Test Jar Sediment and gravity

[veritas524]

Hi all, I've been lurking for a few weeks and this is my first post. I brewed my first batch on Nov 27 (11 days ago) and messed up when I took my initial gravity reading. I did a partial boil (3 Gal w/ a 2 gal top up) and took the gravity of the 3 gallon wort. Off of the wort I came up with 1.080 which I thought was rather high, it took a day to register as to why it was so high.... but I digress. Is it possible to take that gravity reading and come out with the actual initial gravity of the five gallon batch? The only thing I could think of was multiplying 80 pts by .6 and I came up with 1.046. Does that seem about right or is my math way off?

Also, I took a sample from the spigot this morning to see how my fermentation was progressing. I was a little off put by how much sediment from the trub wound up in my test beaker. I'm hoping this is because I gently lifted the bucket out of its water bath and placed it on a stool to take my sample and just stirred up some of the trub. My current gravity is 1.022 and the beer tasted, well like warm flat beer which was encouraging. However, I am a little concerned over the amount of crap that made it's way from the spigot into my test jar as I wouldn't want to make a habit out of actually drinking it. The only thing I could think of doing to clear this would be to rack it to a secondary when my hydrometer finally stops moving (going to check it again on Friday or Saturday). Thanks for your help in advance! It's a Pale Ale by the way if that information helps at all.

 

[devilishprune]

Did you use extract? If so, you can easily calculate your gravity if you know your volume and the amount of extract you added. Your method doesn't really work, because it assume that both you only got the 3 gallon portion that you boiled and that there was no mixing between the two.

Don't worry about sediment, sometimes you will get some from the spigot depending on how close it is to the bottom of the bucket. If you rack normally (ie. don't use the spigot) to transfer to a bottling bucket then you should have nothing to worry about.

 

[veritas524]

6 pounds of Pale malt extract and steeped 1 pound Crystal Malt 10L

Not exactly sure how to calculate the gravity out of that =/

 

[Dogphish]

http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

1.048 if you used syrup
1.059 if you used powder

 

[veritas524]

Interesting... that calculator said that my final gravity should be 1.012. Is it possible that I have/had stuck fermentation if it doesn't move from where it currently is at 1.022 in the next couple days?

 

[devilishprune]

Usually, those calculators simply give you 75% attenuation regardless of the scenario. With extract, it's common to stop around 1.020. Leave it another week and don't worry about it. If it doesn't change, bottle it (or just leave it longer, whatever you want).

 

[veritas524]

Thanks for the info, I'm going to check it again on Friday... If it hasn't moved I'll let it sit for an additional week then bottle.