Canadian Blonde With High Sg

[alizzan]

Hi All, many apologies if this has been answered somewhere else, but in the reading I've done I can't find it. I bought a Coopers home brew kit, and decided to run a Canadian Blonde with BE1 and the kit yeast. Everything was going fine, pitched the yeast and soon I got quite a krausen explosion. I started the brew on 23/03/11, and as of yesterday (28/03/11) the SG is still sitting at about 1.042. This seems quite high, so I am wondering if I have done something wrong. The brew was fermenting at an initial temperature of around 24C, although in a day or two it dropped to around 20.5-22C. I removed the krausen collar on 27/03/11 after I noticed the explosion died down. The surface of the beer just has a sparse head, not very thick, and not covering the entire surface. I am just really confused why the SG is so high. Initially, the OG seemed to be about 1.032, although this was probably because I didn't let the hydrometer settle. After measuring last night, and letting the hydrometer settle down a bit, it dropped to 1.042. I don't get it. The beer tastes OK (well, tastes a bit homebrew-y), and doesn't smell like it's off.

Is it all doomed to catastrophe? Do I need to reawaken the yeast? Any expert advice could really help, thanks.

 

[Gormand]

A few things I would do to check
1. Test your hydrometer in water, make sure it sits at 1.000.
2. Make sure your giing your hydrometer a good spin (Im sure you are just covering the basics )
3. Throw out the first 50ml or so you get out of your fermenter and then take your hydrometer reading sample. You can get more stuff in the first bit out of the tape each time so the throw out helps get a clear reading.

If you have a 2nd Tub you could try racking it off. you could buy some more yeast and throw that in (Safale 04 or US05 from all good LHBS)

Let us know how you get on.

 

[bignath]

Hi All, many apologies if this has been answered somewhere else, but in the reading I've done I can't find it. I bought a Coopers home brew kit, and decided to run a Canadian Blonde with BE1 and the kit yeast. Everything was going fine, pitched the yeast and soon I got quite a krausen explosion. I started the brew on 23/03/11, and as of yesterday (28/03/11) the SG is still sitting at about 1.042. This seems quite high, so I am wondering if I have done something wrong. The brew was fermenting at an initial temperature of around 24C, although in a day or two it dropped to around 20.5-22C. I removed the krausen collar on 27/03/11 after I noticed the explosion died down. The surface of the beer just has a sparse head, not very thick, and not covering the entire surface. I am just really confused why the SG is so high. Initially, the OG seemed to be about 1.032, although this was probably because I didn't let the hydrometer settle. After measuring last night, and letting the hydrometer settle down a bit, it dropped to 1.042. I don't get it. The beer tastes OK (well, tastes a bit homebrew-y), and doesn't smell like it's off.

Is it all doomed to catastrophe? Do I need to reawaken the yeast? Any expert advice could really help, thanks.

G'day matey,

i suspect something is wrong with your reading, or how it was taken rather than something being wrong with your beer.

When you take a hydrometer reading, try throwing the first sample away and drawing off another for the reading. Yeast that gathers around the tap entrance can get into the sample tube and throw readings off.

I don't think you've had a bad fermentation at this stage, as you've had the whole krausen thing and it sounds by your description that it is starting to disperse to some degree (indicating that you are nearing the end of fermentation.)

A stock coopers can plus "a kilo" of dex/brew enhancers/malt etc.. will usually give a starting gravity of around 1.040-42

At those temps, it will most likely be done in around 5 or so days. I'd leave it longer either way.

Try drawing off a sample, tossing it out, drawing another and take that reading.

If your getting a decent Krausen, and you're 6 days in, i seriously doubt that the reading your getting is correct.

report back mate and we can help further.

cheers,
Nath

 

[alizzan]

Gorman/Big Nath - thanks a lot for your help. I'll take another reading tonight following your advice, and report back with my findings. I have no idea how people did this without the Internet. Seriously. Biggest sanity saver when it comes to an art like this. Thanks again for your help and friendliness.

