13.52 ABV on a Wheat??!!

Ok so myself and my brew crew just moved our Wheat beer into a secondary and we took a reading and it came out to 13.52 abv?????? Is that normal??? Did we do something wrong???

You are going to need to provide some more details here. How did you calculate that number?

Exactly! We need to know where you started (the original gravity) and where you finished (final gravity) and we can double check for you. That seems too high if you used ale yeast. My wines finish in that area, though!

OG = 1.112
FG (after 2 weeks before primary sugar) = 1.020
OG temp = 70
FG temp = 64

what was the recipe ?

that is a big beer

I get about 12% ABV based on your numbers, but I bet they're a little off. What was the recipe?

Without knowing anything, my guess is that your OG is not as high as you think it is.

If it is right, I would be really curious to hear how it turns out. I don't think I have ever had a wheat that strong before.

1 Can of Coopers Wheat
3 pounds of Wheat dry malt
05 yeast

what was the batch size ?
did you use top off water?

5 gal batch

What size can? 3.3 pounds?

If you used 3.3 pounds of LME, your OG was 1.050. You maybe didn't get the top off water and the extract mixed up well enough to get a good reading.

S05 will give you about 70% attenuation, and poop out way before you hit 13% ABV!

By my guess, you've got 3.91%ABV.

I dont have the rest of the recipe in front of me...sorry

Now this is only after 2 week

Yes a 3.3 can

it is not a problem NoClueBrew
most of us are amazed at the ABV
just trying to make sence of it

Assuming that your can of Coopers was the 3.3 Lb size I'd guess you would be at 1.072 OG MAX.

Hi all, 1.5gal 3.5 top off...

We are trying to make sence of it ourself...lol

when did you take the S.G. sample?

Again, 3.3 pounds of LME and 3 pounds DME can only give you 1.050. Unless you added something else?

Mark can you answer when we took the S.G. sample???

YooperBrew, thats all we added...no joke

Right before we added the yeast

did you all use a bucket and take the sample from the spigot ?

I don't know if it would make a difference but it was 4lbs of DME not 3....

We simply filled our hydrometer Jar and took a reading...

Makes no sense to me that you would end up with an OG that high.

When I did my big wheat I used 9 LBs of LME and a pound of Carapils. My OG was 1.074. The FG was 1.012 for an ABV of about 8%.

it was from the carboy not a bucket

we also documented everything so I dont believe we are off on any numbers we are using

I am thinking that you got a bunch of undiluted wort for your test sample

Well, this could be interesting...

Can the priming sugar change the reading or the abv?

um, did you already add priming sugar? You aren't supposed to add that until just before bottling.

You didn't mix the top off water thoroughly with the rest of the wort. There's no possible way your O.G. would be that high.

no we did not add priming sugar yet, we took the reading after it was in the first carboy for 2 weeks, we moved it over to the secondary carboy and then took the reading...no sugar added till next week

Wait, so, you took a reading after it'd been in the carboy for 2 weeks, and got 1.112?

I am going to vote for an incomplete mixing of the top off water, which led to you testing a sample that was more wort than water.

The sample was taken before the yeast was introduced to the mix

The OG was 1.112

The 4 pounds of DME would raise you to 1.059.

The priming sugar would raise you a insignificant amount. What I assume happened is that you didn't get a thorough mix of wort/water when you pulled your sample. The wort is heavier than the top up water, and it's incredibly difficult to get it to mix well. Unless you added an additional 6 pounds of sugar, your OG was NOT 1.112, and your yeast would have never fermented it that low regardless. There is no way to have such a high OG unless you didn't add water to 5 gallons, or unless you added more fermentables.

With the 4 pounds of DME, and 3.3 pounds of LME, your ABV would be 5.1%.

We took the sample (originally) after we mixed everything together and before we added the yeast.... I'm pretty sure we mixed it all together sufficiently but i may be wrong...