First brew, high OG, very quick FG

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by mjnorman187, Feb 7, 2015.

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  1. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    Hey guys, finally took the dive head first into home brewing! I decided to opt for the Hex Nut Brown Ale extract kit from Midwest. Followed the recipe to the letter (I'm a bit anal). After cooling, topping off with tap water in the primary fermenting bucket and mixing I had an OG of 1.090 yet the recipe predicts ~1.042. I left it in the primary for 1 week, then transferred to secondary. Took a reading and saw 1.010 on the dial which is on the nose with what the recipe predicts. According to what I've read these kits take 1 week primary then 3-4 weeks secondary!...what gives? Thinking I was crazy I took a reading the next day, and got 1.010 again.

    First question, why was my OG so high? Second question, should I keep fermenting? I'm getting a bubble every now and then, but nothing major, about 1-3 a minute or so.

    Thanks for any help guys, I'm having a blast brewing!
     
  2. ssam

    ssam Pundit (997) Dec 2, 2008 California

    If you did an extract kit and your OG is that far off something is wrong. Either you don't have the volume that the recipe asked for or your measurements are wrong. Regarding the 1.010 reading. Thats good. You want all the fermentation to be done in primary before transferring, so that seems good. The time in secondary will help the beer mellow out and clean up, but the SG shouldn't drop too much if at all in secondary. So stay on the schedule and bottle in a couple weeks.
     
  3. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    Thanks for the reply, I guess I missed the part about fermentation being complete in the primary. I thought it continued on into the secondary so figured something was off. I very well could have had that initial reading off since I didn't have a thief at the time, so just submerged the sample container to pull off a sample so I got a bunch of bubbles from that motion.
     
  4. CurtFromHershey

    CurtFromHershey Initiate (0) Oct 4, 2012 Minnesota

    To simplify the process, you can just leave it in primary another week or two.

    Also, can you describe your process for measuring the gravity?
     
  5. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    Yeah I'm just starting out so not entirely sure on the whole pro/con of 2 stage vs 1 stage, but my kit came with both so why not run 2 you know?

    So to measure gravity, I have a hydrometer, pull a sample with the thief I got, drop and spin the hydrometer in the sample and see what the reading is.

    As I said before when I took the first reading before fermentation, I didn't have a thief so just pushed my sample container/beaker deal into the bucket to pull a sample in, which caused alot of bubbles in the sample container, so maybe I didn't get a great reading.
     
  6. CurtFromHershey

    CurtFromHershey Initiate (0) Oct 4, 2012 Minnesota

    Do you know what temperature the sample was? That affects the reading but there are calculators online to adjust for that. Bubbles can also affect readings.

    One con to a secondary fermentation vessel is the introduction of oxygen during the transfer. That's "why not" enough for me.
     
  7. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    At OG after initial cool reading it was around 70, in secondary its running about 64-66. Im guessing the bubbles did it.

    Thanks for the feedback.
     
  8. ronobvious2

    ronobvious2 Initiate (0) Aug 24, 2010 Tennessee

    The temperature correction for gravity readings is a little overstated. These readings are, if I'm correct, set for a standard liquid temperature of 60F. Say your OG was 1.050 at 70F. If you plug those values into a calculator online, it's only going to correct it to, say 1.051 or whatever. Pretty negligible but I still do it just to have the right number.

    http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

    Hydrometers have different scales on them. I wonder if you read something else on the measurement. There's not too many beers about there that are going to have an OG of 1.090 except for RIS or the like. You made 5 gallons, I assume.

    And, or what it's worth, I've made two beers recently that probably did the bulk of their fermentation before a week was over, and I had temperature control on both of them. One was heated, the other cooled.
     
    #8 ronobvious2, Feb 7, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2015
  9. koopa

    koopa Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2008 New Jersey

    Temperature and dissolved gas in the sample can skew the hydrometer reading, but I doubt by 40+ gravity points. How did you measure your preboil and postboil volume and how close were they to what the recipe said they should be? If your volumes were low (or you added too much extract) you would have a significantly higher starting gravity than expected.
     
  10. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    Preboil I measured volume by using my bucket which has measured gradient, boiled 3 gallons. Then after boil, before yeast, topped off to 5 gallons, took a sample. I'm just thinking all the bubbles from the way I took my sample obscured the reading. At least I have the correct FG, right?
     
  11. koopa

    koopa Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2008 New Jersey

    How well did you mix your wort and water prior to taking the reading? Is it possible that the wort and water wasn't totally mixed and that your sample was mainly undiluted / concentrated wort? That makes more sense to me than dissolved gas in solution. After all this was pre-fermentation.... Did you even oxygenate your wort? If so, how?
     
  12. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    That makes sense. It is possible, I took pretty good notes, but didn't write that part down. Also I haven't invested in any kind of oxygenation yet so was doing it the poor way with sloshing with my big spoon best I could.
     
  13. koopa

    koopa Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2008 New Jersey

    I doubt you got enough dissolved oxygen into the wort via "spoon sloshing" to throw your hydrometer reading off 40+ points, let alone a 1.090 beer fermenting all the way down to 1.010 in a week without proper oxygenation. The latter would have required quite a large yeast pitch to begin with. Probably much larger than your 1.042 beer kit came with. Signs point to the diluted wort not being properly mixed prior to taking the reading.
     
  14. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    Alright, thanks all!
     
  15. koopa

    koopa Initiate (0) Apr 20, 2008 New Jersey

    Perhaps next time you should have the cold water in the ale pail and pour your wort into it, rather than putting the wort in the ale pail first and topping off with cold water? I know the way you did it is probably more common since it's an easier way of hitting your target volume without wasting wort, but you'd ensure better mixing if the water was in there first. Or just do it the normal way you did and really shake it up good then give it some time to blend before taking the reading. Good luck!
     
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  16. mjnorman187

    mjnorman187 Initiate (0) Feb 7, 2015

    Thanks koopa going to give that a try next time for sure.
     
  17. Naugled

    Naugled Pooh-Bah (1,944) Sep 25, 2007 New York
    Pooh-Bah

    When you say bubbles, do you mean foam? like a head on a beer? if so, you should let that dissipate before reading the hydrometer. You need nice flat beer to get a crisp line.
     
  18. ssam

    ssam Pundit (997) Dec 2, 2008 California

    Yea this. If he topped off with water and it wasn't well mixed, then the top (where he drew his sample from) would have the more diluted sugar concentration. That would make his SG reading lower not higher. The water, which has a lower density than wort, wouldn't sink to the bottom.
    Since your volume was correct and you only added fermentables via extract, you can rest assured that your OG is very close to the target given by the recipe, if not exactly the same. So for calculations for abv and stuff, you can still use the figures from the recipe and your measured FG.
     
  19. inchrisin

    inchrisin Pooh-Bah (2,013) Sep 25, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah

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