Newbie Question Re: FG and Secondary Fermenter

[lars]

Ok, so taking the reading after adding the priming sugar WILL effect your readings, but probably not much. Remember, all gravity readings are is a measure of sugar content.

Regarding lowering your FG. I don't think adding more sugar will help. The reason your gravity is not going as low as you want could be caused by more than one issue, one could be unfermentables left over from the extract (probable) or possibly your yeast crapped out. I'd say try to focus on yeast health. I think you'll get better beer with healthier yeast than with more sugars. YMMV.

[brahn]

The priming sugar probably added 1-2 points to your reading, so your actual FG was probably 1.018 or 1.019.

With extract brewing it's very unlikely that you would miss your OG, but it's very easy to read it incorrectly if you're doing a partial boil. The reason is that the wort doesn't mix completely with the water you add to top it off. If you take a gravity reading from the bottom half of the fermenter you'll get a much higher reading than the top half of the fermenter (you can try this if you use a bucket with a spigot as your fermenter.)

Adding sugar will increase your effective OG, but it will probably not have any significant effect on your FG. I agree with Lars that most likely the cause of the high FG is dextrins in the wort, but if it's not your best bet is to focus on yeast health.

You left out the answer to the most important question about this batch of beer though. Does it taste good? If so, who cares if you're outside the BJCP guidelines or didn't get quite as much alcohol as expected?

[SCBeerDude]

Thanks, lars and braun. Collectively, you may have nailed the issue.

This batch, I feel very confident about having good yeast health. The OG error could very well have occurred because of poor mixing - I had to top off my wort a bit and, IIRC, took a reading from the top right after that. Assuming that to be the case, and combined with the sugar issue, more accurate numbers may be 1.064 and 1.018, which is within reason of what was expected, IMO. I'm not one to dwell too much on gravity readings, but this variation from expected seemed high.

As far as the most important issue, taste, it was REALLY good at bottling. I'll know more on Saturday when I open up the first carbonated bottle.

[bwarbiany]

All-grain won't "make your problems go away". In fact, it will only introduce new ones! The advantage of all-grain is control, the disadvantage of all-grain is that there are a lot more variables, all of which can cause problems.

Successful brewing is really all about honing technique and process. This is true of all-grain and it's true of extract. The reason most all-grain brewers are better than most extract brewers is that the all-grain brewers have been at it longer and have honed their process. There are more than a few brewing competitions won with extract beers, so it's certainly not going to limit the *quality* of your beer.

Work on pitching temp, fermentation temp, and yeast health. You'd be amazed how far those three simple steps will go to improve the process.

[SCBeerDude]

Another update:

Drinking this IPA now. Huge citrus hop nose and very bitter finish. Not a lot of hop "taste" though; it's actually rather thin and honey-like on the palate (most of my beers seem to taste this way). I'm thinking that it needs to age a bit longer and that I should increase my 30 minute and 10 minute hop additions, and decrease my 60 minute one.

And, judging by the warm feeling that I have after one glass, ABV ended up right around 6%, if not higher, which is higher than my gravity readings indicated.

Overall - not perfect, but a good result for my first DIY recipe! Thanks again for all the advice and assistance!

[brahn]

Very nice!

Thin is an odd description for a 1.018 beer with an sg of 1.064 or so. I would expect that to have a pretty significant body to it. If you've still got some, I'd suggest bringing it to the club meeting in March for us to "diagnose".

Personally, I like my IPAs to have a sharp bitterness to go along with the big hop aroma and flavor so I might just increase the 10 minute addition and not change the 60 minute one much at all. That's a personal preference thing though.

[SCBeerDude]

Very nice!

Thin is an odd description for a 1.018 beer with an sg of 1.064 or so. I would expect that to have a pretty significant body to it. If you've still got some, I'd suggest bringing it to the club meeting in March for us to "diagnose".

Personally, I like my IPAs to have a sharp bitterness to go along with the big hop aroma and flavor so I might just increase the 10 minute addition and not change the 60 minute one much at all. That's a personal preference thing though.

Lack of body seems to be a recurring theme to my beers. I'm not sure why.

Thanks all around for the input. I've never had a beer that was too hoppy, so I'll try modifying as you suggest on the next go-round.

[bwarbiany]

Lack of body seems to be a recurring theme to my beers. I'm not sure why.

I had the same issue with my early beers. Again, I point you in the direction of yeast health and fermentation temp.

[SCBeerDude]

Lack of body seems to be a recurring theme to my beers. I'm not sure why.

I had the same issue with my early beers. Again, I point you in the direction of yeast health and fermentation temp.

Thanks!

[SCBeerDude]

Lack of body seems to be a recurring theme to my beers. I'm not sure why.

I had the same issue with my early beers. Again, I point you in the direction of yeast health and fermentation temp.

I had this advice, and the other advice above, repeating through my head as I brewed a borderline blonde/pale ale this morning. Everything went swimmingly until I added too much water to the wort and ended up with a 5.5-5.7 gallon yield. Good thing that I added honey to the wort; my SG ended up just about on target at 1.054. I'm ok with this having a 5.5 or so degree lovibond.

Changes this time around:

1. Pitching temp was right around 70 degrees (perhaps 72 degrees) for both the wort and the yeast starter.
2. Added some nutrients to the 2 packs of rehydrated Nottingham yeast before pitching.
3. Plastic primary fermenter now rests in a 10 gallon plastic tub filled with water (and a bit of bleach) which wicks water up the t-shirt covering the carboy. I'm hoping that this will drop the ambient temp to just under 70 degrees in my 72 degree closet.

Thanks again, everyone!

[lexuschris]

Changes this time around:

1. Pitching temp was right around 70 degrees (perhaps 72 degrees) for both the wort and the yeast starter.
2. Added some nutrients to the 2 packs of rehydrated Nottingham yeast before pitching.
3. Plastic primary fermenter now rests in a 10 gallon plastic tub filled with water (and a bit of bleach) which wicks water up the t-shirt covering the carboy. I'm hoping that this will drop the ambient temp to just under 70 degrees in my 72 degree closet.

Excellent!

Also curious ... Do you add O2, filtered air, or slosh/swirl to aerate your wort?
--LexusChris

[brahn]

You can freeze some plastic bottles filled with water and add them to the water bath to bring the temperature down. With 2 2L bottles being rotated you should easily be able to keep the temp below 70.

[SCBeerDude]

Excellent!

Also curious ... Do you add O2, filtered air, or slosh/swirl to aerate your wort?
--LexusChris

Lots o sloshing and swirling. This time, I shook the crud out of the water in the fermenter, then poured the wort from chest high into the fermenter, then shook the crud out of the mix again, then added yeast and shook the remaining crud out.

[SCBeerDude]

You can freeze some plastic bottles filled with water and add them to the water bath to bring the temperature down. With 2 2L bottles being rotated you should easily be able to keep the temp below 70.

Thank you. I may toss some ice cubes in the water as necessary.

[backyard brewer]

You can freeze some plastic bottles filled with water and add them to the water bath to bring the temperature down. With 2 2L bottles being rotated you should easily be able to keep the temp below 70.

Thank you. I may toss some ice cubes in the water as necessary.

Don't put ice in your actual beer. Just in a water bath around your beer. Freezers are not sanitary enough