very high specific gravity

Just covering my bases in case any of you saw this over at the rec.crafts.brewing group -- don't skin me.

Hello folks, I couldn't find an answer after searching for a while so I thought I'd just post directly to the group. Hopefully one of you pros can help.

I just racked my first batch of beer after six days in the primary fermenter (the airlock had slowed down to about a bubble every 30 secs or so) and was still coming up with a specific gravity of 1.024 at 73 degrees. Now, I know this is way too high to prime and bottle (which was my original plan) but I'm concerned that the brew won't be safe to bottle in the next 2-3 days. The only reason I say this is because the original specific gravity and temp at the time I pitched my yeast (White Labs English ale) was 1.122 and 72 degrees. I know that's wickedly high but I used 6.5 lbs of malt (half syrup and half DME -- it's what I had on hand).

Any thoughts on what's going on here and why the specific gravity readings are so high? Do you think there's a chance that I will have to add more yeast to jump start the fermentation again?

Reply to
grundlethrop
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1) your temperature is probably high for what your meter is calibrated to which will drive up your specific gravity 2) your ale yeast WLP002 has an attenuation of 62-70, which means that it's going to naturally leave a higher SGf, leaving about 30% of your sugars unfermented. 3) Lastly, your going to get a higher attenuation if you brew above 63-68 F if indeed your going with WLP002.

-Cowboy

Reply to
G_Cowboy_is_That_a_Gnu_Hurd?

Since you used such a huge amount of malt you're bound to be left with a

fairly high final gravity. However if you are worried that your beer hasn't fermented completely, leave it for another week and check the final gravity again. Also there's no need to worry that your beer would spoil during this time, unless you sanitized your equipment really badly during racking.

In fact you can leave your beer in the secondary fermenter for even a longer time if you want. If you sanitized well then there's nothing you'd need to worry about, you'll only end up with a beer with less sediment in the bottles and probably a better taste.

In my opinion there's no need to add more yeast. Since you kept the beer in primary for only six days there's still lots of yeast floating around, it will get the job done if there's anything let to ferment.

Reply to
hevimees

G_Cowboy and Hevimees, thank you for your replies.

I'll just be patient and see what happens. I guess I should have left it in the primary fermenter for a bit longer. Hopefully everything will turn out well in the next week or so. Live and learn. Thanks again.

Reply to
grundlethrop

I think what the others are getting at is there wasn't enough information to determine what, if any, the problem was. It is a good idea to give the more experienced brewers as much information about how things were done, including ingredients.

Having said that I am still a relatively inexperienced brewer. As a relative newcomer to homebrewing, I understand the difficulty in starting out.

It gets easier as you go (at least that is what I am finding). You will learn something new with every batch you brew.

Best of luck

Scott Lothrop

Reply to
Scott Lothrop

6.5lbs of malt isn't really that much. Most of the recipies, that I have done, have at least that much and start out at about 1.050 SG. I'm willing to bet that you read the hydrometer wrong or it's calibrated incorrectly. I believe that it would be hard to get that high of a reading in a 5 gal batch with that amt of malt. You did take your reading after you had the whole 5 gal batch mixed together, before you added the yeast, right? A safe rule of thumb is: 1 week in the primary and then 1 week in the secondary and everything should be fine. (This is for most normal, average gravity, ales) I have 2 hydrometers, both calibrated for 60F. One has a chart on how to compensate for temp. 70F add 1, 77F add 2, 84F add 3, 95F add 5. For example, if you took a reading at 84F and you measurement was 1.100, add 3 and the adjusted reading would be 1.103. I generally don't worry about the exact reading. I try to get the measurements between 65F and 70F before I pitch and take a final reading when I am getting ready to bottle just to get a close idea on the ABV. If you like, take 3 readings, about a day apart, if the gravity doesn't change then it's done brewing, if it changes, keep trying until you get 3 readings in a row that don't change. Make sure you are at the same temp each time. I think, if you wait a few more days you should be fine. Good luck, Welcome to the hobbie, Cheers,
Reply to
DragonTail281

I didn't think 6.5 lbs was too much since a buddy of mine who's been brewing for a few years typically uses 5 lbs of malt and a pound of honey when he's making his honey brown ale. That's a lot of sugar and his OG comes out very high. Anyway, I definitely made a point of checking the OG after filling the fermenter up with additional water to bring it to 5 gallons. I am more and more inclined to believe that the wort didn't get stirred all the way which is why the OG was so high. In fact, here's my recipe that I posted over on rec.crafts.brewing when I was asking for their help. Hopefully this will help you figure out (maybe) what some of the problems might be.

