SG went UP?

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bengerman

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i'm brewing an Irish red. i know it's not ruined, but i'd like to know how i accomplished this...

OG (2/16) 1.060
SG on
2/23 1.030
2/26 1.025
3/1 1.020
3/3 1.021

all of these are temperature-adjusted figures.

i know you'll ask for it, so here's all the details

5 gallon batch (well, slightly under 5)
6lb amber LME
1lb gold light DME

8 oz special B malt
8 oz cara-pils malt

2 oz willamette hope @ boil

yeast WLP028


here's where i think i screwed up -
i've been using an aquarium heater to keep the wort warm (it's out in the cold garage) and it's been holding fairly steady between 65-68f, until yesterday, when for some reason it decided to spike up to 79f, so i turned it way down, added some cool water and monitored as it cooled back to 65f. got the heater back to normal (or so i thought) went and pulled a sample just now, and checked the temp. temp said 43f :(, gravity reads 1.024, adjusted that should be 1.023, so far as i can tell. also it's way cloudier than the others have been.


from lurking around here i'm going to assume that my best course of action is to rdwhahb, but i don't have any homebrews, so a redhook will have to do.

really what i want to know is where this "extra gravity" is coming from, or kinda what's going on bio-chemically speaking to raise that number.

i'm letting the sample warm up to room temp, then i'll see what it reads once it's up where the other samples have been (just in case i've been converting wrong or something...)
 
Pull a sample when it's at ~60F... Lower temperatures will make it more dense, so you'll have a false reading. I don't have references for going below 60F, for adjustment.
 
Pull a sample when it's at ~60F... Lower temperatures will make it more dense, so you'll have a false reading. I don't have references for going below 60F, for adjustment.

the sample i'm warming to room temp is up to 57F and reading at 1.023 (adjustment calculator says this should be 1.023)
 
using a hydrometer (same one for all mearuments, same person measuring, in the same sample container set on the same level surface)
i haven't confirmed the accuracy, but i will go do that now.
 
dingdingding WINNER
hydrometer is reading at 1.004 for water @ 61F
fyi - this is the hydrometer i'm using


so that means the hydrometer went out of calibration between my two tests (3/1 and 3/3)? if i was using a busted one the whole time, wouldn't it still keep going down until fermentation stopped?
 
dingdingding WINNER
hydrometer is reading at 1.004 for water @ 61F
fyi - this is the hydrometer i'm using


so that means the hydrometer went out of calibration between my two tests (3/1 and 3/3)? if i was using a busted one the whole time, wouldn't it still keep going down until fermentation stopped?

Sometimes those slips of paper inside move a bit. It sounds like fermentation is over, and if it doesn't move over three days, then it's safe to bottle.
 
Call me crazy, but I'd call 1.020 and 1.021 the same. .001 is more than likely within the margin of error of the hydrometer (or your eyes).
 
Call me crazy, but I'd call 1.020 and 1.021 the same. .001 is more than likely within the margin of error of the hydrometer (or your eyes).

that 1.021 is supposed to read 1.024 as it does later in the post...
 
I got that. But on a properly calibrated hydrometer, I wouldn't call a difference of .001 real...
 
Call me crazy, but I'd call 1.020 and 1.021 the same. .001 is more than likely within the margin of error of the hydrometer (or your eyes).

i'd agree with this. i usually end off sorta rounding-off/estimating my hydrometer readings. as long as its in the ballpark, its all good
 
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