Elbaryn

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First I want to say a HUGE thank you to this entire forum for its wealth of knowledge on homebrewing, it made my first day of brewing so much easier.

Now on to my confusion, I brewed my first batch (a sweet stout) on 11/25. The OG reading I got at that time was 1.069. The recipe called for it to be 1.048. My first question is which one of these is correct? It's an all extract brew with steeping grains, I also steeped the grains longer then the recipe suggested could this have something to do with it?

I'm worried about the OG number because after a very active fermentation that required a quick blow off tube, I am getting a FG of 1.026. If I go by the recipe number I am no where near the recommended 1.014, which has me concerned. I know it may need more time, but the krausen has completely fallen and there is no more activity from what I can tell.

I tried some last night from my hydrometer tube and it tasted VERY good even though it was warm and flat.

Brulosopher

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My guesses:

1. You're hydrometer is broke
2. You're not reading your hydrometer correctly
3. Your OG was high because you hadn't fully homogenized your wort.

If I'm wrong on all of those points, that's okay... you already like your beer anyway

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unionrdr

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mgortel

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Did you take your OG reading from the final mixed volume of wort in your fermenter??

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Elbaryn

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I thought about the Hydrometer being messed up but I've been checking it against room temperature water and it always returns to 1.000. Now about the wort not being homogenized that could very well be. I stirred it up quite a bit to make sure everything was aerated, but thats not to say that it was entirely mixed.

Even so then the FG numbers worries me even more as it would be off quite a bit from the projected number.

The beer itself is great, I just don't want to make bottle bombs haha.

Elbaryn

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Yup straight from the bottle after mixing and aerating.

unionrdr

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Revvy

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Elbaryn

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I know the yeast I used (Safale-S04) is a super active yeast and it took about 10 hours to get going, but when it got going it went! The Krausen totally filled a gallon of headspace and required an emergency blow off tube. It bubbled (more like belched) for a good week before slowly tapering off.

Should I be worried about a stall? And if so how should I gently warm it up? Put it next to my baseboard heating?

Thanks so much everyone.

Elbaryn

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Thanks Revvy! I saw that before asking the question and figured that's what the problem there was. I was just wondering if my over steep had caused some of it too?