 1.5 week in the primary fermenter it is down to 1.010. According to beer smith it should be at 1.018 for final gravity.

Not sure what my question is, but is the gravity right now too low? The beer does not taste bad at all though.

9# Pale Malt (2 row)
2# Crystal 20L
1# munich
0.5# Carapils/Dextrine
0.5# Crystal 60L

1.00 oz Centennial 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade 50 min
0.5 oz Centennial 20 min
0.5 oz Centennial 5 min
0.5 oz Cascade 5 min

Some irish moss at 15 min

California Ale V yeast (White labs)

 

[DavidHawman]

What temperature did you mash and ferment at?

 

[hinke]

We mashed at 151F. Fermented at 68F.

 

[pkeeler]

Beer smith calculated the FG based on the original calculated OG of 1.068 or the actual of 1.060?

I'm not sure what you mean by too low. 1.010 is dry, but IPAs are suppose to be dry. It is interesting that you got down that far with all that crystal malt. Are you sure your mash was at 151F and not lower?

 

[devilishprune]

Can you measure what your efficiency was? How does that differ from the efficiency that you used when you formulated your recipe in beersmith?

It seems like everything went okay, and since you were under by .008 in both cases it seems like maybe just an efficiency issue.

I guess (less likely) it could be a hydrometer calibration issue resulting in that systematic error you've got going on there also.

 

[ajf]

The first thing I noticed was that you were 0.008 low on your OG, and that you were 0.008 low on your FG.
Have you checked your hydrometer to make sure it reads 1.000 in water at the right temperature (usually 60F)? If it reads a few points low (which is not unusual), then add those points to both the OG and FG.
The next thing is that if your OG was low, then the FG will also be low as it is calculated by Beersmith as a % of the OG
I'm surprised that you FG is so low because you have about 23% crystal malt (which is not very fermentable), but if it doesn't taste bad, I would not worry about it.
I'd take another gravity reading 3 days after the last one. If the gravity hasn't dropped any more, then you're good to bottle or keg. If the gravity is still dropping, then you should wait until it is stable over a period of 3 days.

-a.

 

[hinke]

It does taste dry, which I do like. I am still learning about the gravity.

The temp was 149F, and we had to raise it. We ended at 151F after about 10-15 minutes. We did not plan well, we did not have hot water ready, so it took us a while to get the temp up.

Not sure how much I can trust my thermometer I guess. It's a digital kitchen thermometer.

The final gravity estimate from beer smith was 1.018.

 

[hinke]

I will check the hydrometer and see what it measures for water.

 

[hinke]

I checked and it is reading 1.000 for water. I will take another reading in a few days. If it has stopped, I will keg it.

We are going to brew again this weekend, this time we will be more prepared and take more reading as we go along.

 

[hinke]

Took a reading this morning, it is still 1.010. I think it is done. It's been 2 weeks in a primary carboy, I won't transfer to a second one.

So, when kegging, do I first put the beer in the keg, then cool, then pressurize it?

Or should I let it sit in the carboy longer? Or does condition in the keg too?

 

[wonderbread23]

1.010 FG is fine. You're at about 83% attenuation (which appears to be close to what your recipe predicted) which is doable with Cal Ale yeast if you had a healthy pitch and good fermentation. The reason it is a lower than expected FG is because you missed your SG by 8 points... most likely due to overestimating your efficiency. Next time, keep some DME on hand and use it to adjust your preboil gravity so that if your efficiency numbers are off you can still hit the proper gravities.