High OG

[sneakyseagull]

Hi everyone,

I seem to be getting higher OG than predicted, they're not excessive and the alcohol taste isnt over bearing but its pushing most of my beers up into the 5.5-6.5% ABV. I'm using a Robobrew and the brewersfriend app says id be running @ 85+% which i don't think is right. My suspicion is that i'm getting my water level wrong and possibly over sparging?? i work at a rough rate of 3L per KG of wheat for mash level then sparge to bring the level to 25-26L for boil off ending with 23/22L.

Is it just a case i need a higher mash volume then less sparging or should i sparge with a set calculation then top up with water after to get to the desired boil volume?

Thanks

 

[mongey]

Are you using the fermenter or kettle target setting on brewers friend ? My numbers were all weird until i switched to the Kettle pre drain volume. Then everything made allot more sense. I’m getting 80% out of a standard biab set up. I don’t imagine 85 on robobrew is out of the question.

 

[sneakyseagull]

valid question. I'm not sure how do i check?

 

[mongey]

valid question. I'm not sure how do i check?

When you go to general page where you set your batch size you can choose fermenter or kettle. I find kettle easier to go by as it’s easoer to read my pre drain volume as my pot has volume markings.

Given you are getting highway og’s And if you are getting the volume you are going for you must just be getting good efficiency.

 

[sneakyseagull]

My version doesn't have that option. V1.41

I might be but im wondering if it's because I'm compensating by going to much on the sparge rather than just topping up with water after the sparge

 

[Peregrine]

It's quite possible that you are just getting high efficiencies with the RB. Over many brews I routinely get 83-87% end-of-boil (kettle) efficiencies with both the RB and BIAB 25 and 50 Liters. It's not a problem - quite the contrary - the important thing is to get consistency so you can allow for it. I doubt that it's just too much to do with the sparge volume in itself.
After all you are trying to extract all available sugars but without harsh astringency from over sparging. My experience so far is that fine milling is the major contributor and that a highish mash volume (so think of BIAB) seems also to help. Perhaps because of better contact of the liquor to the grain. I'm also suspicious of the mashing temp (ie lower = less efficiency) although my results haven't always been consistent and the theory doesn't seem to bear this up well ...