  1. Brought to boil 2 gals of water.
  2. Once at a boil turned off heat and added all malt (3.5 lb can of Bulldog amber syrup and 3 lb bag Haaglander light DME). Mixed thoroughly.
  3. Return to boil for 5 minutes to make sure everything was nice and mixed.
  4. Add 1 oz. of Hallertau hops, 4.6% alpha acid.
  5. Boil for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. At 45 minute mark, added 1/2 oz of Willamette hops, 4.0% alpha acid.
  7. Boiled for another 10 mins and then added last 1/2 oz of Willamette hops.
  8. Cooled the mix in an ice water bath in kitchen sink for about an hour. It took a lot longer b/c I kept running out of ice. Discovered blocks of frozen chicken thighs work just as well. :)
  9. Moved the cooled wort to primary fermenter. I should point out that the siphon wasn't used since my fermenter is a six gallon plastic bucket. I just poured it in but tried to minimize splashing so as not to froth it up.
  10. Moved the bucket to a bathtub and topped it up to about 5.5 gallons.
  11. Recorded OG and temp. I assume there wasn't proper mixing to get a
1.122 reading at 72 degrees.
  1. Added White Labs English ale yeast (WLP002).
  2. Checked the airlock's activity twice a day and after six days thought it had slowed enough to bottle. I honestly forgot all about racking it first.
  3. Recorded the 1.024 FG at 73 degrees and freaked out. No way I'm going to bottle this.
  4. Moved the brew into 5 gallon glass carboy and put it back in the bathtub. Wrapped a towel around it to keep light out. No skunky beer please.
  5. Started searching for help on the great big Internet and wound up here. Thanks for all your help folks.

I did check the accuracy of my hydrometer and it was pretty close to

1.000 with just tap water. Hopefully it was just a particularly thick wort sample that I used.
Reply to
grundlethrop

"Frothing" is good at this point. It will incorporate O2 into the solution that the yeast need to "work" properly.

Probably correct about the mixing. You need to make sure that everything is mixed really well. Again the more you mix the more O2 you can get into the wort. I actually use a wisk to mix everything up.

I would leave it in the secondary for at least a week. The gravity should drop closer to what you are expecting, I'm guessing somewhere around 1.014-1.016. Cheers,

Reply to
DragonTail281

Here's my defense speech: you didn't specify the size of your batch, so I assumed that you used 6,5 lbs of malt in a batch smaller than the standard

5 gal, since you claimed your starting gravity was 1.122.

However with this amount of ingredients it's simply impossible to get a gravity that high, so the sample you took was very strange indeed, or your hydrometer is wrong.

Also just as Michael already said it's a good thing to get oxygen into the wort before you add the yeast. Yeast needs oxygen to grow, so it's very important that there's lots of it in the wort in the beginning of the fermentation.

If you have two plastic buckets and a friend to help you out, then a good way to aerate the wort is to pour it from bucket to bucket a couple of times. If you only have one bucket then just close the lid, put your thumb on the airlock hole and shake the poop out of it.

In any case patience is your best friend. I agree with Michael's rule of one week primary + one week secondary. If you're feeling lazy you can also leave your beer in the primary for the whole two weeks and it should turn out just fine. But since you have a glass carboy, I suggest you use it as a secondary fermenter. I know I would if I had one, it's nearly impossible to get one where I live.

Anyways I don't really see any big problems with your brew at this point, just small issues like the bad hydrometer and a slightly slow fermentation. But as the big boys like to say: relax, have a homebrew... and wait for a week :)

Reply to
hevimees

Then that's exactly what I will do. I'll just let it sit in the dark for another week and see what happens. Thanks for all of your advice.

Reply to
grundlethrop

Alrighty, I finally got around to taking a specific gravity sample of the 2nd fermentation. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. At 74 degrees I'm still coming up with a raw reading of 1.020 which is 1.022 when adjusted for temperature. I think that's a pretty good sign that the fermentation has completely stopped since that's where it was at a week ago when I moved the brew to the 2nd fermenter. I know this is too high for bottling so where do I go from here? Also, the final volume in the carboy appears to be just a bit over four gallons if that helps you adjust for anything. Thanks for all your help so far.

