Clumps of malt and super high OG

[shacked]

So after doing a few K&K's and a few fresh wort kit brews, I thought I'd branch out and try something different.

So i had a crack at Abbey Red Ale per the brew shop recipe: http://www.thebrewshop.com.au/abbey-red-ale-style-recipe-pack.html

I boiled 2L of water to steep 200g of Amber Grain enhancer; left it for 20 min.

I then added the following in another pot (sterilized):

• 1 x ESB 1.7kg Draught
• 1 x No22 Amber Blend
• 1 x Dextrose 1kg
• 1 x Dried Light Malt 1kg
• 1 x Dark Candi Sugar 500g

I then added the 2L of water from the grain steep to have everything pull together in a massive clump. I added a few extra litres of water and stirred on a super low heat for an hour until almost all the lumps were gone, I then filled the sink full of ice water and put the pot in the ice bath. By the end there were only a few clumps left and I added all the liquid to the fermenter and left the lumps behind.

Pitched the T-58 at 19C and took an OG reading... It was 1.085! (the recipe says 1.069).

I have two questions:

1) Have I stuffed this up?
2) What sort of FG should I be looking for?

(assuming all is ok, I'll add the Saaz and Goldings hops in a week or so).

Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Seems to me that 2L of water wasn't enough for all that malt,candie sugar,etc. And DME (Dry Malt Extract as we call it) always clumps up in the kettle,being a hydroscopic powder. I just stir with my plastic paddle till it finally dissolves. But more water in the boil will help with this.

 

[damoninja]

^ Sounds like the case.

High gravity is likely due to it settling, you probably got a more syrup like solution and had an inaccurate reading.
Yeast should still find it and eat it, might take a little longer though. As the yeast converts sugars to alcohol the clumps will become more soluble and you ought to be able to stir them in gently.

To directly answer your questions:
1. No
2. Assuming the yeast eats everything, about the same as the recipe suggests.

Sounds like a nice brew actually, let us know how it goes.

 

[Aaron1.0]

You could try adding the dry ingredients to the wet ones rather than the other way round - I found that out the hard way. Also don't add the dry ingredients all at once, give it a good stir while adding slowly. The steam will piss you off making powders turn sticky!

 

[peas_and_corn]

I put the ingredients into beersmith and got the same OG your recipe lists, so I'm going to go with the others and say that you probably just drew off a somewhat more concentrated sample than the average. This isn't too big a deal, convection from the fermentation will stir up the wort anyway so it'll be fine.

 

[shacked]

Thanks for the input. It started bubbling after an hour or so and seems to be going pretty well.

I'll let you know how it goes once I've bottled it!

Cheers.

 

[shacked]

Bottled today after 17 days in the primary. Dry hopped on day 8. FG was stable for a week at 1.016.




Tastes great!