abv far too high for a Canadian Blonde?

[JonathanH]

Hi folks -

I've had my first brew, a coopers Canadian Blonde, in the FV for about a week and a half now, and I took a hydrometer reading last night that put it at 1.006 - right on the mark for bottling according to the instructions. Fine and dandy, I'll take another reading tonight or tomorrow to make sure it's holding steady.

 

But here's my problem - according to my notes, when I took the initial hydrometer reading before adding the yeast it read as 1.050 - which would mean my brew is now sitting at about 5.8% abv. Add on another 0.5% for the secondary fermentation in the bottle and that's approx 6.3%, WAY way higher than I'd like for an evening drinking beer.

 

Is it even possible for a Canadian Blonde to get that high?

 

I'm kind of hoping that I just messed up the initial reading (it was my very first one after all.... ). I took the sample right after topping the FV up to 23l, can't remember if I stirred it again before taking it. Brew in the FV would have been about 25 degrees at that point - was that too warm to take a reading?

 

Brew was:

Coopers Canadian blonde

500g Brewing sugar

500g light spray malt

Yeast as per kit.

 

Pitched at approx 25 degrees, in a sealed FV with airlock.

Brew temp has been between 22 to 24 degrees for a week and a half.

It went mad for the first two days, then slowed down a lot. Airlock activity is now almost non existent.

[GregT5]

Jonathan,

 

Your initial reading may be out. To get an accurate reading you need to run off a sample & chuck it as your ingredients can get stuck in the tap when mixing & give you a denser sample than the rest of the wort, thereby a higher reading.

 

Taking a second sample straight away will give you a more accurate reading.

 

Someone else here may be able to give you a ballpark figure from your ingredients as I don't have a calculator for that.

 

Oh, and welcome to the forum [biggrin]

[Hoptimus Maximus]

If you stuck to the Coopers recipe for the Canadian Blonde then I think your hydrometer may need checking.

I would have expected OG of 1.045 and FG of around 1.014 for an ABV of 4.06% before bottling.

Remember to give the hydrometer a spin to shake of the bubbles otherwise false reading may be higher.

[GaryF1]

Yeah, what often happens, even in you give the Wort a good stir, a little of the concentrate from your ingredients, can be left undisturbed in the fermenter tap, and your initial reading may be a result of that residue. No worries, you'll be looking at a brew of around 4.5% alc/vol. Good luck and welcome. Let us know how the bottling goes. Have a taste from the tap and pass on your impressions.

[David B5]

As John states check youre hydrometer.

Place it in water at 20 degrees c and it should read zero.

Your starting gravity seams a bit high and your finishing gravity is maybe a little lower than I would expect.

Undiluted wort sounds like the culprit of the former & a crook hydrometer sounds like the cause of the latter.

With the recipe you've used you'll still get a good beer which is what really counts the most.

[JonathanH]

Perfect, thanks guys - that does sound feasible, I've noticed that the 'base' of the tap, the thick part that attaches into the FV, does have some 'stuff' stuck in it - it seems darker than the surrounding liquid anyway. The instructions with the tin do state that typical readings are around 1.043 and 1.006 so I do think the hydrometer might be ok (given the reading last night of 1.006) but I'll check it with water.

 

Once I get a food-grade thermometer anyway - I need to get one for my next brew, I need to hydrate the yeast for it and I don't want to mess them up before they even get in the FV.

 

And thanks for the welcome!

 

[Muddy Waters]

You can get some cheap thermometers of ebay (via Hong Kong). Having said that there is no real need to hydrate your yeast. It really makes minimal difference to the start of your feremtation.

[Guest]

Well it just so happens I put a Blonde in the keg last night (that is in the keg not bed). Nothing special just needed a quick easy drink for Saturday night. I used:

 

1 can Canadian Blonde

1kg LDM

250g Dextrose

23L

Fermented at 18C

 

OG was 1039

FG was 1006

ABV = 4.4% (4.9% if bottling)

 

PS: welcome to the forum Jonathan

[JonathanH]

You can get some cheap thermometers of ebay (via Hong Kong). Having said that there is no real need to hydrate your yeast. It really makes minimal difference to the start of your feremtation.

