Higher gravity readings than expected

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Patirck

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I recently brewed for the second time ever - I somewhat closely followed the Advantageous Weizenbock recipe on the northern brewer website. I was looking for something like Aventinus that I could do with extract. I pretty much followed the recipe but I wanted to brew closer to 6 gallons since it was such a long fermentation (I wanted to have less airspace in the carboy).

The recipe is for 5 gallons:

.5 lbs CaraAroma
6 lbs Munich Malt syrup (60 minutes) (I actually used 8 lbs)
6 lbs Wheat malt syrup (15 minutes) I actually used 7.5 lbs)
1 oz Perle (60 minutes)
1 oz Hersbrucker (15 minutes) (I used Hallertau)

The recipe called for wyeast 3638 Bavarian wheat but I used 3038 Weihenstephan Weizen. I squashed the bag early saturday morning but I got no action even into the afternoon. I could not brew it later in the day so it would have to wait until Sunday. By the time I got around to brewing and pitching the yeast, it was about 30 hours after I smashed the pack. It was very swollen by the time I pitched it. I did not get any signs of fermentation for the first 24 hours but then it started bubbling like a jacuzzi.

The original gravity was supposed to be 1.084 per the recipe, mine was 1.152. It has been in the primary fermenter now at 66 degrees and today - 10 days into fermentation, the gravity is 1.035. I used some online calculators and according to them it is 15.65% alcohol.

I'm all for strong beer - this should end up around 8% if it is anything like Aventinus. I will rack it to secondary around the end of this week and there it will sit for another 2 months.

My questions is - should I expect it to drop more gravity and get more alcohol? If so, wow!
 
Well, your OG reading is incorrect. Maybe the top up water and extract didn't mix well, and you got a heavier reading or something like that.

15.5 pounds of LME is alot, but your OG for 6 gallons is more like 1.093. If the gravity is now 1.035, it's probably finishing up. I would expect it to finish around 1.023-1.025 or so (70-72% attenuation). That's still a darn big beer, and may be pretty sweet if you didn't increase the hops when you increased the malt but it'll be more like 8.5-9% ABV when done if the yeast can take it. Most ale yeast strains peter out by 9% ABV or so.
 
Well, your OG reading is incorrect. Maybe the top up water and extract didn't mix well, and you got a heavier reading or something like that.

15.5 pounds of LME is alot, but your OG for 6 gallons is more like 1.093. If the gravity is now 1.035, it's probably finishing up. I would expect it to finish around 1.023-1.025 or so (70-72% attenuation). That's still a darn big beer, and may be pretty sweet if you didn't increase the hops when you increased the malt but it'll be more like 8.5-9% ABV when done if the yeast can take it. Most ale yeast strains peter out by 9% ABV or so.

Just what I was thinking, but I'm too lazy to calculate it out.

Also, if it says 5 gallons then it likely means after everything is said and done. 6 gallons after the boil, 5.5 gal into the fermenter, and 5 into a keg. No need to mess with it.
 
I used the beer calculator http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

And came up with an og of 1.097 to 1.113 and an fg of 1.024 to 1.029

This would put it at 10.8% ABV.

Pretty strong stuff, hope it tastes good. I guess I'll find out around late August. This has a 2 month secondary fermentation.

Thanks for the help.
 
It was a while ago but it was pretty good. Not quite aventinus good but good none the less.
 
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