Beer Forum

So to start my AG career I chose Tasty's Janet's Brown as my first recipe to do on all my new equipment.

Despite some stupidity resulting in a blown hose on my chiller (BOOM!) and interpreting BRIX as SG on my new refractometer all went pretty well. Although I did mash a little low, this much I knew for sure.

When all was said and done I'd interpreted the OG/FG incorrectly, and the FG was way too high (ya, now I know NOW that you can't do the FG measurement with a refractometer).

So in an attempt to right my wrongs and work on my process I immediately made another batch and poured the wort on the yeast cake from the first batch.

I used re-hydrated Nottingham on batch #1, and since I initially thought the beer came in at high 5s for ABV I felt that it was worth throwing another batch at it.

I poured in at 65F and put it in the 64F corner of my basement. Well within a few hours it was like I had an air pump hooked up to the primary (wish I had a video), within 24 hours it was essentially done, no bubbling, no nothing. I took a reading, confirmed that reading after another 6 days when I transferred it to the secondary, and again when it went in the keg.

I nailed my FG on batch 2, tasted great when it went in the keg. My efficiency was off tho, I'm getting over 80%, both finished a little over 7%.

Thoughts? Can I use this method repeatedly if I need to make something quick?

What was your for real OG and FG on that second batch?

The fast fermentation is perfectly normal considering it's nottingham yeast and it was a yeast cake from a previous batch.

It sounds like your attenuation might be too high due to low mash temperature. Getting an accurate temperature on the mash is important.

Also as a side note, ignore that attenuation number that the yeast manufacturer gives you. Attenuation is way more dependent on mash temperature than anything else.