Why is my O.G. so high?

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bradjohnson101

bradjohnson101

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Yesterday I brewed and American Wheat Beer using 3.3 lbs of Bavarian LME and 3 lbs of DME. I added 1 oz. Liberty hops at the beginning of the boil and in the last 10 minutes added corriander, 1 oz, Hallertau hops, and dried orange peel. Before pitching the yeast (WL CA Ale p001), I took an original gravity reading. It was 1.064! I tossed that sample, shook the fermenter and took another sample, it was still 1.064. I knew this was too high. I checked my hydrometer, it read 1.000 @ 60 degrees with straight water. What did I do wrong? Will it effect my beer?
 
could be that it was not fully mixed. Even after shaking it, you may get an incorrect reading due to the wort not being completely mixed. if you used malt extract, your projected OF is probably accurate.
 
Well, I'm betting that it's just not mixed up as well as it could be, to give you the correct OG. It is really hard to get 100% of the water mixed up with 100% of the extract uniformly.

Either that happened, or your batch is less than five gallons (four gallons in the fermenter, instead of five), or you used more than 3.3 pounds of LME and 3 pounds of DME. You should have about 1.050 or so. It's impossible to get more sugars into the wort than are available in the extract.
 
I really wouldn't worry about it. It probably wasn't completely mixed. Like already mentioned, extracts generally won't yield high results if you have the correct amount of water for the recipe.
 
Maybe I'm wrong but I'd think that if it went through a boil THEN you took a gravity then it would be pretty uniformly mixed. If you took it before the boil, making it an OG reading, then I concur, probably wasn't mixed. However, if it was post boil then it was an SG reading (starting gravity) and you should have had a thoroughly mixed sample. Are you sure you ended up with 5 gallons?

Running the numbers through a calculator and assuming you started off with 6 gallons pre-boil volume and SG of 1.064 is pretty close to what would result if you had 4 gallons at the end. You sure you had 5 gallons in the end? Just throwing ideas out there...

Will it affect your beer? It'll make it higher in final ABV%. The yeast you used has a high tolerance so you should end up with a pretty tasty and strong brew. So, S'all good!
 
Chuck_Swillery said:
Maybe I'm wrong but I'd think that if it went through a boil THEN you took a gravity then it would be pretty uniformly mixed. If you took it before the boil, making it an OG reading, then I concur, probably wasn't mixed. However, if it was post boil then it was an SG reading (starting gravity) and you should have had a thoroughly mixed sample. Are you sure you ended up with 5 gallons?

Running the numbers through a calculator and assuming you started off with 6 gallons pre-boil volume and SG of 1.064 is pretty close to what would result if you had 4 gallons at the end. You sure you had 5 gallons in the end? Just throwing ideas out there...

Will it affect your beer? It'll make it higher in final ABV%. The yeast you used has a high tolerance so you should end up with a pretty tasty and strong brew. So, S'all good!
Click to expand...


It is all extract...Im sure it was not a full boil and therefore he added water to top up....

if the amount of sugar added was accurate, either the volume was off or the top up water was not completely mixed.

either way, no big deal
 
Thanks for the help. I ended up with 5 gallons of finished wort. I am an idiot. I forgot to add a rather important point, I used 1 pound of grain, in a partial grain configuration. There were .5 lbs Durst Pilsen and .5 lbs German Wheat. There were particles of hops and bits of grain from post boil when I took the SG. Could that have contributed to the overly high OG?
 
A pound of grain, with the malt extract, should give you an OG of 1.054- 1.056. A pound of grain will give you great flavor, and some fermentable sugars but not that much.
 
When your fermenter is empty, check the volume using known measured volumes. From your ingredients you will get 45 points/lb of DME (=135), 36 points/lb LME (=119), and about 28 points from a pound of grain. Total = 282 points. At 1.064 this equals a little under 4.5 gallons.

My numbers could be off slightly, but not much, it's conceivable you could have slightly over 4.5 gallons with a 1.064 wort and these ingredients.

I have 3 identical fermenters from 25 years ago. About 10 years ago I decided to check the volumes, and found all 3 read high; that is, at the 5 gallon mark, all 3 were actually only slightly over 4.5 gallons. I have re-marked them with permanent marker.
 
Firstly, thanks for all your help.
When I took my gravity reading, it was not in the whole five gallons, it was in the little tube that comes with the hydrometer.
Additionally, I have not ever thought about calibrating the container to see if it was correct, I will do that. Never thought about it being off.

Thanks again
 
If you are looking to determine abv and calories, assume 1.055 b/c if your water volume is correct, that is what you have.
 

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