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JCG

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Hi All,

I have been brewing for a few months and would like to know where I can calculate the Estimated Final Gravity of my beers. So far it has been quiet simple as I have been doing simple brews, but recently i have had the urge to add more to beers, example:
Coopers Pale Ale + BE2 + 500g LDME + Cascade Hops (teabag variety). my gut feel is it will end up around 1016.

I realise time will tell but I would like not to make bottle bombs.

Cheers JCG
 
Welcome to the forums!

If you have pitched adequate yeast and aerated the wort, when the SG stays the same for a couple of days it's done, unless it's stalled above 1.020ish.

Depends on the brew volume it should be around 1.010-1.015.

Good luck!
 
Even with all those bits...as long as your using a good solid yeast, it should get below 1014 and preferably less than 1012. Anything higher is risky me thinks.
 
Thanks for you help guys my brew has come down to 1016 after 3 days, thanks to the warmer weather I think. My thoughts are to let it sit til Sunday and rack it for another week before bottling. From what I've read on the forum, if the yeast has stalled racking it should wake them up again.
Again Thanks JCG.
 
Hi JCG,

If you are adding things like malt extract rather than dextrose, you will end up with a higher gravity - which is going to be different to what your can of concentrate says you should expect. If you are not sure if its done just leave it for a few more days then test the gravity again - if it has stayed the same then your brew is probably done - if it has dropped (even slighly) then its still going. Once you have a steady gravity your beer is generally ready to bottle - apart from if you have a stuck ferment (but thats a whole other issue in its self!).

Hope these ramblings are helpful

cheers
:chug:
 
Hi guys this brew wont stop bubbling its been 14 days in primary FG has been stable at 1012 for over a week it it the amount of malt I have put in?
The receipe was:
Cooper Pale Ale Kit
1 kg BE2
500g LDME
Yeast in kit
Fill Water to 23L
Cascade Hop tea bag

Temp has been stable at 24C.

What should I do?

Cheers JCG
 
Rack, it will only help clarity anyway, and leave it a few days.

Also if you can, next time brew at 18-20 degrees, not 24 :)
 
This time of year when the weather warms during the fermentation the CO2 that dissolved in the wort during fermentation can continue to bubble for a long time. Bottle on FG ONLY, not on what the devilish evil air lock is doing. The function of the air lock is to release the gases without allowing contamination in. Yes, it can be useful to see how fast the gas is escaping, but do not bottle on airlock activity ( or lack of ) alone. Bottle ONLY on FG measuremnts, that's why Coopers put a hydrometer in with the equipment.

If the FG has been constant ( as far as you can measure with the rough things the hydrometers are ) for a couple of days and it's well below the original gravity (OG) by a big lump then you shouldn't be making bombs.

As a general rule expect the FG to be a touch less than one third of the OG,
i.e. if OG is 1030, FG should be 1010.
My best effort so far is FG of 1020, but that brew had 2.5 kg of malt in it, and NO sugars.
GREAT beer, started OG at nearly 1060.

I put your recipe into my own gravity calculator and came up with OG of 1045 and FG of 1015.
When I made this kit with just 1 kg of BE2 I got 1012, so if you've got 1012 with this recipe then it's done for sure.

BE2 is about half dextrose so you may well get 1014 or even 1012. The kit instruction of heading for less than 1010 are for 100% sugar receipes, not malt and BE2 as you have used.

If it's been 1012 for 2 days I reckon you can safely bottle it. The bubbling is not normal fermentation but probably escaping dissolved gases. I assume it's bubbling at around one bubble per minute.
 
Thanks for the reponse Robbomc, my brew has slowed right down on the bubbles and still no SG movement I think it will be readdy to bottle. Me thinks that it will be good drop readdy just in time for xmas. :chug:
Cheers JCG :D
 
Just to clarify the acronyms

sg = specific gravity
og = original gravity
fg = final gravity

Don't confuse sg and og. Many people do try and call sg starting gravity, but that ends up being confused with specific gravity, so we stick with original gravity.

Back to your airlock slowly bubbling. When your brew is fermenting, it is producing carbon dioxide. Most is expelled through the airlock, but some stays dissolved in your beer as a low level of carbonation. After fermentation has finished, this dissolved carbon dioxide slowly comes out of solution due to changes in temperature and pressure.

Follow what the other people in this thread have said, rely on the hydrometer, not airlock activity.
 
Valid point on the SG, FG, OG will correct my ways.

Cheers JCG
 

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