 

Well I'm making the hefeweizen next from the recipe on this site, and I'd ordered the Munich yeast. On the packet it says to hydrate it first, so hydrating we shall go

 

[jasond4]

A good trick I learnt is to spin the hydrometer in the tube you are taking a reading from. There can be a bit of air in there after you have mixed the brew. So spinning it can help release the air trapped and then you can get the reading you're after.

This also helps when taking your FG reading as well

[Muddy Waters]

You can get some cheap thermometers of ebay (via Hong Kong). Having said that there is no real need to hydrate your yeast. It really makes minimal difference to the start of your feremtation.

 

Well I'm making the hefeweizen next from the recipe on this site, and I'd ordered the Munich yeast. On the packet it says to hydrate it first, so hydrating we shall go

 

Whatever makes you happy [biggrin] ...just saying there is no great need. I'd just sprinkle it on the wort as per recipe. I sometimes rehydrate for the sake of comparison but have never noticed any difference. For beginners it just offers more of a chance to screw up your beer by infection or killing the yeast ([cool] IMO of course [lol] ).

 

I tend to spin the hydrometer too Jason but I also move it up and down vigorously to help things along...then I just leave it on the bench and check it later.

 

[Hoptimus Maximus]

You can get some cheap thermometers of ebay (via Hong Kong). Having said that there is no real need to hydrate your yeast. It really makes minimal difference to the start of your feremtation.

 

Well I'm making the hefeweizen next from the recipe on this site, and I'd ordered the Munich yeast. On the packet it says to hydrate it first, so hydrating we shall go

 

Whatever makes you happy [biggrin] ...just saying there is no great need. I'd just sprinkle it on the wort as per recipe. I sometimes rehydrate for the sake of comparison but have never noticed any difference. For beginners it just offers more of a chance to screw up your beer by infection or killing the yeast ([cool] IMO of course [lol] ).

 

 

 

As Muddy says rehydration offers the beginner another chance to screw with the yeast. It is recommended but if done must be done correctly. The following is a Q&A session between Dan Listermann and Dr Clayton Clone (what a name for a yeast rancher hey)a respected yeast expert.

"Subject: Yeast Q's- Dan Listerman- Dr. Cone

Date: 2000-04-14 20:56:55 GMT

From: Dan Listermann <72723.1707@compuserve.com>

Subject: Yeast Hydration, Infusion Mashing and England

 

My question to Dr. Cone regards yeast rehydration. All the packages of

yeast contain instructions for rehydration yet they all ferment just fine

without it. I have to believe that such a procedure may be theoretically

beneficial, however it would seem to be margionally usefull at least on a

homebrew scale.

 

I own a home brew shop and a very common phone call is the " My beer is not

fermenting." problem. I go through the list of potential causes ( plastic

bucket lid leaks, too cold, ect.) About twice a week the caller will

indicate that he rehydreated the yeast. This is a strong signal that the

yeast has been damaged and will need to be replaced. I have come to the

conclusion that, since rehydration is not necessary to ferment beer

properly and there is a strong chance that the yeast will be damaged in a

botched rehydration, it is not desirable to recommend such a proceedure.

Just how important is rehydration and is it worth the risk?

 

Dan Listermann dan@listermann.com 72723.1707@compuserve.com

 

Dan,

I appreciate your dilemma It is a universal problem for those that market

Active Dry Yeast.

 

Let me give you some facts regarding rehydration and you can decide for

yourself where you want to compromise.

Every strain of yeast has its own optimum rehydration temperature. All of

them range between 95 F to 105F. Most of them closer to 105F. The dried

yeast cell wall is fragile and it is the first few minutes (possibly

seconds) of rehydration that the warm temperature is critical while it is

reconstituting its cell wall structure.

 

As you drop the initial temperature of the water from 95 to 85 or 75 or 65F

the yeast leached out more and more of its insides damaging the each cell.

The yeast viability also drops proportionally. At 95 - 105 F, there is

100% recovery of the viable dry yeast. At 60F, there can be as much as 60%

dead cells.

 

The water should be tap water with the normal amount of hardness present.

