Original/starting gravity

[DaveM]

Hi All

I had a slightly stressful/disorganised attempt at a Wherry kit yesterday (in hindsight it was probably a mistake to do it with an active toddler and heavily pregnant wife around!).

To the 3kg of LME I added 250g of DME and chucked in a couple of kettles worth of boiling water (which was also used to give the cans a good clean to get all the extract out). I stirred vigorously for about 10 minutes. It appeared that the DME had all dissolved. Bottled water was then added from a height to further aerate. A final stir and I took a sample to check the gravity. It was 1.038 - I had expected it to be a bit higher.

My question (finally) is does this sound right? Should the OG be higher? If it is just a case that it wasn't mixed properly will the yeast still 'find' all the sugars and do its thing? If so I guess any ABV calculations will be out due to the first reading?

Many thanks

Dave

 

[DaveM]

I've just found a calculator (http://www.brewersfriend.com/extract-ogfg/) which suggests for the quantities of LME and DME that I used the OG should have been 1.046 and with a 'medium attenuation yeast' it should reach 1.013. Does that OG look better? I used Gervin GV12 rehydrated in cooled boiled water.

Cheers

Dave

 

[mcc111]

It's an old one, but worth checking - do you know the temperature at which your hydrometer is calibrated. It might be worth recalibrating (the paper might have moved). Check the hydrometer in 20 degrees water and check the reading.

 

[Duxuk]

Did you temperature correct your reading? If your hydrometer is calibrated at 20C then you need to add 1 to your OG reading for every 3C above 20C. So if you measure at 35C you would add 5 points to the OG reading.
If it's just a case of not being thoroughly mixed then don't worry. The yeast will soon stir things up. It's just a pity that it messes up your statistics, but your calculated OG is likely to be fairly good anyway.

 

[ericmark]

I have done this myself looked at the reading and been disappointed then remeasured the s.g. next day to find it has risen I suppose what I should do is measure one very carefully at start and then again next day so I know how many points it is likely to fall in the first day. I will guess very little. It often takes 12 hours to get started.

I just use concentrate and sugar with concentrate I can tip the fermentor and see it sticking to bottom before I completely fill and swirl it until dissolved but can't really see if sugar is dissolved would need glass for that not plastic.

Bubbles is the other thing just today setting up a new brew I filled the test tube dropped in the hydrometer and then had to wait for the froth to subside and noted the bubbles rising. As these little tiny bubbles stopped the hydrometer rose from 1.046 to 1.048.

Temperature is a problem you have to read info with hydrometer it depends on materials used in manufacturer so there is no one correction fits all. I found out with a plastic hydrometer temperature was very important but there are also different expansion rates for glass and some are calibrated at 60 degs F others at 20 degs C however as long as the brew is at the same temperature with start and finish readings it really does not matter.

But start at 1.046 and finish at 1.013 will still give you 4.3% ABV so I would not worry about that.

 

[DaveM]

Thanks for the replies.

I think my hydrometer is OK - I checked it with water @ 20 degrees when I first used it (this is only my third brew) and it measured 1.000.

The temperature at the time of reading would have been around 20 degrees, so I don't think that is the issue. I gave it a good spin to remove any bubbles etc.

It has started fermenting so I'm going to leave it well alone for a while - there was the odd bubble through the air lock when I looked at about 7pm (8 hours after pitching the yeast), and by this morning it was bubbling like crazy.

Cheers

Dave

 

[DaveM]

Airlock activity seems to have stopped! There is a good ring of dried stuff around the FV and on the underside of the lid, so it obviously had fun yesterday. I'm away all of next week so I'm just going to leave it until I come back and hope that it will have sorted itself out by then.

Its quite stressful this brewing business!

Cheers

Dave

 

[Duxuk]

It's unlikely that your lid seals perfectly, so I wouldn't think that fermentation has stopped, just slowed a bit. 14 days in the FV is a minimum in my book. This allows the beer to become reasonably clear, so when you bottle there is less sediment, so pouring is easier. There will always be enough yeast to start secondary fermentation, even if it looks crystal clear.

 

[nath959]

Sounds like the perfect time to start a brew with an active toddler and pregnant wife :smile:

I started a Wherrys on Saturday but just with the kit. SG was 1050 in the FV aka bucket with lid (non air lock). Initially I thought it was going to pop the lid and overflow but it soon settled down.

Looking to keep it in there for 3, maybe 4 weeks then PB it. Luckily I've got my first brew that's been in the PB for 4 weeks this Saturday and on it's way to been ready. It gets addictive as I've got 3 beer brews in various stages, some wine and some gin :party: