Fresh Wort Ipa Not All It's Made Out To Be!

[the_fuzz]

I dont get that, why boil water for testing hydros?

To remove everything - this gives a true read or used distilled water

 

[Darren]

I dont get that, why boil water for testing hydros?

I would have thooght boiling the water would remove water and increase the salt so the reading would be less accurate

cheers

Darren

 

[Stuster]

Would the salts in there make any significant difference to a gravity reading? Always wondered the same about refractometers too. :unsure:

 

[Darren]

Would depend how much was in their to start with and how much it was boiled

 

[Stuster]

Sorry, Darren. I was thinking of non-boiled water, just straight from the tap. The instructions on the refrac say to use distilled water, but I supposed that the small amount of minerals in the water would make any difference (especially with the very soft water here). And thinking about it, if they did, they'd also make the same difference with the wort.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Yes, the point I was making was that boiling concentrates the salts and makes the water less suitable for calibrating, unless you are collecting and condensing the steam driven off.

The drinking water standard is 1000 mg/l total dissolved salts, and most cities in Aus provide water well below that although in Perth not that much below.

With 1000 mg/l salts in the water the sg is increased from 1.000 to about 1.001. So tap water is fine, and is slightly better than boiled tap water.

Of course, if you use groundwater from the Eastern Goldfields for your brewing, which can contain up to 7 times more salt than seawater, expect your hydrometer to read about 1.20 in plain water, but the beer wouldnt taste that good.

 

[albyone]

I have also done several of this brand fresh wort packs, with varying results.

The first I tried was a Pilsner, brewed with w34/70 yeast at 12 deg, lagered for a month at 1 deg. Tasted great but would not clear even after 2 months in the keg.
I then did the Cerny Pivo which come out great.
I have since done an Amarillo ale, 2 x Hefe's and the lager. The Hefe's are definately the pick of the ones of which I have done. All were brewed at the recommended temps and yeasts.

The main gripe I have with them is I can't get the ales and lagers to clear, even if I use finings, rack, lager etc etc.
However, I am more than pleased with their taste.

Sorry to bump up an old topic, but bjl, do you remember what your starting and finishing gravities were for the pilsner?

Just curious, because I have one down atm and it started at 1.037 and seems to have stopped at 1.010 - makes for a pretty week beer...

Just wandering if I need to bring it back to 12c to try to ferment off a little more... it spent 4 days at ~21c (Yeah a little too warm - but couldn't help it), 6 days at ~14c and then 5 days at close to 0c

Thanks,
albyone

 

[bjl]

Sorry to bump up an old topic, but bjl, do you remember what your starting and finishing gravities were for the pilsner?

Just curious, because I have one down atm and it started at 1.037 and seems to have stopped at 1.010 - makes for a pretty week beer...

Just wandering if I need to bring it back to 12c to try to ferment off a little more... it spent 4 days at ~21c (Yeah a little too warm - but couldn't help it), 6 days at ~14c and then 5 days at close to 0c

Thanks,
albyone

Albyone,
The Pilsner I did started at 1.040 and finished at 1.010 with the recommended 5l of water added. How much water did you add?

BJL

 

[albyone]

Albyone,
The Pilsner I did started at 1.040 and finished at 1.010 with the recommended 5l of water added. How much water did you add?

BJL

Only the 5L specified... Maybe my hydrometer is up the creek... There was talk of temperature of beer when doing the reading - could that affect it? It would have been close to 0 when I did the FG reading.

Albyone

 

[albyone]

Only the 5L specified... Maybe my hydrometer is up the creek... There was talk of temperature of beer when doing the reading - could that affect it? It would have been close to 0 when I did the FG reading.

Albyone

Just tested it - reads pretty much dead on 1.000 in plain tap water and the same with cold water from the fridge...

...<scratches head>...

 

[quadbox]

Only the 5L specified... Maybe my hydrometer is up the creek... There was talk of temperature of beer when doing the reading - could that affect it? It would have been close to 0 when I did the FG reading.

Albyone

Well yeah, temperature has a big effect on hydrometer readings. They are only accurate at the specific calibration temperature of the hydrometer in question, typically either 15C or 22C. If your hydrometer's calibrated for 22C, and you're taking a reading of 1010 at 0C, then the true FG's more like 1008.

Similarly your OG's probably out if you werent paying attention to temperature.

There's several calibration tables or correction calculators around, including some online ones as well as the calculations built in to beersmith and promash

 

[mckenry]

Hi All,
Thought I'd add my experiences with fresh wort.
I've done the;
Brewers Selection Celtic Red Ale - S.G. 1.037 F.G. 1.006 Yeast: WhiteLabs WLP004 Irish Ale - Good result
Brewers Selection Lager - S.G. 1.040 F.G. 1.013 Yeast: WhiteLabs WLP838 Southern German Lager - Fair to Good result, brewed a bit warm
Brewers Selection Celtic Red Ale - S.G. 1.037 F.G. 1.006 Yeast: WhiteLabs WLP004 - Good result
EzyBrew American Pale Ale - S.G. 1.038 F.G. 1.020 Yeast US-05 - Very Low Alcohol, but good tasting beer. Yeast was good. Active starter.
Brewers Selection Amarillo Ale - S.G. 1.048 F.G. 1.011 Yeast US-05 This is very good beer

Bottom line: All have had the 5L as per instruction added. Some seem to be lower alcohol than would be expected. Still, pretty happy with the results.

