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Gravity going UP despite plenty of bubbling?

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  • 13-03-2012 7:54pm
    #1
    Mr Benevolent
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭


    Weird one this. Four days ago I started an 8L brew of ginger beer with the following ingredients:

    600g ginger
    2kg unrefined cane sugar
    12tsp honey
    Juice of 6 lemons & 3 limes
    1 cinnamon stick
    3 small chillies, deseeded
    1 packet of bread yeast.

    OG was 1.060

    I split them into two batches, both with the same gravity. This evening I stuck a hydrometer into both. One says 1.060 and the other says 1.080! Tried two hydrometers, same result and anyway I've used them before. Spun the 'meters to get rid of bubbles too. They both bubbled away fiercely for 2 days and are still bubbling nicely. No off smells except for a slight sulphury twang.

    Any ideas why the gravity has either remained static or risen?


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    #2
    BeerNut
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 11,850 Mod ✭✭✭✭BeerNut


    Have you checked your hydrometers in water at 20C?

    My beer blog | The Twitter | My other beer blog



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    #3
    Mr Benevolent
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    Yep, just did right there, both 1.000.


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    #4
    willabur
    Registered Users Posts: 1,618 ✭✭✭willabur


    sounds as tho the heavier material is sitting at the point where you took the sample, could it be a case that it hasn't been thoroughly mixed?


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    #5
    Mr Benevolent
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    Slightly lower yesterday, 58 and 78 respectively. My theory is that there's so much fermentation (there really is) that the bubbles are pushing the hydrometers up.


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    #6
    willabur
    Registered Users Posts: 1,618 ✭✭✭willabur


    Confab wrote: »
    Slightly lower yesterday, 58 and 78 respectively. My theory is that there's so much fermentation (there really is) that the bubbles are pushing the hydrometers up.

    Can you give some detail on your brewing procedure?


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    #7
    Mr Benevolent
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    willabur wrote: »
    Can you give some detail on your brewing procedure?

    60 min boil:

    +0 2kg cane sugar in 2l water.
    +20 200g ginger, all the honey, a few pellets of Cascade.
    +40 400g ginger, 3 chillies (deseeded), lemon & lime juice.
    +60 1 cinammon stick at flameout.

    Cooled in a sink until pitching temp (about 25c). Strained through a muslin cloth, then poured into 2 5L PET water bottles and topped up to 4l each. half a packet of yeast into each bottle, stirred and left to ferment.


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    #8
    Mr Benevolent
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    They're now 55 and 68 and falling.


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    #9
    sharingan
    Registered Users Posts: 911 ✭✭✭sharingan


    I reckon your sugar wasn't totally dissolved, or mixed evenly prior to splitting. Can happen, and using solids in your ferments can make the gravity reading a bit tricky too.

    Anyway those ginger beers will have quite a kick. They might not ferment 100% of the way (the heavier one).

    Nice recipe though. In the future you might want to make it with spraymalt - I am having some early trials with that, and the results are very promising.


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