My Gravity Is Too High

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lmccrone

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Ok, so i did my first AG brew on friday and I took my gravity reading from the kettle once it had boiled for an hour. I was disappointed to find that my gravity was way lower than i was expecting, 1038 instead of 1052, so i added some old left over malt to get the gravity closer to my target. I have only just discovered readings taken at high temps will be much lower than when they are taken at lower temps. So i probably have a much hire gravity than i was aiming at.

I have been away for work and I wont get home till tomorrow, is it too late to add more water to my fermentor??

thanks in advance
 
gday mate

I wouldn't worry about it too much,I would however worry about tipping stuff into the fermenter and upping the risk of infection.
I would rather have a great tasting midstrength than an infected 5 percent beer.
What was your grain bill?? batch size??,what temp did you mash at???If you are not getting full conversion then it might be related to those factors.My fist brew was the opposite,came out about 7 percent instead of 4.5 - 5,but it still tasted great.
As for taking a hot/cold reading from the refractometer,I use a side plate/saucer a put a little of the wort on it to cool a little before putting on the refractometer(while sparging and before and after boiling).I think the best temp for a reading is around 20C but don't quote me on that.
What did you brew??

hope that helps
 
Another thing to bear in mind is the balance between your malt and bitterness. Upping the gravity will mean ideally you would be looking to up the bitterness too.

Likely still drinkable as is. I would let it ferment out then assess from there.
 
So what has your gravity ended up at now since you have added the extra malt?

There's nothing wrong with a high ABV beer. Too high and your yeast will struggle to stay alive.

When I do high ABV beers, I use yeast nutrient and I have evn sprinkled some more nutrient on the wort evry 3 or so days to keep the yeast happy.
 
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