S G doesn't seem right??

[drainsurgeon]

Started my first batch of Skeeter Pee 3 days ago. Followed the recipe exactly to start. Brought the SG to 1.070 ( started with the invert sugar and added 1 more cup of sugar to get to 1.070), temp at 78. I'm making the Cranberry Lime version so started with 48 oz of lemon juice. 32 hours later I added the slurry from a Tropical Blend that I just did first racking on (which fermented to dry in 4 days-wow). SG still at 1.070, temp at 74. The next day I go to check the readings and see if there was any activity yet. SG is now reading 1.020??? Temp was a little high (85) so set up a fan to cool off a bit and gave it a stir. I go to check this morning and temp is better at 77 and SG is down to !.00. There is a good fizz going in the bucket but it seems like it is just getting going and my readings show it's almost done. I don't think this is possible 2 days after pitching the slurry. I'm supposed to add more nutrient and energizer and 30 oz lime juice at 1.050 but it blew right past that the first day after pitching the slurry. Not sure what is going on or what to do at this point. Advice anyone?

 

[mennyg19]

The temp affects the SG reading. Your hydrometer should come with a conversion chart.
If the temp is higher, the SG will come out lower, so you have to add to it to get the correct reading. So when your SG was at 1.020, it would make some sense as your temp rose all the way up to 85

 

[cmason1957]

Temperature does matter, but not a whole lot. The correction from 68 to 85 F is about. 004. That's from memory so don't jump down my throat, if I am wrong. It may have fermented that quickly. It does seem very fast. Is it possible your initial must wasn't stirred well and was reading artificially high?

 

[richmke]

if you ferment from a slurry, especially if you use a lot of it, the juice can ferment down that quickly. For the fun of it, I fermented an IM kit from 1.07 with a slurry from a recently completed kit, and I think it was done in 2 days, but I kept it in a little longer because I added used skins from the prior kit too.

Basically, you have all the yeast you need from the moment you mix it in. The yeast get right to it. When you pitch from a yeast packet, it can take 48 hours to build up to the full yeast colony. It doesn't take that long to ferment from 1.07. If you were fermenting from 1.11, it might take another day or two.

 

[drainsurgeon]

Temperature does matter, but not a whole lot. The correction from 68 to 85 F is about. 004. That's from memory so don't jump down my throat, if I am wrong. It may have fermented that quickly. It does seem very fast. Is it possible your initial must wasn't stirred well and was reading artificially high?

I made an invert sugar by adding 16c sugar into 8c water and 1/3c lemon juice. After adding water and nutrients I stirred the crap out of it. My reading was just a tad below 1.070 so added 1c granulated sugar (per the recipe) to get it there. Again I stirred for about 2 min to make sure the sugar was dissolved and it brought the reading up to 1.070. I don't think that was the problem but there was a good amount of slurry left over from the Tropical Blend. The recipe said it would probably take 1 or 2 days to get going. 2 days later I'm at 1.00. Should I add the 30 oz lime juice at this point and continue? I'm used to kit's and this is like microwave wine.

 

[drainsurgeon]

if you ferment from a slurry, especially if you use a lot of it, the juice can ferment down that quickly. For the fun of it, I fermented an IM kit from 1.07 with a slurry from a recently completed kit, and I think it was done in 2 days, but I kept it in a little longer because I added used skins from the prior kit too.

Basically, you have all the yeast you need from the moment you mix it in. The yeast get right to it. When you pitch from a yeast packet, it can take 48 hours to build up to the full yeast colony. It doesn't take that long to ferment from 1.07. If you were fermenting from 1.11, it might take another day or two.

Should I add the 30 oz of lime juice at this point and ferment to dry in the primary? I just can't get over how fast this went.

 

[dorfie]

I would just add the lime juice and transfer it over to your secondary. It is basically dry now, and the small amount of sugar that the juice will add will easily ferment out in the secondary.

 

[drainsurgeon]

I would just add the lime juice and transfer it over to your secondary. It is basically dry now, and the small amount of sugar that the juice will add will easily ferment out in the secondary.

Will do. Thanks