Hi all,
I started brewing a Wheat Ale Sunday and checked the sp gr last night. It was still at 1.050. Is that normal after only a couple of days of frementation? Also the air lock is no longer bubbling and Krausen has occured and the yeast has flockulated and settled out.
Thank’s for your help!
Not sure what sp gr is, and I have been brewing for 17 years!
What was your SG (starting gravity)? If you started at 1.050 and you had active fermentation and no the hydro reads 1.050 you are doing something wrong. That would be technically impossible. What temp were you fermenting? What yeast did you use? Can you give us a recipe?
Not saying this is your case, but I have read a few times where people took gravity readings and the bottom of the hydrometer was sitting on the bottom of the flask and the hydrometer itself was not floating. Not sayin’, just checkin’.
Hi,
The OG was 1.070 and has gone down to 1.050. I was reading one of Greg Noonan’s books last night and he mentioned the abreviation sp gr to be the correct way to abbreviate specific gravity when it is written with a decimal.
About how long should I let a beer ferment if I started at 1.070?
Again, thank you for your help!
Cool. Guess I don’t remember that from his book. Not the way I have commonly seen it referenced.
There’s no way it could be done or your hydrometer reading is off. What temp are you fermenting at? Can you post a recipe? Yeast?
On how long to let it ferment, the answer is ‘till it’s done’ As major says post a recipe and details and we can give more detailed advice
The recipe is pretty basic:
3 pounds wheat extract
3 pounds briess malt extract
1 OZ German Hersbrucker Hops
And I made a starter from the yeast sediment in an Ommagang Wheat Ale bottle.
How many times did you step up the starter? You are going to need a lot of yeast for a 1.070 beer.
I stepped it up 5 times, but I am thinking I need to add more yeast and give the sediment a stir to get the yeast back into suspention.
I was also going to add some yeast nutrient when I add the second set of yeast.
If it is really 1.050 then it is ok to aerate again, to, when you pitch and rouse. I’d definitely suggest pitching at least two vials/packs of yeast.
One last question about this…how do you guys take specific gravity readings. I do not have a graduated cylinder so I just sterilized my hydrometer and placed it in the bucket of fermenting beer. Could that cause the reading to be off?
It might cause it to be off a bit as there is disolved co2 in the beer that can cling to the hydrimeter and lift it slightly. until I got a sample cylinder I just used the plastic cylinder that the hydro comes in. Either a wine thief or a clean new turkey baster for pulling samples.