Just made my second batch using an Anvil Foundry all-in-one brewing system. I used an immersion chiller to bring the wort down, but could only get it down to 82F (groundwater in Texas in August... whatya gonna do?). I didn't want to pitch my yeast at >80F, so I decided to seal it up and leave it overnight to cool to room temperature. This morning, I decided to use the pump that came with the Anvil to pump the wort …

I've prepared a 1qt (~1L) yeast starter according to instructions from Wyeast.com. I didn't measure its gravity, but in theory it should be about 1.040. I am brewing a 5 gallon batch of high gravity stout @ 1.076 target original gravity. So, after pitching the starter, the total volume in the fermenter will be 5.25 gallons. How do I calculate a more accurate gravity reading from the blended starter and wort?

So I have spent a few weeks going down the banana-wine rabbit hole. So, the things that I know Older (brown) bananas have more sugar Not all sugar is fermentable Banana skins can help break down more starches into sugars Boiling the skins break's the banana skins' ability to break down starches For anyone who knows the science of this stuff, I have a few questions, if I want to make a decent banana/chocolate wine: How brown is too brown? …

So I want to exceed the scale of my saccharometer scale, which goes up to 25 °P (1.106 SG). Now, I am a programmer and exceeding is my thing. So: As far as I understand, gravity is linear in nature. Can I just take a sample of volume V, dilute to 2*V with drinking water, put my saccharometer in, read a gravity G and my correct gravity reading will be G/2 (of course other factors should be possible, but 2 …

How would one go about calculating starting gravity without a hydrometer? I know that there is a way to mathematically determine this, which is what I'm looking for.

So, I'm brewing an all-grain batch of the Rogue Chocolate Stout Clone based on this recipe (https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/rogue-chocolate-stout-clone/). I divided the recipe by 5 to get proper amounts for a smaller, 1 Gal batch, as this is my second brew, and I figure there's less to throw out if it's bad. My OG reading was 1.022, which way undershot the expected OG of 1.069. For the first three days, it was going like gangbusters, lots of airlock activity and happy yeast, …

I just had an issue with an oatmeal stout. I'm just starting to brew beer at home (BIAB) and I think I made some mistakes. I had my water at 80°C hoping for the decrease of temperature to 72°C when adding my grains. So I just kept at it not knowing this was a problem. So my OG was at 1.070, recipe indicated it should be at 1.068. Then I put the beer in the fermenter and after 7 days …

I brewed my first batch (APA) and while boiling I lost way too much water which resulted in higher OG. Expected was 1.050 but I got 1.080. I added Safale US-05 (1 pack) and left it to ferment at 20°C (68°F) for 17 days. Being impatient, after 17 days of fermentation, I started cold crashing my beer without measuring my FG. It's now on 3°C (37°F) for 36 hours (it took me 12h to bring it down from 20°C to …

I have an IPA that I've brewed in five gallon batches before. OG at 1.065 and FG at 1.010. Those were hydrometer readings. I scaled it down for a one gallon batch, and pitched half a packet of yeast (Safale US-05) instead of a full packet. My OG was 1.060 using a refractometer, but my FG is reading 1.041 after 2.5 weeks of fermentation. Is something throwing the refractometer off? I haven't had this issue before. Maybe I under-pitched? But …

I know how to use my hydrometer, and I know what numbers to look at and write down on my brewing sheets, but I'm not sure what those numbers actually represent, or even what units I should use to label those readings. What's the science behind the hydrometer? How are they calibrated? What else should I know about the theory of using one to make better beer?

A little bit of background: I finished brewing a black IPA and pitched yeast around 5:00 on Sunday. Admittedly, the wort was a little warm (75F), because it was 9 degrees outside and I was in a hurry to get back inside. The yeast was made from Wyyeast #1056. I made a starter on Thursday, after the major activity had subsided, I put it in the refrigerator overnight, decanted the wort and added more boiled wort. On brew day I …

I have been using less water than needed in my partial mash recipes. For a target of 8 gal into 2 (5 gal) fermenters, I have been using 3 (+1 gal sparge) in the mash step and 2 gal for boiling bittering hops, then adding the mash and sparge water to the boil kettle and mixing in the extract and raising to boiling and adding late addition hops. Then I chill the concentrated wort to about 90 degr. F, measure …

The most common way to calculate ABV (Alcohol By Volume) is through some correlation between Original Gravity (OG) and Final Gravity(FG). Is there any way to calculate ABV just from the current specific gravity reading? Example - a week into fermentation you can read an sg of 1.038. Is it possible to deduce the current ABV from this using just a hydrometer and as much fancy math as you can imagine?

I'm a new home brewer. Since Christmas I've brewed 5 beers, all of which have been drinkable. The first I didn't have a hydrometer, the second I accidentally put in twice as much carapils as I was supposed to, but the last three have all given me the same anomaly in that og and fg are much lower than stated in the recipe. I can understand og being lower, and am aware of causes of mash inefficiency, some of which …

The most-recent episode of Basic Brewing Radio has got me thinking about making Kombucha. What would be a typical OG (original gravity) and FG (final gravity) for a Kombucha?

Ended up with too high gravity wort. Since I was not prepared for this I didn't have enough sterile water to dilute the wort. I ended up pitching the yeast anyway and adding sterile water at 11 hours later. At this point the yeast was fully activated and regular air had probably left the tank. While being cautious about splashing, more oxygen most certainly ended up in the fermenter. In a about 15-20 minutes the airlock started letting air out …

I've recently made the move to a top tier system and have retired the trusty old turkey fryer with the objective of conducting some more tightly controlled brews over the next few years. I've done all grain for years so I usually get what I'm after in a brew but this time the OG was much lower than what it should have been and I'm not entirely sure why but I think it may have been that the grain wasn't …

I am using 60kg undermodified 6 row barley for 300 litres, I performed 60 minutes rest at 64°C and 30 minutes rest at 72°C, but I got 12°Plato original gravity (1.048) after boiling. Please help me to get a higher gravity.

Does anyone know what Mr Beer Brew Max is? Also what can be substituted for it?I am trying to raise my A.B.V. in my home brew. I ask because I need a substitute. It almost looks like very small pieces of Rock Candy. When add to my wort it seemed to thicken it. Also don't know what kind of effect it has on A.B.V. or the taste of the Beer. The batch I used it in is cold fermenting now …

I'm transferring my first white IPA to secondary tomorrow. It smells great, but there is one problem. A really low OG. I can only assume my protein rest wasn't sufficient to break down the proteins in the unmalted grain. A friend of mine joked about adding everclear to it. I laughed but thought about it and roughly 30 oz of ethanol would put me in the range of a typical white ipa. It's kinda cheating but I worked really hard …