Johnsfolly
Old cars, old bikes, good beer, the blues.
Brewed my 29th extract recipe, a vanilla porter, I hope. I was disappointed in my OG reading. When I racked to the secondary on day 10, I was surprised I wasn't closer to my expected FG. Here's my story and your ideas or tips will be gratefully received:
I used 8# of pale LME in about 2-3 gallons of water.
I steeped 1# of specialty grains in the brew kettle at 165'F for 30 minutes, added the LME and boiled vigorously for 60 minutes with hops additions per the recipe.
I transferred to a 5.5 gal carboy, added 2.5 gal of RO water to bring me to 5 gallons of wort total.
I was expecting an OG of 1.038 but only got 1.020 corrected to 60'F.
I used SafeAle S-04, 1 envelope, and started it for about 7 hours in boiled water and a bit of LME. It looked like healthy growing yeast.
I pitched at 70'F, set my warming pad at 67'F.
The next day, I had a nice fermentation going.
That night, my airlock was spewing and I had wort all over the floor.
Switched to an overflow tube running into a quart mason jar of water. That overflowed.
Switched to a 1/2 gallon mason jar. This was great fermentation to my ears!
By day 10, it looked like most of the fermentation was done.
Racked to the secondary leaving virtually all of the trub behind and took a SG reading and got 1.020.
Increased the temp of the secondary to 69'F.
I get a bubble-- maybe 3-4 per minute, and I can be patient.
BTW, at transfer into the secondary, I drank what was in my hydrometer flask and it tasted clean but a bit sweet for a porter.
Looking through my logbook, I notice that I often get OG's way lower than what the recipes called for-- like it calls for 62 and I get 38 on my hydrometer. And I sometimes get higher FG's, 15 or 16 instead of the expected 10 prior to kegging or bottling.
Questions:
1. What would account for this?
2. What can I do differently?
3. How can I measure the OG out of a hot kettle when I'm not able to do a full 5-gallon boil?
Thanks in advance!
I used 8# of pale LME in about 2-3 gallons of water.
I steeped 1# of specialty grains in the brew kettle at 165'F for 30 minutes, added the LME and boiled vigorously for 60 minutes with hops additions per the recipe.
I transferred to a 5.5 gal carboy, added 2.5 gal of RO water to bring me to 5 gallons of wort total.
I was expecting an OG of 1.038 but only got 1.020 corrected to 60'F.
I used SafeAle S-04, 1 envelope, and started it for about 7 hours in boiled water and a bit of LME. It looked like healthy growing yeast.
I pitched at 70'F, set my warming pad at 67'F.
The next day, I had a nice fermentation going.
That night, my airlock was spewing and I had wort all over the floor.
Switched to an overflow tube running into a quart mason jar of water. That overflowed.
Switched to a 1/2 gallon mason jar. This was great fermentation to my ears!
By day 10, it looked like most of the fermentation was done.
Racked to the secondary leaving virtually all of the trub behind and took a SG reading and got 1.020.
Increased the temp of the secondary to 69'F.
I get a bubble-- maybe 3-4 per minute, and I can be patient.
BTW, at transfer into the secondary, I drank what was in my hydrometer flask and it tasted clean but a bit sweet for a porter.
Looking through my logbook, I notice that I often get OG's way lower than what the recipes called for-- like it calls for 62 and I get 38 on my hydrometer. And I sometimes get higher FG's, 15 or 16 instead of the expected 10 prior to kegging or bottling.
Questions:
1. What would account for this?
2. What can I do differently?
3. How can I measure the OG out of a hot kettle when I'm not able to do a full 5-gallon boil?
Thanks in advance!