nchooches bourbon ?

[Usge]

Won't hurt nuthin for you to measure your SG at higher temp...but it "does" throw the reading off and you have to correct for it. Most hydrometers are calibrated for either 20c or 60F. Some come with a temp correction reading/therm built in. Most of us have to look up the correction in a table. The first hydrometer I had was calibrated 20c and it was "easy". Plenty of correction tables around for that. I finally broke that after a few years, and had to get a new one. New one is longer, thicker and calibrated for 60F. It's harder to find a full correction table for that.

I think Dnder also said, those corrections can vary by manf. Mine didn't come with any kind of table etc., or instructions. But, I think its safe to say...that if you are fermenting at 80F now...that your OG reading was probably closer to 1.060 than 1.055 after correcting for temp. To give you some perspective, my first AG mash was 1.030s. Later on I managed to get it up into the 1.040s. Might have hit a 1.050 somewhere along the way. I usually got back far less volume as well. Out of all the above, It would usually give back about 1/2 gal of low-wines and that was stripping it down to the bone.

You did better than I did my first entire year of mashing on your first shot!

[rtalbigr]

I wrote out my correction table on a white board and stuck it to the wall right where I ferment. It's always there and I don't have to hunt the damn thing down every time I want to take a readin.

Big R

[Usge]

Good tip from Big R

If you can find a correction table for 60F calibrated hydro...print it out and stick it on wall next to your ferment.

[Taterjuice]

My hydrometer is the one that came with my equipment from brewhaus, It had no instructions nor a calibration temp,

is there some way to test it?... like you would test a thermometer for accuracy with boiling water.....

well the mash is bubbling steadily for two days now,...steady bubble from air trap, not as frenzied a bubbling as with the turbo/sugar mashes, but a good steady bubbling....

keeping my fingers crossed...

thanks all

[Dnderhead]

water should read 1.00,,other points could be checked,but most brew hydrometers are not that accurate.
most are "general purpose".

[Large Sarge]

Fairly new to distilling as well, but I can tell you from a lot of Beer making, maybe too much, that mashing grain above around 152-153 will start creating some un-fermentable sugars. Great for making dark heavy beers, think Guinness. I mash a clone at 156 and it gets thick and sweet. Not sure how that affects distilling though. At any rate, it will dork with your SG and FG. You start artificially high and end up thinking that you have a crapy attenuation on the yeast when you don't finish at your projected FG. It is hidden by hops in beer.

[rtalbigr]

Fairly new to distilling as well, but I can tell you from a lot of Beer making, maybe too much, that mashing grain above around 152-153 will start creating some un-fermentable sugars. Great for making dark heavy beers, think Guinness. I mash a clone at 156 and it gets thick and sweet. Not sure how that affects distilling though. At any rate, it will dork with your SG and FG. You start artificially high and end up thinking that you have a crapy attenuation on the yeast when you don't finish at your projected FG. It is hidden by hops in beer.

Good point LG.

Several of us here highly recommend adding malted grains for mashing at temps below 150F, more in the 140-145 range, specifically because ya get more fermentable sugars. I always try for 148F cuz adding the malted grain will drop the temps a little, and then hold those temps for as long as possible.

Big R

[Usge]

I mashed mine starting at 150 and it fermented out to 0.000. By that I mean I started putting the 3lbs of malt in above 150 and it settled at 150, and I just let it drop from there as it went. Using gluco enzymes in your fermenter will help with any unfermentable sugars. Corn different animal than malt in a lot of ways. Those processed malts used in beer to add body, sweetness, other flavors or color (ie., crystal malt, chocolate malt etc) are void of enzymes to start with.

edit: sorry..meant to say it fermented out to 1.000, not 0.000

[Taterjuice]

my mash is still bubbling

day 3

[Taterjuice]

still bubblin, day 6

kinda gettin a greasy lookin sheen on top, is this normal? ....I'm guessin corn oil maybe,

It is sort of tryin to clear, there are several diffrent layers of clearness, but the top is no where near see through yet, plus the slick on top.

SG started out around 1.055 or so,......has gone down to 0.992,....strong smell of alcohol

[jake_leg]

Corn oil will collect on top. I find if you stir well to degas once it has fermented out you see a slick of oil in the middle.

[rtalbigr]

With corn ya can get that oily sheen, kinda depends on the corn, I'm thinkin'. Sometimes I get it, sometimes not.

If your SG is 0.992 it's done workin'. The boubles you''re gettin' is just co2 that the yeast have been holdin' and they're still lettin' go. Ya could de-gas and the boublin' would stop. She's ready ta put through the ol' still.

Big R