Amber Ale At 1.002?!?

[mbd1979]

Hey guys,

Just bottled an ESB amber ale wort kit, with a final gravity of 1.002...is this unusual? I did double check.

Thing is, when i put it in secondary, i added 75g of DME because it was very close to 1.010 and was worried it wouldn't produce a layer of CO2 once transferred (the fermentation had slowed dramatically). But the small amount of DME kicked it along immediately, too much so in fact, and produced a thin yeast cake which kinda defeated the purpose of the secondary (except for the dry hopping). But two weeks later, the airlock would still bubble every so often! I'd happen to notice it maybe a couple of times a day. This is new to me, usually my brews sit silently in the secondary, after an initial couple of hours of activity. Temperature remained constant (20 degrees).

Perhaps it was the yeast I used? Anyone have much experience with the white labs premium bitter yeast? Maybe it's highly flocculant and the transfer to the secondary stirred it up and got it going again? But still, it was transferred at almost 1.010, which is close to the usual FG.

I'm confused. Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Matt :chug:

 

[benno1973]

...and you've checked (calibrated) your hydrometer?...

 

[PostModern]

Any smells or flavours indicating infection?

 

[Aussie Claret]

I'm with post modern, doesn't sound too good. Taste it and smell it! If ok drink it fast.

AC

 

[Weizguy]

If not drinking fast, chill the beer and drink it soon.

You may have introduced contamination with the DME. It may have been better if U boiled the DME with water and then cooled it quickly prior to adding to your wort.

Every wort transfer is a potential disaster.

If the beer tastes OK, drink it, and don't store it too long.

It may also be that the airlock was bubbling due to a low pressure system passing through, releasing CO2 stored in the wort from fermentation when ambient air pressure was higher. Recently, I've heard of bottles exploding due to a low pressure system.

Beerz
Seth

 

[chimera]

Very low FG, but not to worry.
Had a batch ferment down to 1.002 before, another down to 1.004. Both were rather good drops, best drinking young.

 

[mbd1979]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Smelt fine when bottled, didn't taste it though. I boiled the DME for 10 mins before adding to secondary, so shouldn't have got any infection that way. Drinking it quickly won't pose any problems

What's the best way to calibrate a hydrometer? Check that it's at 1.000 when in pure water?

cheers :beerbang:

 

[Adamt]

Yeah, pure water at 20C should read 0.998; usually about 1.000 with tap water.

 

[goatherder]

What's the best way to calibrate a hydrometer? Check that it's at 1.000 when in pure water?

cheers :beerbang:

Yep, that's pretty much the way. Check the instruction sheet that came with your hydro. It should tell you if it was calibrated at 16 or 20 degrees. Then get some pure water at the calibration temperature and it should read 1.000.

 

[mike_hillyer]

Didn't realise that you would drink it young, thanks for the advice.

I reckon it would make a good warm weather drop served chilled. If you got it in stubbies do the unthinakable and drink it straight out of the bottle ice cold.