Just racked my Ithurtzwhen IPA onto an ounce each of Cascade and Amarillo hops into the secondary. Took a gravity reading to see how much work the yeast did. For you non-brewers out there, a hydrometer is used to determine how much sugar is suspended in the wort (unfermented beer) and again after fermentation is complete. Pure water will read 1.000. A normal beer would start around 1.030 to 1.050 and end around 1.010 to 1.020. Bigger beers are higher.
My original gravity (OG) for the Ithurtzwhen was 1.100. That’s a big beer. Now, yeast don’t like too much alcohol. It kills them off if the concentrations get too high and they’re not used to it. So, I made a lighter batch of beer to use the resulting yeast from that. That way, the little buggers would have gotten used to the alcohol and could work a little harder without dying off as fast. I figured my final gravity would be anywhere between 1.025 and 1.030. A 70–75 point drop would have given me 9.35% alcohol by volume and I figured that’s about when the yeast would give up (a standard BudCoorsMiller beer runs at 5.5%).
I hit 1.012!!!! That’s 11.75% ABV!!!
The initial fermentation was a site to behold. It actually looked like there was a pump inside the carboy, the beer was churning so hard. I had activity within 3 hours of pitching and very active fermentation within 7. Most of my beers don’t start showing activity until about 8 to 12 hours!.
Now comes the hard part. It needs another 2 weeks in the secondary, just for the hops to do their thing. The beer is already clear as a bell, so there’s not much need for it to sit just to settle out. After the 2 weeks, I put it in a keg and then artificially carbonate it (no taste difference between artificial CO2 and natural). Then, due to the high hop nature of the brew, it really should mature for at least another month.
I’m not sure it’s going to make it that long ;)
You’ll know when it’s being consumed when I start slurring my blogging…..