Final Gravity

beer1965

Active Member
Trial Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2019
Messages
102
Reaction score
45
Points
28
Hi everyone.. making my first batch. It's a blonde ale that I added 1lb of raw honey to just after peak fermentation. It's day 20. I just took a sample reading.

After I initially put it into the carboy I had a reading of 1.032 and today I got 1.006. For the OG I forgot to take it when my wort was cool, so that's after I mixed in the water and put it into the carboy. My word volume was probably about 2 gallons and I added about 3g of water. So I'm thinking my OG isn't true as it was diluted by the water??

There's been no visible activity in the carboy or airlock for a while. But after I put the airlock back on again it pushed up cap tube in the airlock to the top so it's still active I guess even if not visible. I took a swig and it's a bit fizzy and has a bit of a bitter aftertaste which surprised me as I put so little hops in (1.5oz at 50 and .5 oz at 10 of willamet 4.2 and using safale us-05).

I took pictures of both reading so I know my numbers are right. I moved the brew to a secondary carboy to take it out after fermentation was mostly done after week 1. Wouldn't do that again as I think the switch really slowed down the activity.

So if I take the gravity again tomorrow and I'm still at 1.006 I'm good to bottle? Thanks, frank!
 
As long as you're at proper fermentation temperature for the yeast strain, you should be okay to bottle after two days or so of terminal gravity. Very little additional fermentation should take place.

As far as secondary fermentation goes, a lot of people skip this unless it's a heavy beer style that needs extended aging. I have a stainless primary fermentor and routinely go three weeks in it for primary.
 
As long as you're at proper fermentation temperature for the yeast strain, you should be okay to bottle after two days or so of terminal gravity. Very little additional fermentation should take place.

As far as secondary fermentation goes, a lot of people skip this unless it's a heavy beer style that needs extended aging. I have a stainless primary fermentor and routinely go three weeks in it for primary.

Thanks bubba.. I definitely won't be using a secondary again. I thought it was a good idea at the time but now don't see the upside of going through that process. Is the specific gravity I have now enough? Is there a target gravity or are you just looking for the gravity to stop falling?
 
Final gravity is different with different yeasts. The last time I used US-05 it ended at 1.009. I would think that 1.006 would be as far as it will go. Some yeasts finish much higher, for instance S-04 is more likely to finish around 1.017. You should be good to package if the SG is still 1.006 tomorrow.
Good luck, let us know how it comes out!
 
After I initially put it into the carboy I had a reading of 1.032 and today I got 1.006. For the OG I forgot to take it when my wort was cool, so that's after I mixed in the water and put it into the carboy. My word volume was probably about 2 gallons and I added about 3g of water. So I'm thinking my OG isn't true as it was diluted by the water??
If your OG was taken after dilution, it's probably accurate and if you added the honey after that, then you boosted the gravity by several points. The pre-dilution gravity is not what you want to use for OG. Original gravity is not the same as post-boil gravity if you using a partial boil method as you appear to be doing.
The 1.006 is a plenty low final gravity so even without checking again, you'd almost certainly be good to go as far as bottling. You'll probably find that it's still the same gravity and can proceed.
As for your hops, it's about 22 IBUs in the amounts you describe so there'd be a little bitterness to a beer that light.
 
Thanks bubba.. I definitely won't be using a secondary again. I thought it was a good idea at the time but now don't see the upside of going through that process. Is the specific gravity I have now enough? Is there a target gravity or are you just looking for the gravity to stop falling?
You can't rely on final gravity, but instead look at when gravity quits falling. There are a lot of variables in final gravity, including mash temperature, yeast attenuation, etc. However, I have found that if I leave the beer in the fermentor for about a week after active bubbling, everything works out okay.
 
Thanks.. I bottled today.. as the gravity was still 1.006.. Looking forward to the May long weekend to crack one open!
 
Hi All,

Not quite sure how this works and hope I'm not gate-crashing! This topic seems relevant. We're also looking for some advice...

We've recently bottled a brew that seems to have an unusually high attenuation.

We were going for a double IPA with a 1 hour mash of extra pale maris otter, followed by Jester in two stages; start of boil and at 90 degrees after the boil. We mashed at what we thought was quite a low temp, 67 degrees coming down to 63 degrees by the end. Background info: we overcooked the one before (leaving way too much unfermentables we reckon) and perhaps overreacted!

So the original gravity turned out to be 1.059. We pitched 11 grams of Safale S-04 that I started in a little bit of DME to get it going. It fermented quite normally and was bubbling away after about 8-10 hours or so. By day 3, i.e. 48 hours later, we were on 1.018. After 13 days of slowing fermentation, we bottled at 1.009. It was smelling quite estery for the middle period, then at the end, the bananas disappeared and it smelled quite normal. It tasted a bit bland and quite sweet. Not much aley flavour.

Fermentis advise 50 to 80 g/hl. So with a final volume of 23l, we're pinching it a bit, I admit. But did we under pitch? Why did our gravity get so low? Why the lack of flavour? Why the sweetness with what is apparently, such a dry beer?

many thanks in advance!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_7850.JPG
    IMG_7850.JPG
    72.1 KB · Views: 87
Sweetness comes from a couple of issues: Underhopping is the biggest contributor to the problem. All beers taste sweet, the amylases in your saliva break down dextrines into sugars, leading to the second potential problem, too much dextrine. This could be a factor, but the final gravity of 1.009 pretty much indicates it's something else. The last thing that can cause a beer to taste sweet and lifeless is the acidity. If your beer isn't acidic enough, it will taste flabby, sweet. If anything, an underpitch would stress the yeast more, leading to more esters but more fusels as well. If your beer is "warm" in the mouthfeel, that might be the problem.
 
A FG of 1.009 isn't out of this world but is bloody great work from your yeast. It could be that the beer just needs some conditioning time to develop the flavours including carbonation. I think it's a RDWHAHB Moment.
 
A FG of 1.009 isn't out of this world but is bloody great work from your yeast. It could be that the beer just needs some conditioning time to develop the flavours including carbonation. I think it's a RDWHAHB Moment.
Thanks Trialben,
that acronym is a new one on me! Could you help decipher it with me?
 
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Home Brew
 
By the way 1.009 is spot on for US-05 in my experience
 
1.008 is where I usually come in with that one
 
Thanks for the reassurance! we tried a bottle each last night... slightly impatient.... we felt pretty wasted after one, in a bad way. Perhaps we'll leave it go a week.
 

Back
Top