Too much Brown Sugar?

I brewed a Brown Ale and put too much brown sugar in the wort... it called for 1/2 pound and I put 1 pound.... I took an Original Gravity ... 1.096 ... Opps! sounds really high..... things seem to be ferementing fine in the primary....

Does this Original Gravity sound crazy? ... too much sugar? think it will be alright?

Thanks,

Shamu

You'll have to post the recipe in order for anyone to answer without guessing. A guess though would be you didn't mix the wort after adding your top up water (assuming you're an extract brewer).

Regardless, it will be fine.

Curious that only half a pound would take the SG to 1.096, was this a 1 gallon batch? What was the target SG for the recipe?

ma2brew said:

Curious that only half a pound would take the SG to 1.096, was this a 1 gallon batch? What was the target SG for the recipe?

Click to expand...

Guarantee that it didn't. I can't tell you the number of times extract brewers have wondered why their gravity reading was so high, and the answer was that they didn't stir the wort after adding their top-off water, and they ended up taking a highly concentrated sample (since the very heavy, viscous, concentrated wort from the boil and the top-off water will want to stratify).

Hell, it happened to me!

Thanks... yeah, I did mix the wort with water, but I did take the sample from the last remnants of the wort.... I forgot to take the sample and already pitched the yeast..

as for the recipe....

6 lbs extract
14 oz crystal malt
2 oz patent malt
1 pound brown sugar
4 oz lactose
teaspoon Irish Moss
..... sounds like I scraped the bottom of the barrel....

I'll assume that's a 1 gallon batch to get such a high gravity. That's a ton of sugar and unfermentables you have in there. My guess is that will be thick and syrupy and cloyingly sweet. It will probably be kind of acrid too with 2oz of black patent in 1 gallon.

That recipe was for 5 gallons.... does that make matters any better?

I did take the OG sample from the near bottom of the brew pot....

Its downstairs right now bubbling away... I can almost hear the yeast singing with joy at all the sugar they have to consume!!! lol

Thanx-

Shamu

Something is off because I did this recipe with an OG of 1.070.

7lb amber malt syrup
1.5lb amber malt dry
1lb crystal 120
.25lb black patent
.5 belgian chocolate
4oz after brewed espresso
2oz Hersey unsweetened chocolate
1 lb brown sugar

.5 oz cascade 60 min
.25 oz cascade 30 min
.25 oz fuggle 15 min

WLP 023

shamukaiser said:

Thanks... yeah, I did mix the wort with water, but I did take the sample from the last remnants of the wort.... I forgot to take the sample and already pitched the yeast..

as for the recipe....

6 lbs extract
14 oz crystal malt
2 oz patent malt
1 pound brown sugar
4 oz lactose
teaspoon Irish Moss
..... sounds like I scraped the bottom of the barrel....

Click to expand...

I see the 6oz extract has changed to 6lbs now. I was worried this was a hooch thread when I saw what was obviously a type-o the first time.

That recipe looks pretty good actually, so yes the only reason you got such a high gravity is because you took a sample of the wort when it wasn't thoroughly mixed.

Thanks guys... yes I caught that typo after the fact... sorry about that... well, if it sounds like I didn't put too much brown sugar in, I'll rest easy and crack myself open a cold one.

Thanks much.... I really appreciate the advice and wealth of knowledge you guys share.

Peace

Shamu

you might get too much molasses flavor from the extra half pound of brown sugar.

I'd guesstimate your actual gravity was around 1.050...just a little higher than whatever your recipe claimed it should be.

I doubt you'll notice a flavor change with an additional 1/2 pound.