 

[Fodder]

Something similar happened to me a little while back, and it was simply a case of bubbles being attached to the side of the hydrometer making it float more than it should and thus giving a wrong reading...

Do as the others have mentioned, check the hydro in water to see if its calibrated, if all good, get the second sample from your fermentor and let it sit for a good 5 mins so all the foam/bubbles are gone from the top, and then give the hydro a little bump or two so all the bubbles stuck to it are gone. Might need to let it sit a little longer again as these bubbles will float to the surface and stick to the collar of the hydro. Give it another tap or two to get rid of these as well, then do your reading from that.

Worked a treat for me.

Good luck :icon_cheers:

 

[Gormand]

Gorman/Big Nath - thanks a lot for your help. I'll take another reading tonight following your advice, and report back with my findings. I have no idea how people did this without the Internet. Seriously. Biggest sanity saver when it comes to an art like this. Thanks again for your help and friendliness.

no probs, dont worry Ive done it before as well. The reading on my second stout went up one day and I was wondering WTF was going on.

 

[Amber Fluid]

Initially, the OG seemed to be about 1.032, although this was probably because I didn't let the hydrometer settle. After measuring last night, and letting the hydrometer settle down a bit, it dropped to 1.042.

I am really confused with your statement. You say the OG was 1032 then dropped to 1042....??? How is this so??

 

[Fodder]

I am really confused with your statement. You say the OG was 1032 then dropped to 1042....??? How is this so??

Im assuming he used the wrong terminology...and meant 'jumped' rather than 'dropped'.

However, I'm willing to be corrected...have to wait and see what he says when he's on next...

 

[alizzan]

Something similar happened to me a little while back, and it was simply a case of bubbles being attached to the side of the hydrometer making it float more than it should and thus giving a wrong reading...

Do as the others have mentioned, check the hydro in water to see if its calibrated, if all good, get the second sample from your fermentor and let it sit for a good 5 mins so all the foam/bubbles are gone from the top, and then give the hydro a little bump or two so all the bubbles stuck to it are gone. Might need to let it sit a little longer again as these bubbles will float to the surface and stick to the collar of the hydro. Give it another tap or two to get rid of these as well, then do your reading from that.

Worked a treat for me.

Good luck :icon_cheers:

Thanks! I'll give it a shot.

Im assuming he used the wrong terminology...and meant 'jumped' rather than 'dropped'.

However, I'm willing to be corrected...have to wait and see what he says when he's on next...

Yes. I should have said "jumped", but dammit, the hydrometer dropped! Heavier SG = hydro sinking lower. My mistake, though.

 

[mwd]

Thanks! I'll give it a shot.



Yes. I should have said "jumped", but dammit, the hydrometer dropped! Heavier SG = hydro sinking lower. My mistake, though.

No mate t'other way round the denser the SG the higher the hydrometer floats. In water it sinks down to 1.000. :beerbang:

Are you using the new plastic hydrometer from Coopers ?

 

[bignath]

No mate t'other way round the denser the SG the higher the hydrometer floats. In water it sinks down to 1.000. :beerbang:

+1 Yep

 

[alizzan]

No mate t'other way round the denser the SG the higher the hydrometer floats. In water it sinks down to 1.000. :beerbang:

Are you using the new plastic hydrometer from Coopers ?

Ah. I am retarded. And yup, using the new plastic hydro. Yay or nay, is the consensus? Home time, gonna check out the reading as soon as I get in the door.

 

[alizzan]

As an update - water is just about 1.000, maybe half a point off. Followed the advice above, and beer now registers at about 1.012. Much better! Thanks to all for the help, first beer will be toasted in your honour.

 

[Fodder]

Good to hear mate!

Glad its worked out :beerbang:

 

[Amber Fluid]

As an update - water is just about 1.000, maybe half a point off. Followed the advice above, and beer now registers at about 1.012. Much better! Thanks to all for the help, first beer will be toasted in your honour.

To test those coopers hydrometers correctly you need to take a reading of water at ~20C. It should then read 1000. Mine is actually out by -.002 so I add that calculation into the equation when I take my readings.