SG confusion

Hey guys, Sorry i make alot of new topics but i cant find the answers to some of my questions elsewhere. I brewed a high gravity barleywine today, 22 pounds of grain and 9 oz of Homegrown Cascades. I calculated the batch for 5 gallons and did not compensate for the large amount of grains and hops so i ended up with just over three gallons of wort. I was in a hurry and somewhat dissappointed with the volume and i forgot to take a gravity reading. I pitched the yeast and remembered to take the gravity about two hours later. Did the yeast add or take points from my OG? My promash calculated about 1.102 for 5 gals and i took the reading of 1.110 for my three gallons. Should this be correct? if not am i totally out of luck on finding my gravity? Thanks for the time and any replies to my rookie mistake.

Cheers

You could always run the grain bill through one of the many online calculators to see what the OG should have been (input whatever your typical mash efficiency is).

Don't quote me, but I really don't think the yeast are going to take that much off the top in the first 2 hours. It takes 4-7 days in general to get from 1.060 to 1.012 (ish) for me, which is at best 12 points a day, or 0.5 per hour. That's very quick and dirty math, of course, and the gravity would drop faster near the start of fermentation . . . or would it, as the yeast are multiplying and would probably peak somewhere in the middle. ?? I guess I should get a copy of Yeast and read through it instead of just guessing.

I'd say your reading is correct. If anything, you might be down 2 points MAX from where it "actually" started, and I really don't think you could get that sort of precision at home anyway, so 1.110 vs. 1.112 is the same thing. And that's assuming a pretty ravenous yeast pitch.

(Cue somebody who knows what they're talking about.)

What exactly did you pitch? A big jug of starter, a cup or two of slurry, a packet of dry yeast, or...? Unless you pitched a huge load of yeast in high krausen, in two hours the yeast are not going to drop the SG at all.

In any case, the differential between the ProMash 5 gallon prediction vs your measured 3 gallon SG points to a much bigger problem: very poor efficiency. Off hand I'd say you had major problems sparging...

Cheers!

Rough math, someone back me up:

You need to add 2 gallons, which would take you to around 1.064 ish?
You could add around a pound of sugar to get a dry "barleywine", or prepare a 2 gallon/2 lb. hopped LME 1.040ish wort addition. I'd do the latter and chalk it up to experience.

SilverZero said:

That's very quick and dirty math, of course, and the gravity would drop faster near the start of fermentation . . . or would it, as the yeast are multiplying and would probably peak somewhere in the middle. ?? I guess I should get a copy of Yeast and read through it instead of just guessing.

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In the early phase of the process (the lag phase, first 3-15 hours), the yeast aren't consuming sugars at all. They're consuming nutrients and oxygen. So no meaningful change to SG during the lag phase.

Great replies. Thank you much

day_trippr said:

What exactly did you pitch? A big jug of starter, a cup or two of slurry, a packet of dry yeast, or...? Unless you pitched a huge load of yeast in high krausen, in two hours the yeast are not going to drop the SG at all.

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I pitched an 800ml starter right off the stir plate after about 26 hours give or take.
I should of quoted the second half too. But Im pretty sure i had problems sparging and im sure i didnt have enough mash water as well.

Komodo said:

Rough math, someone back me up:

You need to add 2 gallons, which would take you to around 1.064 ish?
You could add around a pound of sugar to get a dry "barleywine", or prepare a 2 gallon/2 lb. hopped LME 1.040ish wort addition. I'd do the latter and chalk it up to experience.

Click to expand...

Ive thought about doing this but am reluctant due to the risk of infection or something. If i could do this safely i will. But would i need more yeast as well?

Thanks alot you guys

OBSCZONER said:

Ive thought about doing this but am reluctant due to the risk of infection or something. If i could do this safely i will. But would i need more yeast as well?

Thanks alot you guys

Click to expand...

What I meant was to prepare it as you would any wort. So, grab 2 lbs of hopped LME in 2 gallons of water and boil it for about 10 minutes, cool then add. Extra yeast wouldn't hurt, but if you initial pitch was fine, then you shouldn't need anymore.

WAIT....idk why, i just ran this roughly in my software and had to add 5.5 lbs of LME and 2 gallons to get to 1.102.

I ran it through my promash and i can do 1.50 lbs of DME and 16oz of candi sugar. have two gallons of Wort at about 1.069. Wort Diluted With Wort would come to about 1.094, which if my yeast is good should be somewhere around 1.012 FG. I think im pretty happy with that. Any further advice or suggestions? Thanks again