FV and SV don't match?!?!?!

[ViperMan]

This has happened too many times for not to start asking questions...

I brewed a beer that has just had nothing but problems - you can follow the original thread here.

When I first decided to dilute the beer and rack to a secondary, my satellite test-sample bottle (referred to as SV from here-out) read 1.035. I diluted, racked, and drew a new sample which read 1.043... "WTF?" I wondered... "Well, whatevs..." I took a new SV sample.

A few days later the (new) SV started to ferment again. It dropped from 1.043 down to a 1.036 or so, maybe a smidge less - I forget the specifics. However the airlock on my FV hadn't budged. So after 10 days (and with some White Labs 090 "starting") I popped the lid on the FV and took a sample. It read 1.043 - it hadn't done squat. For the second time, my SV had fermented further than my FV. I pitched the 090 which immediately began fermenting vigorously, tossed the SV sample and took another one.

Over this past weekend, with my (third) SV holding steady at 1.020 for about 3 days, I decided it was time to bottle. I did notice every once in a while I'd hear a bubble from the airlock of my FV, but figured it was caused my vibration since it was on a table to keep it in the warmer temps of the room for the benefit of the 090.

So on Sunday I popped the lid on the FV and decided to take another quick reading... 1.026. SV still read 1.020. THREE TIMES NOW my SV has fermented further than my FV and I'm at a total loss. I can't keep wasting samples of this stupid beer!

Does anyone have ANY idea why this keeps happening?? Every time I take a new sample I put it in a clean plastic bottle. They never pick up any taste of bacteria (though I realize it'd probably be too small to detect...) I've never had this issue with any other beer, and I have no idea what's going on.

By now I could have brewed two more of these beers... I frankly don't care anymore...

 

[Pratzie]

EDIT: disregard, i thought SV meant secondary vessel. I have no experience with those.

 

[StoneHands]

I believe (and this is just my opinion) that satellite vessels are a bit pointless, for the very reason you are experiencing now. They are two different vessels, two different ferments, different yeast amounts, different fermenter shape, etc. They're just too different from each other to be useful. My guess is that you've introduced additional oxygen in your satellite, allowing it do drop a little further and a little faster than your primary.

 

[DerekJ]

Revvy summed it up pretty well just the other day when he had this to say about satellites:

t's been around, and shot down for years.

It a will only tell you WHAT YOUR BEER WILL FINISH AT, NOT when your 5 gallon batch of beer will be done.

It's used to measure attenuation of the yeast, not rate of fermentation.

It will take yeast a lot less time to chew through 12 ounces of wort than it will 5 gallons.....so don't trust that silly thing that someone came up with because they are too afraid to take samples from their beer as being accurate.

If you do take that as "gospel" you more than likely are rushing your beer off the yeast way to soon. You know "bottle Bombs" or suddenly posting an "is my beer in secondary ruined?" thread because now that you moved it to secondary because the "satellite" said it was done, you now have this scary looking growth that you have never seen in your bucket (because the lid is one) that suddenly grew on top of your wort and is ugly as sin....which we of course will tell you to rdwhahb because that is just krausen and it formed because you racked too soon and the yeast is still trying to work to make beer for you.

The idea came from commercial breweries, but you have to realize when they are using in it a 3 or 7 or 10bbl fermentaion setup, that their sattelite looks like this.

And they are drawing off hydro sample out of that bucket just like we do.

And they are STILL going to be taking readings and tasting the REAL beer in the ACTUAL FERMENTER, before making any determination.

It's been adopted by some home brewers, and unfortunately gets perpetuated by people (mostly noobs scared of taking real hydro readings) but it's about as accurate as airlock bubbling, (and you know where I count that in terms of fermentation gauges- slightly below the astrological calender )

Please don't fear taking a real hydro sample of your beer, don't ever go by a satellite grav reading.....Or an airlock....

Just take your grav reading and be done with it. And drink your samples.

 

[ViperMan]

Hmmm... Interesting perspective...

I guess I just hate the idea of popping that impossible lid off (I use icing buckets from Sam's club because I brew smaller batches) and running the risk of introducing more oxygen, disturbing the trub, or - as I'm prone to do - simply making a mess...

I guess that since this is such a high-gravity ale, it's just as he said -much easier to chomp through 8 ounces than it is to go through 2.5 gallons.

Thanks for the feedback.