Welcome Back to Off The Hinge Brewing! It has been 4 long days since we pitched the yeast into our Imperial IPA. The starting gravity of this beer was 1.072 or about 17.5 degrees Plato, which was not bad. I was shooting for 18 degrees Plato, but close enough. The first day It was bubbling like crazy and I thought to myself..."Wow pacman is going bonkers!" Three days and several beers later it dropped to 1.016 or 4 degrees Plato. That was unexpected, namely because I mashed at 157 degrees F. The higher your mash temperature is the less fermentable sugars there will be. I think the temp must of dropped a bit. I wanted to mash lower, but I underestimated my strike water. My hope is that it will drop to around 3 degrees Plato when it finishes.
What does all these numbers mean? It helps the brewer to monitor their fermentation's to make sure the yeast are active and doing the job they should be according to their profile. Another important reason to follow these numbers is to get an idea of the beer's body (heavy, medium, light), which provides you with an estimation of the mouth feel. Lastly, these numbers provide the alcohol percentage!
Aston Lewis is a columnist for Brew Your Own magazine. According to Lewis, Apparent Degree of Fermentation (ADF), is a way to estimate the attenuation of the yeast. Attenuation is the reduction of wort concentration during fermentation. You can estimate the attenuation percentage using the ADF equation: ADF= (OG - FG) / OG. The higher the percentage of your ADF the more alcohol you will have in your beer along with a drier/crisper mouth feel.
Right now the IPA is at 76.4% ADF. It will be on the lower end of Imperial, but that was our goal! Now the patience comes into play! Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry.
Cheers!
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