Expected Gravity Drop vs time?

[ipaphilic]

I have my first batch in a new 7 gallon conical fermenter and I checked gravity for 1st time after 5 days. It dropped from 1.055 to 1.027 (no EtOH adjustment made). I plan on checking it every 2 days until stable and then dumping trub. I can’t seem to find any charts or graphs for timing of fermentation? Is ~50% attenuation after 5 days normal? (Of note, blow off tube still chugging at 5 days, but slowwed significantly, 1 bubble ever 10-12 seconds.)

[mppatriots]

@IPAphilic

I have my first batch in a new 7 gallon conical fermenter and I checked gravity for 1st time after 5 days. It dropped from 1.055 to 1.027 (no EtOH adjustment made). I plan on checking it every 2 days until stable and then dumping trub. I can’t seem to find any charts or graphs for timing of fermentation? Is ~50% attenuation after 5 days normal? (Of note, blow off tube still chugging at 5 days, but slowwed significantly, 1 bubble ever 10-12 seconds.)

I wouldn’t even consider checking it until 10-14 days. I like to allow the yeast to do their job and then clean up afterwards. No point in wasting beer taking so many samples. That is just me though.

[flars]

@mppatriots

[quote=“IPAphilic”]I have my first batch in a new 7 gallon conical fermenter and I checked gravity for 1st time after 5 days. It dropped from 1.055 to 1.027 (no EtOH adjustment made). I plan on checking it every 2 days until stable and then dumping trub. I can’t seem to find any charts or graphs for timing of fermentation? Is ~50% attenuation after 5 days normal? (Of note, blow off tube still chugging at 5 days, but slowwed significantly, 1 bubble ever 10-12 seconds.)

I wouldn’t even consider checking it until 10-14 days. I like to allow the yeast to do their job and then clean up afterwards. No point in wasting beer taking so many samples. That is just me though.[/quote]
Not only you. I won’t take a sample for at least 2 weeks. I record temperature and air lock activity through the first wo weeks, and more, for my notes.

[ipaphilic]

http://www.northernbrewer.com/refractometer-calculator/

I found this brix to gravity calculator for Refractometer…
It turns out calculated gravity after 5 days is 1.010 (brix drop from 13.75 to 6.9)
82% attenuation, not 50% as I previously thought.

BTW, I understand a lot of people don’t touch or check for 2 weeks, but for the following reasons I figure, why not?

• I use about 1/4 oz of beer (out of 704 oz) so I’m not really “wasting beer”
• little to no chance of contamination w/ ball valve on racking arm
• lets me know when I can harvest yeast and begin dry hopping

[shadetree]

There’s no ROT for speed of fermentation because there are too many variables - yeast strain and health and pitching rate, aeration/oxidation, beer temp, OG, wort composition, etc. What you have to do is determine what works for your system given a specific yeast and OG and then you can predict what it will be in the future.