12.8% Alc. Is This Reading Right?

[DustyRusty]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to homebrewing. Downloaded the BrewMate program at the suggestion of my homebrew store guy. Loved it. With my latest brew, I was aiming at a 7% Alc. Brown Ale. This is what I did:

4.5kg LME Amber
1.5kg LME Light
Cara Dark 400g
Choc 300g
Crystal 200g
Pacific Gem 20g (60m)
Pacific Gem 15g (20m)
Fuggles 30g (5m)
Fuggles 30g (0m)
Safale-S04

Yeah it's big i know. I like big beers.

When I took the OG it came up as 1.122! I almost crapped my pants coz on my hydometer it told me that was a dessert wine. It finished at 1.030, which on nearly every calculator gives me a reading of around 12.8% ABV and a 73% apparent attenuation.

Can this be right? Have i made a Barley Wine accidently?

My last brew was an Imperial Stout and clocked at arond 8.5% but i used the same amount of Malt Extract and similar amount of grains. Why would this one clock so high? Are the lighter malts more fermentable or something? And are my BrewMate calculations way out or actually correct?

Would love some thoughts,

DR

 

[MarkBastard]

How did you mix in the LME? It may have been that your wort wasn't mixed properly and was higher gravity at the bottom and especially in the actual tap. Your first sample may have thus been tainted.

 

[Pennywise]

Assuming you made a 23L batch, your OG reading is about 20 point too high. I'd say it would have been some un-mixed extract in the bottom of the fermenter that got into the hydrometer tube causing the false feading

 

[DustyRusty]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did a boil for an hour with 1.5kg LME Amber. Then when it had finished i dissolved the rest of the LME in the boiled mixture. Then I added some cold to the fermenter, then the boiled mixture, then more cold until at 26 Litres and cold enough to steep the yeast.

You could be right about it not being mixed, although i would have thought that after fermenting the Carbon Dioxide running through it would force it to be pretty mixed already. I took one hydrometer full first then discarded it (to avoid tap build up and sediment) then took my readings off the second.

Maybe i'll give it a stir for my next reading. Thanks,

DR

 

[mkstalen]

Putting those ingredients into ianh's spreadsheet and assuming your volume is 23L you should have had a OG of about 1.087 and finish arounf 1.022
Giving you about 8.6% acl/v

My guess is that the OG reading you took probably had some extra sugarz in it, often the first draw out of the tap is high as it's not mixed in properly.

However if your volume is 16L then your numbers work out. But I wouldn't have thought that S-04 would get you up to 12.5%

 

[MarkBastard]

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did a boil for an hour with 1.5kg LME Amber. Then when it had finished i dissolved the rest of the LME in the boiled mixture. Then I added some cold to the fermenter, then the boiled mixture, then more cold until at 26 Litres and cold enough to steep the yeast.

You could be right about it not being mixed, although i would have thought that after fermenting the Carbon Dioxide running through it would force it to be pretty mixed already. I took one hydrometer full first then discarded it (to avoid tap build up and sediment) then took my readings off the second.

Maybe i'll give it a stir for my next reading. Thanks,

DR

Nah I mean your initial gravity reading, the one before adding the yeast.

Your final gravity would probably be accurate.

With extract beers you don't have to take into account efficiency so your starting gravity should be very predictable.

 

[DustyRusty]

Sorry Mark, I didn't read your first reply carefully enough. That makes sense about the initial reading being stuffed coz i didn't mix it. Thanks for the advice!

DR