One Extreme To The Other

[johnno]

Hello all,

Im really having fun doing this home brew thing. (I think) :angry:
Yesterday I bottled my last batch which finished up at 1008. (Is my OG to low? thread).
Anyway I packed that away and decided to put on another brew. I decided to go with the following ingredients.

Coopers Australian Bitter Kit
One Brewiser booster kit (500g Dextrose, 250g Maltodextrin, 250 g LME)
Half kilo of Coopers Dried LME
Brewiser CL80 Finishing Hops.
I used the yeast that came with the kit but I didnt start it.

I boiled all (except yeast and hops of course) in 4 litres of water for about 15 mins. Got it just in time before it boiled over.
I had frozen a empty ice cream container full of water the night before so that went in the fermenter first, then the wort then topped up to 23 litre mark. By the time the ice melted temp was at 22C, then I pitched the yeast
Just before I pitched the yeast I to0k a reading and it was 1068.
Now I beleive this is a ridiculously high reading. Didnt beleive what i saw so 2 hrs later tried again and it was at 1060.
I have a couple of receipe books on loan at the moment and I cant find any receipes starting out that high.
I wasnt even trying to make the brew any stronger anyway.
Has anyone else had this happen to them before?
Did I do something wrong?
Have I made Ultra strong beer?

Help!!!!

 

[Nearly]

Johnno, I am also fairly new to brewing but I would think that you might be getting a high reading because of bubbles in the beer attaching to the hydrometer. You may be already aware of what follows but just in case...

If you take a sample there is almost always some head and bubbles in it. Give the sample a bit of a shake and then let it sit for 5 mins or so. Then put the hydrometer in and spin it to remove the bubbles that will nearly always form on the side then the reading should be ok. The other thing to consider is temperature since SG is temp dependant but it doesnt sound as though that applies in this case.

 

[Nearly]

Hang on... after a closer read I see that you are not doing a 'kit and kilo' but rather a 'kit and kilo and a half'. I dont have the experience to say for sure but isnt that the reason that the readings are high?

On another note... what does the collective think about boiling kits? I have read opposing views but I am unsure at this point. Personally I would have thought that the manufacturer has done the hot break and that doing it again will risk getting a beer that wont hold its head.

 

[Snow]

Johnno,

did you give the wort a really good stir before you took the reading? You can get striation of the wort between the heavier and lighter layers of different fermentables, water, etc, which can throw your reading out by a mile. Otherwise it could be as Nearly described with the bubbles - thought this would only be a slight effect. The temp you took the reading is fine, so you don't have to adjust for that.

Nearly, I think the aversion to boiling kits is more related to the effects it has on the intended bittering levels and colour. If you boil, you will increase the bitterness and darken the colour (caramelisation) beyond what the manufacturer intended. This is ok, if that's the effect you want. I don't know of any reason why it should affect the head retention of the beer.

- Snow

 

[johnno]

Nearly,
there didnt seem to be any bubble in the wort when i took the reading. I did let it there for about 5 mins or so as i thought that may be the case as well.
Snow,
I didnt stir the thing coz i filled up with the garden hose as it gets a really good head on it using this method. I would have thought that would have stirred it up enough. But maybe not I suppose.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Johnno,

The high SG can only be due to either unmelted ice particles and/or the fair bit of malt that is in the wort. I've done this brew before, but didn't add the 500g of Dried LME and had a starting gravity of around 1046 - so the extra brewers degrees are most likely due to the dried LME in the wort.

Taking SG readings is a bit of a science and yes, the bubbles can distort the measurement by propping up the hydrometer - the thing is, it doesn't matter how you measure your SG, as long as you apply the same principle to all your readings...

I don't boil the kit - I find that boiling the kit extract tends to boil out the hops that came with the kit - I would next time simply boil up the malt and hops (get pellets, plugs or flowers instead of the hop tea bag - it's really worth it!), cool it and pour it into the fermenter with the ice and kit already in. IMHO, if you boil the kit, you might as well have not bought the kit and got some LME and hops from the shop instead!! I like to enhance the kit with extra hops and malt that I boil separately and combine in the fermenter...This means that you're only one step away from all malt and hop brews and giving beer kits the flick!! Then it's onto steeping, mashing, all grains and divorce

Cheers,

TL

 

[Batz]

Johnno,
Relax mate , sit down , have a flat beer , (after 3 weeks at 15 c )
I bet you took your reading from the tap , did not stir , so it's way off.
Sit down cobber all will be well , homebrew is fun not to get up tight about , have a beer , maybe a valium
Just joking mate all will be OK
Cheers batz

 

[Boots]

Johnno, I has a similar head scratcher the other night. 3KG ESB Aussie Draught, 1KG Dried Wheat ME, + Hallertau Hersb. I didn't intend to put the entire 1KG of WheatME in, but I was gas bagging with a mate and I guess I'd already had a few so I thought hmm, here's a good idea, and chucked the whole lot in. Boiled the DME only, then added to fermenter with can.

With all the extra malt on top of the 3Kilo kit, I was expecting a high OG, but when I saw 1080, I started wondering just how much I'd stuffed up. It didn't occur to me that I hadn't really mixed it very well till the next morning when fermentation had already begun, so I sterilised my arm and spoon and gave it a good stir, (I'd added an extra 3 litres of water the previous night when I got scared), and the gravity was at 1048 by then. In the end, I figure the worst case here is that I don't really know what the true OG was so won't know the strength ... till I've had a few

I racked to secondary on sunday and added 3 plugs of the HH which had been boiled for 10 mins. SG - 1018.