Hey all,
Just started my first batch of NB Caribou Slobber. The OG for the kit states 1.052. My question is the first time I took a reading it came out to something like 1.025ish and then I took a second reading 20 mins later before putting in the yeast and it measures pretty much spot on with the 1.052. I believe both times temp was around 68-70 F. Is everything alright or should I be worried? When is the best time to take a second reading to check the progress? Ive read that some people do it after 10 days or so, any suggestions?
Anyone have any experience with the Caribou Slobber? If so what did it finish at? (FG)
My Caribou Slobber ended up at around 1.022, which seems to be on the high end of normal for the Dan Star dry yeast option. The liquid yeast option seems to finish somewhere around 1.015.
If you have 5 gallons in the carboy/bucket and you used the extract kit your OG should be a-OK.
I’ll bet that your OG readings are off because the wort isn’t well mixed in the carboy. Did you do a partial boil, and add a gallon or two of water into the carboy to get it to 5 gallons? It is very hard to get it mixed up, there isn’t much headspace in 5g carboys.
I gave up trying to get OG readings, because (a) the readings were always wayyyy off, (b) when I started I never had a good way to get a sample out of a carboy and the chance of infection etc, and (c) with an OG reading there wasn’t anything I would or could do to change it at that point, nothing actionable from knowing the number.
If you’re doing extract, it’s been mentioned on these forums a couple of times that with extract all you are doing it adding the water back in so it is very hard to miss the OG. The yeast will agitate the mix during fermentation so there isn’t much to worry about.
This is where RDWHAHB really helps out. No matter what happens == you’ll have BEER.
BTW I just looked at my notes and my FG was 1.010, not temp corrected, I used the liquid yeast, and my hydrometer isn’t calibrated. There have also been mentions that this one takes a while to ferment out, primary fermentation is slow and steady. Mine also needed some time in the bottles (more than a month) to condition so the flavors could smooth out.
Thanks for the replies, I think its just a case of the newbie worries. Everything seems to be going smoothly now, will be transferring it into the glass carboy late this week for a few weeks before bottling.
Just actually read something interesting on the net today; that people are bottling at about 10-15 days and just letting everything condition and the rest of the fermentation process finish in the bottles. Ever heard anything about this, might have to give it a try.
Maybe what you are thinking of is leaving the beer in the primary longer (lot of people here have mentioned 3 weeks), and skipping the step of moving it into a secondary fermenter, then bottling.
I came across this summary of a BYO test that indicated that leaving the beer in primary was better.
Here is one of the posts I was looking at. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/bottlin … ys-287687/ I’m kind of getting the senses that its all really preference for this type of stuff. I haven’t found 2 home brewers who do the process exactly the same; everyone has their “little tricks”.
I may just wait till Friday (Day 10) and transfer it to the carboy for another week or two then bottle and condition it up I just don’t want the yeast to start cannibalizing itself (autolysis). Any thoughts?
