144% Efficiency. What Have I Done?

[hupnupnee]

I've just finished a very eventful brew day.

The recipe was

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 94.8 %
0.30 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (1.8 SRM) Grain 5.2 %
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 11.3 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (60 min) Hops 10.2 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (30 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
20.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (15 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (0 min) Hops -
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (Dry Hop 3 days)

I mashed at 67* for 75 minutes.

At 25l I ended up with a gravity of 1.120? Expected was 1.055.

This is an outragously high efficiency. I checked and double checked. It was also very syrupy.

I ended up diluting to 44l. To get 1.060.

What do those that know think has happended here? This was my third AG.

Cheers Tim

 

[normell]

I've just finished a very eventful brew day.

The recipe was

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 94.8 %
0.30 kg Wheat Malt, Malt Craft (Joe White) (1.8 SRM) Grain 5.2 %
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) Hops 11.3 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (60 min) Hops 10.2 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (30 min) Hops 7.9 IBU
20.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (15 min) Hops 6.8 IBU
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (0 min) Hops -
15.00 gm Nelson Sauvin [11.40%] (Dry Hop 3 days)

I mashed at 67* for 75 minutes.

At 25l I ended up with a gravity of 1.120? Expected was 1.055.

This is an outragously high efficiency. I checked and double checked. It was also very syrupy.

I ended up diluting to 44l. To get 1.060.

What do those that know think has happended here? This was my third AG.

Cheers Tim

[post="124956"][/post]​

Should have left at 1.120, & sold it to NASA as a new, & improved ROCKET FUEL :blink: :super:

Normell

 

[Zwickel]

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 94.8 %
At 25l I ended up with a gravity of 1.120? Expected was 1.055.

Hi hupnupnee,

Id say, it never can happen,
something is going wrong, check your hydrometer!

 

[Mr Bond]

How fine is your crush?

Did u cool your sample b4 Hydro testing?

 

[normell]

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 94.8 %
At 25l I ended up with a gravity of 1.120? Expected was 1.055.

Hi hupnupnee,

Id say, it never can happen,
something is going wrong, check your hydrometer!

[post="124960"][/post]​

Off topic but, your up early for a Sunday Morning

Normell

 

[hupnupnee]

Not sure how fine is fine, but I'd say pretty fine, lots of powder.

Doesn't cooler mean higher gravity? But no I didn't but I did adjust for temp.

I measured a just finished ferment and got 1.015 and water and got 1.000 to check it.

I guess I've either fixed it or f*(0*d it by diluting it to 44l. If the gravity was at the predicted I'll have a nice lite beer to drink??

Ta

 

[Weizguy]

yep, check ur hydrometer, or scales used to weigh the grain.

Maybe the sample was not mixed evenly with the reminder of the wort (drawn off from the bottom - as usual- therefore more dense)?

Otherwise, can U come & do a brewday at my place? A barleywine, I think! :beer:

Seth

 

[hupnupnee]

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 94.8 %
At 25l I ended up with a gravity of 1.120? Expected was 1.055.

Hi hupnupnee,

Id say, it never can happen,
something is going wrong, check your hydrometer!

[post="124960"][/post]​

Off topic but, your up early for a Sunday Morning

Normell

[post="124963"][/post]​

Not don't understand Normell???? its 10:13pm

Tim

 

[Kai]

Either you've cocked up a measurement or you've used the GLS method of efficiency calculation.

 

[normell]

5.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.0 SRM) Grain 94.8 %
At 25l I ended up with a gravity of 1.120? Expected was 1.055.

Hi hupnupnee,

Id say, it never can happen,
something is going wrong, check your hydrometer!

[post="124960"][/post]​

Off topic but, your up early for a Sunday Morning

Normell

[post="124963"][/post]​

Not don't understand Normell???? its 10:13pm

Tim

[post="124968"][/post]​

Not in West Germany it ain't

Normell

 

[NRB]

Not in West Germany it ain't

Huh?

As for your situation Tim, it's technically impossible to have 1.120 from 5.8kg grain in 25L.

 

[tangent]

have you used nelson sauvin before??
that's a very NS focussed hop schedule

 

[stephen]

I tend to agree with Weizguy's comments above, did you measure the initial runnings from your mashtun? Measuring the SG of the initial runnings from the mashtun will produce the highest readings. Wait until everthing is in the boiler and well mixed before measuring.

For me I only measure when everything is in the fermenter and ready to go - not really worried about working out efficiency!

Steve

 

[JasonY]

Well if you had used 5.8kg of sugar instead of grain in 25l you would have ended up with 1.089 SG so you have definately got your wires crossed at some point :wacko:

 

[Zwickel]

Off topic but, your up early for a Sunday Morning

no, no, Im 9h ahead of you!!!!

 

[hupnupnee]

I think this particular brew is denstined to be a learning experience. I have no idea what I did. What I do know is I measured the gravity in the fermenter and on my Hydro it read 1.120. I then diluted up to 44l. And pitched trub yeast from my previous brew.

The beasty is happily fermenting now and I think I'm in for a very light bodied, low alchol beer with plenty of Nelson Sauvin Hops.

Tangent the recipe was from Ross. However it was a little different to my attempt!!!!

Last question: I'm going to get a new Hydro tomorrow so that I can check mine. If I find my gravity is way down to what I might expect at this time in the ferment could I all some dry malt to boost it up a little, two days into the fermentation???

Cheers for the help so far.
Tim

 

[NRB]

You can add sugars whilst into the ferment, but the hop balance will suffer from the dilution you're performed. An extra 19L of water is a significant dilution.

 

[Millet Man]

Last question: I'm going to get a new Hydro tomorrow so that I can check mine. If I find my gravity is way down to what I might expect at this time in the ferment could I all some dry malt to boost it up a little, two days into the fermentation???

[post="125223"][/post]​

Don't go and lash out on a new hydrometer straight away, make up a solution of 20% pure cane sugar (not dextrose) and check the gravity, should be 1.083. Dilute to 10% sugar and it should be 1.040, you've checked water at 1.000 already. This will tell you if your hydrometer is OK and it was an error of some other description.

Assuming your efficiency was as planned (not as measured) you now have a 20 IBU and 1.031 OG beer, not a waste, a light beer that should not be far off balanced. Add a bit more dissolved DME if you like but you will be diluting the IBU's further.

Cheers, Andrew.

 

[hupnupnee]

Being a bit inexperienced with all this. What are some good standards for IBU bitterness?

Is there a chart with the IBU of some commercial beers that you can use to compare against? (I know this is a bit of subject but as I've diluted my beer I guess it works in)

cheers
Tim

 

[Doogiechap]

You can download the Periodic Table of Beer Styles here
Cheers
Doug