As you can see above I had done one Ezybrew American Pale Ale before. I did like this beer a lot even though the Alc was a bit low. Just finished brewing another Ezybrew APA. S.G. 1.050 F.G. 1.020. Yeast Whitelabs WLP001 California Ale. WTF 1.020 again?? :huh: The S.G. 1.050 can be attributed to adding less water this time.
So, 1.020 using US-05 and WLP001. Anyone fermented out this APA below 1.020?
Points of interest. Temp control is AOK & Hydrometer checked out 1.000 in water. Yeast was 1st generation, activated.
Maybe brewworld.com can shed some light?
Let me be clear - this beer tastes damn good. So no problems there, just a bit low on Alc, considering an S.G. of 1.050 - if you call 4.0% a bit low.

 

[MCT]

A couple of weeks ago i purchased a fresh wort IPA, as i haven't had much chance to brew lately stocks are dwindling. I finally got around to putting it down yesterday and was disappointed. Here is why; the blurb about the IPA described it as "A deep tasting ale very true to its style" However when i measured the OG it was only 1.037.. I would have thought a true to style IPA would have an OG of at least 1.060. I only added the reccomended 5 Litres of water, I would have just made it up as 15 Litres if i had of known what the gravity was before hand. Anyone else tried one of these and have any thoughts??

I just did one of these kits (Brewers Selection IPA), and the OG was 1.052 made up to 20 ltrs.
Just thought you might like to know...

 

[quadbox]

I just did one of these kits (Brewers Selection IPA), and the OG was 1.052 made up to 20 ltrs.
Just thought you might like to know...

That'd make the undiluted og about 1069 if I'm doing my arithmetic right. That'd be a pretty good strong IPA

Anyone brewed one undiluted? Kinda makes it worse value, but it'd be interesting. I was meaning to do a double-undiluted-batch (30-ish litres) of the chocolate porter sometime. It's a fantastic porter diluted to 20L, but I'd like it a bit stronger. EDIT - It's similarly about 1052 diluted iirc

 

[beers]

As you can see above I had done one Ezybrew American Pale Ale before. I did like this beer a lot even though the Alc was a bit low. Just finished brewing another Ezybrew APA. S.G. 1.050 F.G. 1.020. Yeast Whitelabs WLP001 California Ale. WTF 1.020 again?? :huh: The S.G. 1.050 can be attributed to adding less water this time.
So, 1.020 using US-05 and WLP001. Anyone fermented out this APA below 1.020?
Points of interest. Temp control is AOK & Hydrometer checked out 1.000 in water. Yeast was 1st generation, activated.
Maybe brewworld.com can shed some light?
Let me be clear - this beer tastes damn good. So no problems there, just a bit low on Alc, considering an S.G. of 1.050 - if you call 4.0% a bit low.

I thought it was just me.
I kegged one last week when I couldn't get it below 1018 (using US05) - tested with both my hydro & refractometer. I suspect maybe a high mash temp was used?

It can get a little heavy after 1 or 2, which is a bit of a shame, but it's seriously one of the best wort kits I've ever tried.

 

[mckenry]

I thought it was just me.
I kegged one last week when I couldn't get it below 1018 (using US05) - tested with both my hydro & refractometer. I suspect maybe a high mash temp was used?

It can get a little heavy after 1 or 2, which is a bit of a shame, but it's seriously one of the best wort kits I've ever tried.

Glad (kind of) to see others are getting same result. Next question is; Can something be done about this?

 

[sponge]

I have recently bottled a batch of the ND Norwest Ale. Since I have heard the FWK's can be a little light on the old abv, i added 500g of LDME, but forgot to add more hops, so hopefully it wont end up too malty. woops

A little darker then i hadve imagined, but i spose you get that with american PA's.

Anyways, I had my OG as 1044 and finished on 1015 using s-04 (HBS didnt have any us05 so they gave me the s04 for cheaper so i wasnt complaining)

Also, two days ago I put down another FWK, this time it was an ND Summer Ale. To get the OG up a little more, I used around 300g of LLME, and 300g of honey. OG started out as 1052 which I was a little happier with. but once again, i forgot to boil up some more hops so once again im hoping it wont end up too sweet. (PS. I used the same yeast trub as the previous FWK mentioned above, I just dumped the new kit on top of it)

But FWK's are too expensive for me. I was just mainly seeing what all they hype was about, so after a couple of months ill give one of the bottles a try


Sponge

 

[lagers44]

Hi Guys just to add my few cents worth.

I did an Ezybrew APA & had similar problems added 5L water + supplied yeast. OG 1.044 FG 1.022.
Emailed Garry and basically we couldn't come up with a reason.

Temps were all OK , airation was good as per my normal method. The only thoughts I have are either the yeast isn't very good ( Garry suggested stirring the wort mid fermentation ) or it had something to do with the amount of trub in the cube , gee there was a lot of muck compared to my clean filtered wort.

Lagers

 

[Beejay]

I spoke to Dave today and he got in contact with the brewer who stated that the OG of the 15L in the cube should be in the low 1.050's and when diluted it should go down to around 1.043 give or take, not as far as 1.037.

I have only just seen this thread for the first time, but if you use the dilution tool in Beersmith you get the following

15L of wort at 1.050
Add 5L water
Final Specific gravity is 1.038.

Regards,

Brett

 

[Beejay]

Anyone brewed one undiluted? Kinda makes it worse value, but it'd be interesting. I was meaning to do a double-undiluted-batch (30-ish litres) of the chocolate porter sometime. It's a fantastic porter diluted to 20L, but I'd like it a bit stronger. EDIT - It's similarly about 1052 diluted iirc

Hey HT,

I have considered doing this as well and what has stopped me is my attempts to get my head around what changes apart from OG when you do an undiluted ferment. For example, you will have a higher percentage of non-fermentable sugars in the beer which I would expect to lessen the overall bitterness of the beer. Or am I wrong here?

Cheers,


Beejay