Just racked my liberty cream ale extract brew to secondary. Original Gravity was 1.043, which fell right in the range expected. During primary (8 days) I never noticed a single bubble coming out of the airlock, so there was probably a leak in the seal of the bucket, no big deal. Before racking, I checked gravity, expecting 1.010-1.012, and it came in at 1.004. Any Ideas what may cause it to be so low. As for the recipe, steeped 8 oz. Carapils at 150-160 in 3 gallons for 30 minutes, brought to boil, removed from heat and added about half of my 6 lbs gold LME, boiled and added 3/4 oz Cascade hops. at 15 min mark, added rest of LME. Added 1/3 tablet of whirlfloc at 5 minutes, and another 3/4 oz Cascade at 2 minutes. cooled to 70, and added 1 packet of Wyeast 1056. Fermentation temp was a little low at 62 or so. Also, the beer seems very dark. Will I still be OK with this one?
Why is my final gravity low.
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Is your hydrometer calibrated? What was the temperature of the beer when you measured it?
The color will happen because of the LME. I find my extract brews to be darker when I am using LME. You will be okay there. How does it taste?
The yeast you used states that attenuation is 73-77% so it most certainly did attenuate much higher, like 90%.
I don't think you did anything wrong. The temp was just fine for the yeast. Also, airlock activity, or lack thereof, is not a good indication of no fermentation. Clearly your beer fermented.
The color will happen because of the LME. I find my extract brews to be darker when I am using LME. You will be okay there. How does it taste?
The yeast you used states that attenuation is 73-77% so it most certainly did attenuate much higher, like 90%.
I don't think you did anything wrong. The temp was just fine for the yeast. Also, airlock activity, or lack thereof, is not a good indication of no fermentation. Clearly your beer fermented.
Forgot to measure temperature when I racked, but room was about 64 degrees. I did check the hydrometer a week ago when I brewed, and in plain water it was 1.000 exactly. But again, I didn't think to check the temp of the water. I was expecting a bit darker, which is why I split up the extract additions. Guess I need to remember to check the temperature when I do hydrometer readings.:smack:.
Yeah, even if you had an infection which could attentuate that low, it wouldnt be able to do that within this short a period of time. I'm guessing one of your hydrometer readings was a bit wonky. There's been a couple fo times that my OG reading had so much trub that the hydrometer was resting on top of it and gave a higher OG that it really was.
I rarely check my temp when using my hydrometer. I started out doing the temperature corrections but I never found any huge difference. As long it was within 20 degrees of room temp, it was like a +/-0.001 difference max
I rarely check my temp when using my hydrometer. I started out doing the temperature corrections but I never found any huge difference. As long it was within 20 degrees of room temp, it was like a +/-0.001 difference max
Now don't go thinking this is the God's honest truth, but I have a theory about this, since I have had a similar thing happen to me. Granted, I'm all grain so a low mash temperature might be able to do this too, but hear me out.
So when we talk about attenuation, we really mean apparent attenuation. That is to say that we just use the differences between the initial and final gravity readings. This doesn't take into account that the density of alcohol is much lower than that of the water. In actuality, a reading of 1.004 doesn't represent the true amount of dissolved sugars (etc) in your finished beer. There are actually more sugars (meaning the reading 1.004 is low).
So density of the beer affects the readings of the hydrometer. The density of the wort in turn is controlled by the percent of alcohol by volume in the beer itself. The percent alcohol is controlled by the initial sugar density and the attenuation properties of yeast.
I believe that the initial gravity of the beer with can have something to do with the final reading of the beer. My experience has been that 1.040 beers have generally appeared to ferment lower than beers of say, 1.070 initial gravity.
I'm going to do a little math on this and see what I come up with. I'll get back to you.
So when we talk about attenuation, we really mean apparent attenuation. That is to say that we just use the differences between the initial and final gravity readings. This doesn't take into account that the density of alcohol is much lower than that of the water. In actuality, a reading of 1.004 doesn't represent the true amount of dissolved sugars (etc) in your finished beer. There are actually more sugars (meaning the reading 1.004 is low).
So density of the beer affects the readings of the hydrometer. The density of the wort in turn is controlled by the percent of alcohol by volume in the beer itself. The percent alcohol is controlled by the initial sugar density and the attenuation properties of yeast.
I believe that the initial gravity of the beer with can have something to do with the final reading of the beer. My experience has been that 1.040 beers have generally appeared to ferment lower than beers of say, 1.070 initial gravity.
I'm going to do a little math on this and see what I come up with. I'll get back to you.
Yeast is going to eat whatever is there and in this case, the yeast ate quite a bit. I do agree that sometimes the lower the starting gravity, some yeasts will shoot down lower than expected. That happened with a wheat beer I made that had an OG of 1.054.
OP: how does it taste? You're totally fine with your hydrometer, don't worry about that one.
Color was actually the reason I moved to all grain. Even when I added my LME at the last 15 minutes, it was still darker than I would expect. Even light LME is pretty dark considering.
OP: how does it taste? You're totally fine with your hydrometer, don't worry about that one.
Color was actually the reason I moved to all grain. Even when I added my LME at the last 15 minutes, it was still darker than I would expect. Even light LME is pretty dark considering.
Hang Glider
Beer Drinker
One more thing. If using LME makes for darker beers, why do they show the picture as light as they do. Maybe if I were able to do a full 5-6 gallon boil, I could match that color.
Many extract brewers add the extract late in the boil - last 20 minutes or so, to get a lighter color. It has to do with the Maillard (?) reaction, and the chemical changes that sugars undergo when influenced by heat. Caramelization, as it were.
wardens355
Well-Known Member
Sometimes the yeast just shred through the wort. Maybe that batch of extract was manufactured at a lower mash temperature? I find that WLP001 and WY1056 can be pretty aggressive and I usually get higher than published apparent attenuation. The French Saison yeast is also crazy attenuative. It is listed as 77-83% apparent attenuation. I had a ~1.065 starting gravity saison that finished at 0.999, or 101% apparent attenuation.
BrewerBrad82
Well-Known Member
I just had the exact same thing happen with a batch with Wyeast 3711. Its an imperial farmhouse ale that went from 1.088 to 1.004, 95% attenuation for a rather ass-kicking 11% ABV.
OP - As long as you do not taste anything funky in your beer, you will be just fine. Its great you got an extract batch to attenuate that much!
