belgian ale starting gravity

What went wrong? Was this supposed to happen? Should I throw it out? What do I do now?

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hartman352
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 3:46 pm

belgian ale starting gravity

Post by hartman352 »

I brewed a belgian ale and got a starting gravity of 1.100 at 65 deg. what is the problem? I know it should be 1.044-1.054
BillyBock
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Location: Ohio

Extract?

Post by BillyBock »

Was this an extract batch, what was the recipe? Did you stir the wort to thoroughly mix it before taking your reading? Not mixing can cause erroneous hydrometer readings.
hartman352
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2002 3:46 pm

belgian ale

Post by hartman352 »

it was a dry extract kit.and no ,I did not stir it after i cooled it down.it's 5:00am i put my beer in the fermentor at 8:00pm I am not seeing any kind of activity the beer just looks flat.I used a pack of nottingham dry ale yeast.
BillyBock
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Yeast Activity

Post by BillyBock »

Sorry, by stirring I was reffering to the initial mixing of extract and water to take a gravity sample--mostly a problem with syrup extracts since it falls to the bottom like a rock. How many pounds of DME did you use and what was the volume? We can approximate your original gravity if you had a bad reading.

Anyway, I've had lag times between 12 and 24 hours before. I wouldn't worry too much yet. The yeast are probably multiplying right now. More than likely there's activity, just not enough CO2 coming out yet to burp the airlock. You'll know when things are beginning to happen when you see little islands of CO2 bubbles at the surface of the beer. In the beginning I mistook this for mold. After that the krausen ring of foam will appear. If you're really, worried you can pitch another packet of nottingham.

v/r
Bill
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