pilafdm

Recipes 

Hello!

This is about my 10th brew and I'm accustomed to things going more or less well. However, today I realized I had forgotten to take my OG reading after I had already pitched and put the carboy away.

So, I dug it out, took a reading, and got 0.020 more than I was expecting. That's a lot!

I made a reasonably sized yeast starter that was a bit on the thick side, and I pitched a whole White Labs vial into a 3 gallon batch. I also was not super diligent about temps, but I'm reasonably sure it was 70-75.

Could reading after pitching the yeast starter and/or the temp explain why I'm so far away from my target OG? If not, I'm either going to wind up with a very heavy APA or I'll wind up with an APA that has a FG way out of style guidelines -- or both, right?

Should I do anything? I don't have much room to extend the wort with water, though that had crossed my mind...

pilafdm

Recipes 

If you take a look at the recipe on Hopville, this means I apparently got 127% efficiency and that I should expect an 8.9% beer rather than the 6.3% I was shooting for.

pilafdm

Recipes 

Ooh! Maybe when I siphoned it out, I siphoned a bunch of trub?

pilafdm

Recipes 

OK, I took a reading by siphoning right off the top, and how got a reading of 1.070. I hope this follows a trend!

Maxkling

Recipes 

If you used extract, followed the recipe, have correct water volumes, then your OG can only be as calculated give or take a few gravity point.

Sounds like you have a measurement problem, whether it was water volume, extract fermentation volume, or faulty hydrometer.

Check your hydrometer with water at 60-65 degree. It should be 1.000.

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pilafdm

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Good to know. Thank you!

pwkblue

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there are a few possible reasons:

- you have 3 lbs of DME...many brew shops by bulk DME and repackage into smaller retail sizes. Both shops that I frequent normally leave these a touch heavy...a few ounces heavy on 1lb bags, but I've had several 3lb bags as much as 9 oz heavy.

-you mention pitching a "thick starter" as well as a full vial of yeast?? Any unfermented sugars in the starter will increase your OG. This is usually insignificant, but depending on your process...and what you mean by "thick"

pilafdm

Recipes 

Also, I partial mashed using BIAB. Maybe I got slightly more efficiency than needed? I'm hoping that all such things are factors and that my OG is really more around 1.063-4.