The bubbling from the fermenter has subsided quite a bit. It's only been 5 days, but I went ahead and took a hydrometer reading and it was at 1.010 (estimating 1.011 for temp adjustments). I'm already below what an IPA is supposed to be for final gravity (1.012-1.016 SG) but then again it started off a little low at 1.044 (1.050-1.075 SG is the style limits). I think this is because I did not steep the grains long enough so I must have not got enough of the fermentable sugars out of them.
Anyway, couldn't dump the beer back in since it's "contaminated" with outside air so I did what I had to do - I drank it. Yummy, but of course it's pretty flat so it wasn't fantastic. I'll take another reading tomorrow and if it's still 1.010 then I'll probably bottle on Friday. Then comes the awful 2 week wait until I can sample one. It was really nice to smell the beer as it actually smells like beer now (raw wort smells a lot like bread & flowers). Of course, during these 2 weeks the carbonation will happen and the beer will have more of a finished taste to it.
Can't wait.
rolled out on
Wednesday, December 29, 2004 6:18 PM