I made a single malt IPA with centenial hops. I followed the new process in the last addition of BYO where you add 2 oz hops at 60 min and 6 more oz after the wort cools to below 175 and hold for 15 mins. my starting gravity in the fermenter was 1.069 or 17 brix and the last reading i got on my hydrometer was 1.032 but only 10 brix and according to the brix calc app that is 1.021. so which is right. would the hope oils that did not boil off be causing a problem with the hydrometer. I posted this on a different forum and got bullshit 2 guys just started talking umongst themselves and did not answer my question. yes i am using a refractometer for part of this and yes i have brix calc on my ipod to compensate for the alcohol.
Let me see if I got your Q correctly:
Your hydrometer reads 1.032 and your corrected refractometer reads 1.021?
I would doubt that hop oils would influence a hydrometer that significantly, and if anything would make the reading lower since hop oil is lighter than water. I do wonder about it influencing light refraction, though. I think if this was me, I’d believe my hydrometer reading, which means your fermentation has a ways to go still.
[quote=“James Rausch”]Let me see if I got your Q correctly:
Your hydrometer reads 1.032 and your corrected refractometer reads 1.021?
I would doubt that hop oils would influence a hydrometer that significantly, and if anything would make the reading lower since hop oil is lighter than water. I do wonder about it influencing light refraction, though. I think if this was me, I’d believe my hydrometer reading, which means your fermentation has a ways to go still.[/quote]
+1 Leave it be for 3 weeks & check with hydrometer. It’ll be good! :cheers:
I’m trying to wrap my mind around adding hops at sub-170F…
yeah its in the may june issue of brew your own mag page 13 title bursting with flavor
After doing some reading up on continuous hop additions, and then going to Flying Dog and sampling their Blood Orange IPA & El Dorado IPAs where they talked about late hop additions post flame out, I decided to try my hand at a Citra “hop burst style” IIPA where nearly 2 oz are added at flame out. I recirculated the chilled wort back into the kettle until below 150 and then finished transferring to the fermenter at 70. This was followed up by 3 additional hop additions in secondary. It’s currently being carbed, but the hop flavor is extreme. Obviously there was a large amount of hops for this beer, but if this is what you want then I would recommend trying it once to see how it works out for you. I’m pretty stoked with having this grapefruity beer over the summer.
One thing I noticed is that you didn’t mention if you are adjusting for alcohol on your refractometer. You need to do this post fermentation when using a refractometer.
You and me both. Eventually we’ll work our way back around to ginger ale and we can finally get the home brewed soda pop with three shots of vodka revolution started.
I’m not sure I understand which readings are from the hydrometer and which are from the refractometer. Could you give us uncorrected hydrometer and refractometer readings for your unfermented wort and both uncorrected readings again for your fermenting wort?
