What Did I Do Wrong?

[VikeMan]

I've not seen any for sale by beer brewing suppliers, but I think for other uses there are some out there for sale. I think usually they are plastic.

Curious as to what you meant by that (like is there a shortage or something?), I just looked at MoreBeer, Northen Brewer, and Adventures in Hombrewing. All three have hydrometers in stock, so I stopped looking.

 

[hotbeer]

Curious as to what you meant by that (like is there a shortage or something?), I just looked at MoreBeer, Northen Brewer, and Adventures in Hombrewing. All three have hydrometers in stock, so I stopped looking.

I was talking about the hydrometers that you have to calibrate yourself before using the first time. I haven't seen those type sold at beer brewing supply vendors online. They sell hydrometers that are calibrated prior to your purchase. Not that you shouldn't double check them.

I have seen the hydrometers that required that first time calibration sold in connection with something else but can't remember what that was. Generally they were inexpensive and plastic.... I think.

You calibrate them by removing material from the bottom of the bulb that is put there specifically for that purpose.

But it has been a long time since I have seen them.... 10 years or more so maybe they don't bother to make them now.

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

So, a week ago I attempted to brew an IPA.

The OG was 1.063, and when I checked the gravity on Sunday and it was 1.012. It smelled sooooo juicy, and I had high hopes. FWIW, I fermented with Lallemand New England yeast.

I dry hopped on day two of fermentation, then on Sunday racked to a keg via a closed transfer. I wanted to get the beer off of the hops and figured it would be fine as it had already hit the gravity I was expecting. I kept the keg at 68 degrees and planned on cold crashing and carbonating over the weekend. Tonight I was curious how it smelled and wanted to do another gravity reading. The sample reeks of diacetyl, and the gravity is now reading aboout 1.006.

What happened? Is this going to be salvageable? If I leave it in the keg at 68F for another week will the diacetyl clear up?

Looks like you ran into what a bunch of us ran into...Post Fermentation Diacetyl. We had chatter about this years back. The day-2 hop addition is fine, although I do day-4 myself. But throwing on more hops without removing the yeast first will cause this in my (our) experience. Generally a cold crash, transfer, THEN hop addition will resolve this.

I've gone to a day-4 hop addition, cold crash, transfer then add hop tea to the keg. I'll steep at 100F a couple ounces of hops in a Stainless strainer then add the "juice". This way I don't get material in the keg. There is some oxygen introduction but I obviously do plenty of purging.

It may not be "the best" way to do IPAs but it's eliminated several problems. Good luck down the IPA Home Brew Rabbit hole.

As far as salvage, I've heard folk addition DME and yeast to restart the fermentation process. Basically making another beer. According to them it's a successful process. There's an official name for this technique but it's eluding me right now.