OG is over 1.2!

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Detizo

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I've brewed probably a dozen beers all with extracts. But I've never had one have an OG this high! This is a chocolate peanut butter beer so I'm wondering if it's just so thick that it's holding the hydrometer up or if there really is that much fermentable sugar in the beer. Any ideas would be appreciated. Here's a quick list of what I used,

1 lb various grains, steeped for 30 min.
12lb dark malt extract (yes, 12 lbs)
33.5 oz PB2
8 oz Organic Cocoa

Thanks again.
 
You're measuring specific gravity when you use a hydrometer not just sugar content, so when you add dense materials to your recipe the gravity will go up. That being said to figure out your gravity, I'd probably figure out the sugar and carbs in PB2 and add that to the value your malt extract gives you.
 
You're measuring specific gravity when you use a hydrometer not just sugar content, so when you add dense materials to your recipe the gravity will go up. That being said to figure out your gravity, I'd probably figure out the sugar and carbs in PB2 and add that to the value your malt extract gives you.

dense soluable material, things that sink or float shouldn't effect your gravity. But Dryboroughbrewing is right, getting the carbs/sugars per serving of the Cocoa and PB and normalize to the amount added and then to the dme should give you the sugar content for ABV purposes.

For instance, the DME has about 45 points per pound gallon - in your case 540 points/5 gallons would be an OG of 108.

So now you'd look at the PB and find it has 5gr sugar per 1 oz serving for about 165gr for what you have. Convert that to points (about 15ppg) and add that to your numbers above (either 540+15 or 108+3) - Note I'm making up the 5gr/1oz serving check labels.

The rest of your gravity is a combination of dense protien, and poorly mixed wort from the top off.
 
I will get he measurements of the DME, PB2 and cocoa. Are those the only items I'll need? They should be the only things with any fermentable sugars in them right?

Thanks again.
 
IMO you did not get a very good mix of wort and top off water coupled with the density of the added ingredients is causing a false and ridiculously high reading.
 
I have a ignorant question. Is doing the calculation on paper (like above) close enough compared to taking the hydrometer OG reading? Also why not just do it all on paper (OG & FG) and get rid of the hydrometer?
 
@ AFJ: My mistake. 1.024. Still, pretty damn high.
@duboman: I actually don't add top off water. I have a 10 gallon brew kettle so I'm able to do it all at once. And I mixed it well before taking a reading too.
 
@ AFJ: My mistake. 1.024. Still, pretty damn high.
@duboman: I actually don't add top off water. I have a 10 gallon brew kettle so I'm able to do it all at once. And I mixed it well before taking a reading too.

1.024 isn't right either, with 12lb of DME, and 5US gallons, you have an og around 1.108.
 
I have a ignorant question. Is doing the calculation on paper (like above) close enough compared to taking the hydrometer OG reading? Also why not just do it all on paper (OG & FG) and get rid of the hydrometer?

YEAH! Thread Jacking... ....

Ok, well first most beer is brewed from grain, and you can't figure OG as the conversion from grain to wort can be affected and every brew can be different - although in practice, the typical AG brewer can tell you 'if I use Xlb of grain, I'll typically have an OG of Y with 5 gallons" But that is the 'typically' that screws that up.

Ok but what about Extract brewers? and OG?
Well did you put in 5G? 5.5? 4.5? because the og at 5G is about 10% higher than 5.5 and 10% lower than 4.5 (might be closer to 10.8% on both but not important).

Was that DME really a 45points per pound? or only 44points? and did you put in 3lb? or 2.9lb? (with about .1lb stuck to the bag?) etc etc. But a reading tells you what it is - assuming you mixed top off water well, or did a full boil.


On the FG, yeast has attenuation range of about 4% that is 73-77% is typical. Although some strains 4% around 80% and some are 4% aroudn 70%. With a varrience fo 4%, that 1.50 gravity beer can finish between 1.011 and 1.014 depending on a high attenuation or low for that strain.

