[Jonathan]

Hey y'all, I brewed a Rye IPA last Saturday, first all grain batch for me! Nice! Mashed at 157F, only dropped to 153F. Original gravity, after the boil was on the dot at 1.072, and for some (dumb?) reason I rehydrated the 1 packet of US-05 as per the instructions on their website, instead of my normal previous routines in Extract and just dumping into my primary out of the packet. I also didn't shake the chilled wort in the fermenter previous to pitching the yeast to aerate, although I did shake once the yeast was pitched for roughly five minutes. 5 days into it, decided to take a gravity reading, because the Krausen (which was super active and looked healthy) was dissipating quickly. It was at 1.035, a lot higher than I expected. I've been fermenting in a Kegerator at 63F. Haven't done much else that I can think of out of the ordinary, so I'm assuming I'm just overreacting at the slow drop? Is that even slow? Does it seem normal for ~5 days into it?

I'll try to relax in the meantime, and thanks in advance!

Edit: I'm using a refractometer to measure FG, can that be the cause?

[Bob357]

Good that you rehydrated the yeast. Although there is some controversy as to whether it yields better results or not, it does net a lot more viable cells than direct pitching, especially in higher gravity worts. As for aeration, dry yeasts don't need the extra oxygen. so you're good to go as far as yeast is concerned. I never take gravity readings during fermentation, so wouldn't know what to expect at that temperature and time frame. I't kick the temp up to about 67 and let it ride until the Krausen drops and it starts to drop clear.

[The Beerery]

You need to use a special conversion when alcohol is present.

http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/

By my guess you are at 1.010.-1.012.

[Jonathan]

Good that you rehydrated the yeast. Although there is some controversy as to whether it yields better results or not, it does net a lot more viable cells than direct pitching, especially in higher gravity worts. As for aeration, dry yeasts don't need the extra oxygen. so you're good to go as far as yeast is concerned. I never take gravity readings during fermentation, so wouldn't know what to expect at that temperature and time frame. I't kick the temp up to about 67 and let it ride until the Krausen drops and it starts to drop clear.

Thanks, I was thinking I could raise it up a little, maybe that's what was causing a little lag if any.

You need to use a special conversion when alcohol is present.

http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/

By my guess you are at 1.010.-1.012.

Okay yeah I figured, I added the edit in after googling refractometer and final gravity. Saw a few posts about alcohol possibly causing it to misread SG. Thanks!

[brewinhard]

Yep. Refractometers get screwy when alcohol is involved. Really only good for measuring OG and maybe for monitoring gravity drops during fermentation.