Hello there AHA, just finished putting my first batch of homebrew into bottles to sit for a few more weeks. Before fermentation I measured the specific gravity of my brew to be about 1.043. When my fermentation was through I took the specific gravity again and got a reading of 1.023. I then added the priming sugar and bottled. Where I’m confused is my kit says my batch should have a specific gravity of around 1.010 when being bottled. Did I mess up and take my second reading too early, or did I mess up somewhere else along the way. Also, how do I determine the alcohol content of my brew using these readings. Thanks a bunch in advance!
How did you determine that the fermentation was finished? Looks to me like there was quite a ways still to go. Be careful with those bottles. If you weren’t done fermenting they might explode.
Give us some more details of the recipe you brewed and we can help you figure out what happened.
Be careful but at that gravity it’s likely they’ll just be over carbonated. Chilling the bottles will help. Without more info such as which yeast, temp and length of fermentation who could say it wasn’t time to bottle?
You have a hydrometer so don’t go by a time set by any recipe. Rule of thumb is when gravity’s been stable for several days then it’s cool to bottle. Don’t sweat it you’ll get a real feel for it pretty soon. Palmer’s How to Brew is indispensable.
Hi Jaryn,
When I saw your post this morning, I thought I would post the link for how to use a hydrometer from the AHA’s Homebrewopedia wiki, but when I looked in the wiki, I found the procedure had not been entered yet. We hope to have additional information added to the wiki soon (thanks to our intern!).
http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/
It would be great if some of the experienced/knowledgeable homebrewers on this forum would add material to our wiki! That’s what a wiki is all about. Thanks!
Cheers,
Janis
Janis Gross
National Homebrew Competition Director
AHA Project Coordinator
janis@brewersassociation.org
I guess i must have just jumped the gun with my bottling. Since it was my first time brewing I did not really on my hydrometer, instead I just bottled after the seven days the recipe called for. I had used a True Brew pale ale kit provided with my basic startup kit. Thanks for the pointers though, I’ll get back to this post as soon as I get to sample!
After another few days you might want to pop one of them open to see how much pressure is building up in the bottles. Just to be on the safe side.
Thanks for all the info in this thread. I have my first batch fermenting right now and planned on bottling per the directions but I think I’ll rely on the hydrometer instead.
Cheers!
I had my first glass of the homebrew today. Since it has only sat in the bottles for about 8 days it was still fairly cloudy, but tasted pretty darn good. As for the specific gravity I haven’t taken another reading yet, I’m going to wait a couple more weeks. The pressure inside the bottle wasn’t anything crazy though, but the head on the beer did seem to be a little large for a pale ale…
You are very lucky. Exploding bottles aren’t just messy – they are dangerous. I thought for sure you had bombs on your hands. If you are already experiencing full carbonation, you need to get every single bottle into the refrigerator RIGHT NOW, TODAY to prevent them from becoming bombs in the next week or two. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Or put them in a plastic tub. The probably cardboard box will not hold the liquid and depending on where
you keep them could be a mess in the making.