And then don't get us started 'is it done yet?' Which is all about the FG being about what we should expect per strain. If you never do an FG, what if the gravity is stuck at 1.020, until you rack to bottling, and then the yeast wake up, and go fora nother .006? typical bottling sugar adds abotu .001 to the gravity. Imagine what happens when .006 is added? >BOOM<

Anyhow suffice it to say 'not measuring OG and FG' is like trying to tell if a person has a fever that is low and ignorable, medium and maybe some anti boitics, or high and needs a visit to the ER. ie just a guess. Can you make beer that way? sure they have and in some areas still do, but why no just take the measurement?
 
YEAH! Thread Jacking... ....

Oops. Thanks for the filling me in on all the variables I was unaware of in the base grain/dme/lme.

Sorry back on on track.

1.024 isn't right either, with 12lb of DME, and 5US gallons, you have an og around 1.108.

If it was me I'd take a sample and retest it with the hydrometer. I have miss written and miss read the hydrometer more few times. Granted you will not have the true OG but at least it is something.
 
Not to sound like a dick, but that's actually pretty low....

What a dick! Only kidding. I was right to begin with. It did read at 1.24. Someone earlier commented saying that a hydrometer doesn't read that high and I was at work not able to look at my hydrometer right away. You're right, 1.024 for an OG is horribly low. Might as well drink O'Douls.
 
What a dick! Only kidding. I was right to begin with. It did read at 1.24. Someone earlier commented saying that a hydrometer doesn't read that high and I was at work not able to look at my hydrometer right away. You're right, 1.024 for an OG is horribly low. Might as well drink O'Douls.

Damn, that is high. How long did you boil for? How much liquid was left at the end of the boil?
 
I still don't believe you have a hydrometer that reads up to 1.240!
I have 5 hydrometers for brewing, and the largest S.G. I can read with any of them is 1.170.
12 lbs DME will yield 1.108 when made up to 5 gallons. There is no way that 3 lbs 9.5 oz of anything fermentable is going to add 1.2 times the gravity points that are supplied by 12 lbs DME.

-a.
 
I don't believe it either. Good image searching for 'hydrometer' I can't find one that reaches 1.2
 
ok, I was thinking about this, and if he had a tripple scale hydrometer, he could read %abv (right) or gravity, or BRIX, and brix is about 4 gravity points to 1 brix point (it is non linear) - which would give about 96 gravity. Ok with 12 lb of malt, he should have about 108, but if he were over 5 gallons it could change it, along with peanut butter - the oils if not floating, but disolved would decrease gravity.

Just a thought.
 
That's certainly a thought, but I think he is reading the SG scale incorrectly.

Looking at my triple scale hydrometer, the SG scale is graduated as:

80 - (1.080)
90 - (1.090)
1.100 - (1.100)
10 - (1.110)
20 - (1.120)

My guess would be that he is reading the 20 below the 1.100 as 1.200 instead of 1.120

-a.
 
That's certainly a thought, but I think he is reading the SG scale incorrectly.

Looking at my triple scale hydrometer, the SG scale is graduated as:

80 - (1.080)
90 - (1.090)
1.100 - (1.100)
10 - (1.110)
20 - (1.120)

My guess would be that he is reading the 20 below the 1.100 as 1.200 instead of 1.120

-a.

This
 
Okay, it's beating a dead horse at this point but just so everyone is happy and at ease. I finally got back into town and looked at the hydrometer again and yes, I was reading it incorrectly. AJF, nailed it right on the money. I was reading 1.123 and having not seen my hydrometer float that high in a long time I over reacted and got excited all at the same time to post on here. I'm dumb. At least at the time I had already had a few Deschutes River Ales so that might have contributed. So, there you have it. I did the calculations and it looks like the powered peanut butter and cocoa added only about .01 to the reading. Despite me being stupid, thanks for everyones input. I still learned quite a bit. Hey, at least my first post is going to be a memorable one.
 
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