My son was bugging me to make the subject beer with him so we made a double batch. We brewed about 2 weeks ago and for some reason my gravity is at 1.038 and his is 1.022 (I’m using carboy he has a conical). OG 1.176 with sugar additions. My beer is still fermenting but slowly maybe 20-25 sec between bubbles on one piece air lock. Just wondering should I just let it be or should I add more yeast.
Thanks,
Mike
Have you tried warming it up by placing it somewhere with a higher temp…do they make heaters for conicals?
Mine is in a carboy (my sons is in conical). It’s been right at 68 deg F for almost the whole time.
Should I warm it up?
Thanks
I’d warm it to the upper end of your yeast manufacturer’s suggested temperature range. If you’re already there, consider swirling the fermenter GENTLY to increase the exposure of the yeast to the sugars in the wort.
Going from 1.176 to 1.038 implies you have enough yeast - I think. Did you and your son use the same yeast? Did your son aerate or oxygenate? Aerating your beer now would oxidize it, but aeration before fermentation began might have allowed his yeast to reproduce better and produce healthier daughter cells.
Pitching a packet of an alcohol-tolerant dry yeast wouldn’t hurt anything, except possibly your wallet.
I would…should help shave some points off.
I wouldn’t hurt to swirl the beer around to get the yeast back into suspension. Then give it a few days and check the gravity again.
A packet of US-05 wouldn’t hurt either but I would give a few days before trying it.
I do a conical and carboys all the time with the same batch and they always finish the same time and gravity. Sometimes my conical, a glass carboy and a bucket. Same results.
Other than the different vessels, where the exact same procedures used?
I’d put the finger on temps. That IS a big brew to begin with. Let it warm up now and give it some time to finish. WOW that a big brew… Sneezles61
Yes, my son and I duplicated techniques. We brewed at my house so he had to transport the brew to his house. He doesn’t have a basement so his wort was warmer and fermented more violently than mine.
Only other difference could be he had more trub. This beer was a fun brew tossing in almost 2# of pellet hops in small increments every 5 minutes.
I used my new-to-me Boilermaker with hop blocker. After cooling wort we swirled and let rest for 45-60 minutes. We went to drain the wort and nothing came out at all! Guess 2# hops was WAY too much hops for the blocker. We decided to use my auto siphon and started with his carboy they switched to mine after he had about 3- gallons thinking we would share the trub. OMG - there must have been 4 gallons of trubby/hoppy thick gooey wort that we couldn’t siphon. So next step went and got my strainer bags I use for my hop spider and filtered out most of the gunk. He ended up with a little more gunk than I. Even with all the issues it was a fun brewing day!
I did raise the temp of my wort to 70 deg F. Seems to be bubbling a little quicker.
I also have gravity reading questions. My refractometer is spot on with a hydrometer for unfermented wort. I use BeerSmith and there is an adjustment for fermenting wort using OG. If I do this I get a gravity of 1.016 but with hydrometer 1.038. Any ideas why the difference?
Thanks
Mike
Is it possible transporting his wort shook it up and aerated it better?
Warmer will ferment it out faster but might produce some off flavors. That much hops could mask it though.
I’m no help with the refractometer. Never used one.
Refracs dont measure accurately in the presence of alcohol…there are corrections out there but i always use the hydrometer for FG readings.
Ha - I was wondering the same - if his aerated more during the drive.
Beersmith has a refractometer tool that will correct for the presence of alcohol. It works well and is worth the effort. Be sure to cool the tiny sample to room temp before putting a few drops on the sample prism. Pull the sample with an eyedropper and put it into a heavy glass to cool it almost instantly.
Edited to add:
I made a point to buy an “Automatic Temperature-Correcting (ATC)” refractometer so I wouldn’t have to cool my sample. Didn’t work. It turns out that ATC refractometers correct for the temperature of the refractometer, but the sample still needs to be cooled to room temp. I can’t explain the distinction, but that’s how it works for me.
