Whats wrong wth my OG?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

vayank

Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
17
Reaction score
2
Location
VA
Im making an Imperial Stout. I used 7 lbs of DME for a 4 gallon batch (I boiled 3 gallons) I also used 1 lb of Lactose.

My OG (in Hydrometer and Refractometer) both read approx 11-12 OG. This doesnt seem right, as it should only be 8 or 9. I believe both are calibrated correctly.

anybody have any ideas?
 
I assum you mean brix scale right? I don't have the conversion but 7 lbs for a 5 gallon batch should be about 1.067 on the gravity scale.... I think, so check the corresponding Brix value

actually according to this: http://www.fermsoft.com/gravbrix.php

You should have more than 16 brix reading.

You have a 4 gallon batch with DME and Lactose. So if my 5 gallon with 7 lbs of dme only is ~16 brix, yours should be more concentrated, thus, more than 16 or 1.067specific gravity

FYI - that is some high octane stuff you are making :)
 
im talking about Specific gravity

Specific gravity is a ratio of density relative to distilled water. An imperial stout would usually have an OG in the neighborhood of 1.075 - 1.115 according to the BJCP, so I'm not sure what you mean by 11-12. Are you reading the potential alcohol scale on your hydrometer? That's not typically a value used in beer making.
 
im getting 1.11 as my specific gravity. This seems high for only 7 lbs DME (even consicering 4 gallons of wort) . Does the lactose add anything?

thanks
 
im getting 1.11 as my specific gravity. This seems high for only 7 lbs DME (even consicering 4 gallons of wort) . Does the lactose add anything?

thanks

Lactose will add about 45 points per pound, I think. What about your other ingredients? It's hard to imagine how you ended up with 1.110 with just these sugars, unless your water volume or weight measurements were wrong. Unless it's not thoroughly mixed yet.
 
It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

More than likely your OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.
 
Your reading is wrong. This is due to inadequate mixing of wort and water. Unless there is something your didn't tell us, your reading is 1.085.
 
It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

I agree with this phenomena. I had this happen on my first batch, and thought better and as Revvy said, the proof was in the pudding. It all did its thing and I had a strong porter as I had hoped for. I would say don't sweat it, you probably took a poor reading.
 
Revvy and Nurmey. thanks

Thats the answer. I took the reading (bottom sample) immediately after topping with water. Actually, I have been brewing for a while, just never came across this before. I usually dont take a starting gravity. But took one for this since it was an imperial stout.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top