87% Efficiency... 6.8% Beer.... Hmmmm

[Guysmiley54]

Hi Guys,

I've just pitched an American Amber ale with a predicted efficiency of 70% and a planned og of 1052. I somehow hit 1065! I suspect that in the past I have been getting major dough balls (that sounds like a nasty case of VD!) so this time I added the grain to the water in 5-6 additions and stirred well between each addition. I skipped mashout and kept the boil short as I wanted a quick (for AG) brew day.

Should I be diluting? I've just pitched 24L into my 2L5L fermenter so I don't have a lot of head space. Should I add some extra bitterness to account for the extra malt?

To be honest, for me this is not the worst problem I could have :icon_drunk: I'm sure it's gonna be a ripper anyway

Edit: I just double checked my hydrometer and it's reading 1070 (93%).... wow!!

 

[mxd]

I would be diluting, I have one brew that was a1.065 instead of the 1.052 and the balance was just wrong it was too alcoholic and just not that nice.

maybe check your scales and hydrometer before you adjust your recipes

 

[Guysmiley54]

I would be diluting, I have one brew that was a1.065 instead of the 1.052 and the balance was just wrong it was too alcoholic and just not that nice.

maybe check your scales and hydrometer before you adjust your recipes

Yeah, my scales are pretty good though my hydro reads higher than my refractometer... I suspect I may have a little trub in my fermenter too.

I might pull out 3 liters to ferment with my oztops and top up to dilute.

 

[Guysmiley54]

After settling out in the fermenter I have about 2L of trub. Using BrewMate software I worked out that with only 22L of actual wort gives me 86% efficiency. This sounds more in line with what I would expect from a good day brewing on my BIAB system.

If I top up 4L it will drop my IBU from 33 to 28 and gravity to 1059 which is still high but I can live with it. I beleive my specialty malt bill will be messed with too but I'm not as worried as the first 2L should have been diluted to hit my recipes volume target anyway. Does anyone have any thoughts about what the other two litres will do?

So I have some questions my friends...

When is the best time to dilute? I am going to draw off the excess wort into bottles and use oztops to finish fermentation. How ever I am going to add french pressed hops for my aroma addition (no chill fix). I'm thinking that It's probably best to leave in my temp controlled fridge until at least half done, add aroma hops wait a day and when around 90% done take the excess wort out and top up with cooled boiled water. Any other thoughts on this?

When adding my aroma addition shoud I do a short boil and add a bittering addition to regain the IBU that I lost through dilution? What would be the effect if I did it with plain water and not wort? I'm not really keen on adding more DME as I'm trying to get the gravity down not up!!

Any other thoughts or feedbakc would be grand

Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Guysmiley54]

I should also mention that I mashed at 68C (my first high temp mash) and I'm not sure how the beer will attenuate. Maybe dilution should happen right at the end.

Has anyone had any experience with this at all? Would love some ideas as I am scratching my head trying to work out a fix here.

 

[megs80]

One option is to finish out the undiluted beer, pull off a measure amount and sample while adding soda water till happy. Then top up that ratio in the fermenter. Note you have to take into account carbonic bite so it will be sweeter un carbonated

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I should also mention that I mashed at 68C (my first high temp mash) and I'm not sure how the beer will attenuate. Maybe dilution should happen right at the end.

Has anyone had any experience with this at all? Would love some ideas as I am scratching my head trying to work out a fix here.

I worked in a brewery and all they did was added the water (to get there correct OG) when it was in the primary fermenter. So they boiled hopped then filtered and cooled, checked the gravity (which was to high) and added sterilised water in fermenter.
Hope that helps