Reply to
grundlethrop

Why do you think this is too high for bottling?

steveb

Reply to
steveb

I thought it needed to be around 1.010 so that there wouldn't be any risk of explosions during carbonation. By adding sugar I'll raise the SG slightly in order to give the yeast something to ferment and make bubbles. If I mix this up with a bit of sugar to restart the fermentation (provided there's any yeast still alive in my brew) and then bottle it in order to contain the CO2, won't there be a greater chance of my bottles exploding?

Do I need to think about adding "yeast hulls" (or whatever Papazian calls it) and more yeast to kick start the fermentation in the 2nd fermenter again? How about just sloshing around the carboy since there's a bit of sediment on the bottom?

Reply to
grundlethrop

Well not necessarily.

Many recipes will be *done* at around 1020. Did you post the recipe, we have the final volume, so that will help.

steveb

Reply to
steveb

I posted the recipe on Nov 28th. Here it is again if you need it:

  1. Brought to boil 2 gals of water.
  2. Once at a boil turned off heat and added all malt (3.5 lb can of Bulldog amber syrup and 3 lb bag Haaglander light DME). Mixed thoroughly.
  3. Return to boil for 5 minutes to make sure everything was nice and mixed.
  4. Add 1 oz. of Hallertau hops, 4.6% alpha acid.
  5. Boil for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. At 45 minute mark, added 1/2 oz of Willamette hops, 4.0% alpha acid.
  7. Boiled for another 10 mins and then added last 1/2 oz of Willamette

hops.

  1. Cooled the mix in an ice water bath in kitchen sink for about an hour. It took a lot longer b/c I kept running out of ice. Discovered blocks of frozen chicken thighs work just as well. :)
  2. Moved the cooled wort to primary fermenter. I should point out that the siphon wasn't used since my fermenter is a six gallon plastic bucket. I just poured it in but tried to minimize splashing so as not to froth it up.
  3. Moved the bucket to a bathtub and topped it up to about 5.5 gallons.
  4. Recorded OG and temp. I assume there wasn't proper mixing to get a

1.122 reading at 72 degrees.

  1. Added White Labs English ale yeast (WLP002).
  2. Checked the airlock's activity twice a day and after six days thought it had slowed enough to bottle. I honestly forgot all about racking it first.
  3. Recorded the 1.024 FG at 73 degrees and freaked out. No way I'm going to bottle this.
  4. Moved the brew into 5 gallon glass carboy and put it back in the bathtub. Wrapped a towel around it to keep light out. No skunky beer please.
Reply to
grundlethrop

Thanks.

Final gravity, assuming you measured it correctly (which also means checking accuracy of your hydrometer) seems a bit high.

My estimate for the OG is around 1047, based on the ingredients and volume you specified, and I'd expect a FG of around 1012 ish.

At 1024, the attenuation is poor, and that yeast should do better.

One problem is that pouring the wort into the primary carefully, so as to avoid froth, is exactly what you do NOT want to do. The yeast, when pitched, requires the wort to be as saturated with oxygen as possible. This is the only time you actually do want to oxygenate. Boiling the wort reduces the O2 content to about zero, adding a couple of gallons of cold tap water will help, but maybe not enough.

If you are really concerned, you could try pitching a pack of dried Ale yeast, and seeing if the SG drops over a few days.

Otherwise, prime and bottle as usual. Keep an eye on the progress of the conditioning. Good qaulity bottles rearely break, cover them with a thick cloth, and open carefully, still covered.

hth

steveb

Reply to
steveb

I repitched with two packs of Nottingham dry ale yeast and a pack of yeast food on Dec 5th. I actually spent about 20 minutes rehydrating the yeast in warm, sterile water just to make sure they were good and active. I let the brew bubble away happily for another week and checked the SG again. It still came up with a 1.022 which means that I'm measuring from the bottom of the fermenter. I know the hydrometer works correctly because it reads 1.000 when it measures cold tap water. I said bollocks to the SG reading and bottled my brew anyway (on Dec

12th). That'll show it who's boss!

I'm going to pop open a bottle on New Year's Eve to see if any carbonation happened. Hopefully it did. I'll let you folks know how it turned out. Thanks for all your help.

Reply to
grundlethrop

it reads 1.000 when it

First off I would have done the same thing. The reading never changed even after you introduce more yeast. As for your hydometer, check out this link for calibrating it.

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Good luck, Wild

Reply to
wild

Love it :D

When you open them, do the first couple carefully, under a teatowel

steveb

Reply to
steveb

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