Og Reading Too High

[King Brown]

So I laid down a brew today using left over ingredients from brews past, not strictly sticking to any style but was was aiming for a dark amber coloured ale, with IBUs and OG about right for an American Amber Ale. I punched my data into beer smith and matched it all up and came up with the following

3Kg of ldme
250g of crystal
50g of black patent
66g POR (60 minutes)
12g Hallertauer (15 minutes)
9g Saaz (o minutes)
2 x sachets of generic dry ale yeast
1 x sachet yeast nutrient.

Steeped grains in 2L water for 30 minutes at 70C, added to water+extract to make 15L and boiled for 60 minutes. After boil chilled and mixed with ice and water to make 23L.

Beer smith came up with an OG of 1.050, fairly normal, only after the Ice had melted and the wort had been topped up and stirred very thoughoughly, I took a hydrometer reading (at 19C) that read at 1.070!!

Im not sure whether I misjudged the extraction of the grains or whether my scales might be a bit out of whack and I actually put in alot more that the 3kg of malt extract. I should mention this is the second brew I've put down that has been too high, but that one was only about 5 or so points too high, not 20!

Can anyone think of anything else that could be causing the problem?

 

[pint of lager]

You probably ended up with some LME in the tap and when you pulled the sg sample, it is higher than what is actualy in the fermenter. This is a common mistake that has caught out many brewers. Sanitise a cup and scoop some wort out of the top of the fermenter and let us know what sg it is.

 

[Fourstar]

I agree with POL, Beermsith is very accurate with extract from my experience so you had an excessive reading or your hydro is incorrect. take another and see how it is. If it is definitely 1.070 it means your DME would have been around 4.5kg if everything else was constant. i dont think thats the case. your scales would have to be screwed!

 

[King Brown]

It was a good suggestion, But I just sampled from the top and the gravity still reads 1.070

 

[hefevice]

Checked the calibration of your hydrometer with water?

 

[King Brown]

Sitting happily on 1.000

I'm pretty sure my scales must be out of whack, especially when weighing amounts over 1Kg. Will have to go and get an upgrade me thinks!
At very least this brew is bubbling away nicely and could make a nice winter warmer, hopefully its bitter enough for the high gravity.

 

[manticle]

Sitting happily on 1.000

I'm pretty sure my scales must be out of whack, especially when weighing amounts over 1Kg. Will have to go and get an upgrade me thinks!
At very least this brew is bubbling away nicely and could make a nice winter warmer, hopefully its bitter enough for the high gravity.

Maybe taste it and add in a bittered hop shot if it isn't?

 

[King Brown]

Not a bad idea, I think I will wait till its further along in fermentation. I had a taste of the hydrometer sample yesterday and it didn't taste too bad, fairly bitter, a lot of cloying sweetness but no more than would be expected with any high gravity wort is before the yeast goes to work.

 

[Bribie G]

I made a couple of brews with 2kg LDME plus spec grains and they turned out very low in alcohol, around 3.2 percent IIRC. I would suggest that 1050 ish would be what your quantity of LDME would yield and hence a sort of Heineken strength brew. Can't think what would send it up to 1070.
If it is that strong, one advantage is that you won't care about the bitterness or anything much else after five pints :lol:

 

[cdbrown]

I was finding my small scales I purchased to measure out smaller quantities of grain and hops wasn't accurate so grabbed a electronic scale which is up to 5kg with +/- 1g tolerance (or so they say).

Based on beersmith you probably added 4kg instead of 3kg. Doubling the grain only adds a few SG points

Beersmith is also saying that with the extra LDME the IBU is 41.

How positive are you that there is 23L in the fermenter? With 4kg and only 22L I get OG 1.069. Either way I'm sure it will be a top drop.

 

[King Brown]

Too true, especially if its after 5 pints of the old ale I have conditioning right now (1.100OG, 1.035FG!!)

I think it must be my scales, they have been a little dodgy of late and are very temperamental, especially as they only have a small plate on them and if your bowl isn't balanced in the exact right way it will give you different readings. Most my brews use around 3kg ldme and usually have an og around 1.050. I was just wanting to check with others if I didn't over steep the specialty grain as its only my second brew using them.

 

[King Brown]

I was finding my small scales I purchased to measure out smaller quantities of grain and hops wasn't accurate so grabbed a electronic scale which is up to 5kg with +/- 1g tolerance (or so they say).

Based on beersmith you probably added 4kg instead of 3kg. Doubling the grain only adds a few SG points

Beersmith is also saying that with the extra LDME the IBU is 41.

How positive are you that there is 23L in the fermenter? With 4kg and only 22L I get OG 1.069. Either way I'm sure it will be a top drop.

I'd say that sounds about right, I will probably top up the fermenter slightly when I bulk prime, I filled it to 23L but it was hard to determine accurately due to the huge rocky head already formed on the wort. 41 IBU seems reasonable, I guess the only way to find out will be the finished product!! Bugger if it turns out to be a gem and I can't reproduce it

 

[manticle]

I was just wanting to check with others if I didn't over steep the specialty grain as its only my second brew using them.

I could be wrong but I think the only bad thing you could do with the steeping of the grains would be to extract tannins by having your temp too high.

 

[King Brown]

Yeah, I've followed the advice from Palmer's brewing classic styles on steeping for the method, water/grain ratio and temperature. I keep stainless thermometer in the steep at all times and watch it like a hawk! I won't know if my method is right until I taste my first batch, but the liquor from the grain smell soooo good :icon_drool2: