Brewers Choice IPA OG & FG

[Paulj]

Hi guys. My IPA is approaching bottling stage which I'll do in the next couple of days. I've been following the kit instructions to the letter and its looking pretty good and smelling great!

I went for option 3 and added the premium malt extract. It spent 7 days in the original FV and as per instructions its now in a second FV for a couple of days.

As all this malarkey is still in the realms of witchcraft and alchemy to me, I'd just like to make sure my FG is in the ballpark before I go ahead with bottling this weekend.

It started off at a healthy 1.054 and having just checked it now its reading 1.015 (ish). A considerable drop, but still way above the huge yellow line marked "Bottle" on the hydrometer.

Is this OK or is there anything I should do to try drop it further?

I'm making a trip to Boro home Brew shop in the morning so I'm writing a shopping list!

cheers

Paul

[Buzz]

I tend to leave it in the primary until fermentation is complete (same reading on the hydro for 2 or 3 days). ONLY then do I rack to a secondary to clear. There's the possibility of halting the fermentation if you leave most of the viable yeast behind when racking too soon.

I'd keep an eye on the reading over the next few days and see if it's still going. I'd say 1015 is still a shade too high but it will still be a nice pint if it has finished.

[stevezx7r]

The old "give it a stir with a sterilised stick" method may come in handy here.

I tend to leave it in the fv for 10 days, regardless of where the gravity is. It's usually done by day 4 or 5 but the yeast does clean up some flavours if left for longer.

[Paulj]

Thanks for that chaps. I was actually thinking of leaving it for a total of 10 days.

The primary nearly pushed the lid off the FV and spilled down the side. This seemed to settle down after about 3-4 days and for the last 2 of the 7 days its been looking pretty flat.

In its new FV its looking flat but has started to clear out a bit more. After just 1 day theres about 8mm slurry settled out.

I'm gonna give it another couple of days I guess to see if the SG drops anymore. If not I think I'll just bottle it.

One other thing Id like to make sure of is the Secondary in the bottle.

I was planning to boil up 80g brewers sugar or possibly sugar/dme mix and add it to the FV before bottling. I trust this is a sensible way round to do things rather than faffing about putting primer into every bottle individually ?

For this IPA style, would all sugar primer be advisable or dme mix?

thanks again

Paul

[Paulj]

Hi Guys.

Well, I've left if another few days and were now on day 10. The SG is the same reading as is was last Friday at 1.015 (ish).

I'm just pondering what to do now. Is it worth giving it a gentle stir and leaving for another couple of days or should I go ahead with bottling it?

cheers

Paul

[oxford brewer]

If you have transfered to a secondary FV,had another steady gravity reading and about 8mm of slurry has settled out then I guess its not going to drop much more(you should have something around 5% ABV).
If you are going to bulk prime then its better to boil up your priming sugars in 1/4 to 1/2 pint of water, add that to your bottling bucket(if you have a spare FV then use that)then rack the beer onto the primings to mix them evenly then bottle from there.
If it helps then I use granulated sugar for priming

[Chris The Fish]

I doubt it will finish lower than the 1015 your getting, mine finished a little higher and I bottled and drank that and thoroughly enjoyed it.

give it 3-4 weeks with a couple of samples in between and you'll have a grand pint.