The hardness is essential for good recovery. 250 -500 ppm hardness is

ideal. This means that deionized or distilled water should not be used.

Ideally, the warm rehydration water should contain about 0.5 - 1.0% yeast

extract

 

For the initial few minutes (perhaps seconds) of rehydration, the yeast

cell wall cannot differentiate what passes through the wall. Toxic

materials like sprays, hops, SO2 and sugars in high levels, that the yeast

normally can selectively keep from passing through its cell wall rush right

in and seriously damage the cells. The moment that the cell wall is

properly reconstituted, the yeast can then regulate what goes in and out of

the cell. That is why we hesitate to recommend rehydration in wort or

must. Very dilute wort seems to be OK.

 

We recommend that the rehydrated yeast be added to the wort within 30

minutes. We have built into each cell a large amount of glycogen and

trehalose that give the yeast a burst of energy to kick off the growth

cycle when it is in the wort. It is quickly used up if the yeast is

rehydrated for more than 30 minutes. There is no damage done here if it is

not immediatly add to the wort. You just do not get the added benefit of

that sudden burst of energy. We also recommend that you attemperate the

rehydrated yeast to with in 15F of the wort before adding to the wort.

Warm yeast into a cold wort will cause many of the yeast to produce petite

mutants that will never grow or ferment properly and will cause them to

produce H2S. The attemperation can take place over a very brief period by

adding, in encrements, a small amount of the cooler wort to the rehydrated

yeast.

 

Many times we find that warm water is added to a very cold container that

drops the rehydrating water below the desired temperature.

 

Sometimes refrigerated, very cold, dry yeast is added directly to the warm

water with out giving it time to come to room temperature. The initial

water intering the cell is then cool.

 

How do many beer and wine makers have successful fermentations when they

ignore all the above? I believe that it is just a numbers game. Each gram

of Active Dry Yeast contains about 20 billion live yeast cells. If you

slightly damage the cells, they have a remarkable ability to recover in the

rich wort. If you kill 60% of the cell you still have 8 billion cells per

gram that can go on to do the job at a slower rate.

 

The manufacturer of Active Dry Beer Yeast would be remiss if they offered

rehydration instructions that were less than the very best that their data

indicated.

 

One very important factor that the distributor and beer maker should keep

in mind is that Active Dry Yeast is dormant or inactive and not inert, so

keep refrigerated at all times. Do not store in a tin roofed warehouse

that becomes an oven or on a window sill that gets equally hot.

 

Active Dry Yeast looses about 20% of its activity in a year when it is

stored at 75 F and only 4% when refrigerated.

 

The above overview of rehydration should tell you that there is a very best

way to rehydrate. It should also tell you where you are safe in adapting

the rehydration procedure to fit your clients.

 

Dr Clayton Cone."

 

Makes interesting reading I think.

 

 

 

[Guest]

Well it just so happens I put a Blonde in the keg last night (that is in the keg not bed). Nothing special just needed a quick easy drink for Saturday night. I used:

 

1 can Canadian Blonde

1kg LDM

250g Dextrose

23L

Fermented at 18C

 

OG was 1039

FG was 1006

ABV = 4.4% (4.9% if bottling)

 

PS: welcome to the forum Jonathan

 

It's gone now ... was in the keg Thursday night and none left by the time we finished Saturday night. Now I'm dry [crying]

[Muddy Waters]

[w00t] You didn't waste any time did you Bill....maybe a dry spell would be good for you [innocent]

[The Brew Master]

.......... things are bad when you have to reply to your own quote!!!!!!!

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[Muddy Waters]

You may be right Peter but it sure beats talking to yourself [biggrin] ...what do you reckon Muddy? [unsure]

[Guest]

I think its called withdrawal symptoms [pinched]

 

I went through nearly 2 kegs last night. Well... there were a few of us but now I have to resort to the stash of bottles for 1-2 weeks [alien]

[jasond4]

I like the bottles...it reminds me why I should of kegged them. Or is it just me, but can you always tell the difference between kegged or bottled beer?

[Guest]

To tell the difference I think things need to be compared under the same circumstances. This makes it hard considering a bottle needs time to carb and I'm not certain but imo it seems beer matures quicker in a keg.