Concerns about OG & FG

Hey all, I'm about to brew a porter tonight. More like a robust porter! I am a little concerned with the numbers Beer calculus is giving me. I don't want any bottle bombs. Also, I think high gravity leads to cloyingly sweet beers right? I would rather have my porter on the sweet side more than the bitter side but not sickly sweet! Let me know what you think.

OG 1.086
FG 1.022

COLOR 47* SRM

Mash Efficiency 75% (I think this is the default at beer calculus)

22.1 IBUs

8.5 % ABV


6.6 lbs. Light DME

2.00 lbs. 2-row malt
1.25 lbs. British Brown 70L
1.25 lbs. Chocolate malt
0.25 lbs. Black Patent
0.25 lbs. Caramel malt 80L
0.25 lbs. Victory
0.25 lbs. Special B


8 oz. Brown Sugar @ 15 minutes


1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 60 minutes
1.50 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 15 minutes
2 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 5 minutes
1 oz. Willamette @ 1 minute

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale

Mash @ 156F for 45 minutes.

Well, I am already brewing this. Since nobody answered I'll take a gravity reading before pitching my yeast. I'll let everyone know about it then.

Did you make a yeast starter?

Your efficiency will only be related to your base malt. I'm not familiar with beer calculus,but if you enter it into beer smith, they have a partial mash option that will give you the correct OG. You can also adjust the percentages.

There are a lot of factors in what will make a beer sweet. Gravity is only one.

Where did you get the recipe from?

Bull

Thanks for the info bull! Yes, I made a yeast starter. I made up the recipe myself. I'm 40 minutes into the boil right now. I'll take a gravity right before I pitch and get back to you.

This is such a noob question but should I swirl and shake my yeast starter a bit before I pitch? Thanks for your help!

eon said:

Thanks for the info bull! Yes, I made a yeast starter. I made up the recipe myself. I'm 40 minutes into the boil right now. I'll take a gravity right before I pitch and get back to you.

This is such a noob question but should I swirl and shake my yeast starter a bit before I pitch? Thanks for your help!

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How big is your starter? Did you make it on a stir plate? If it is over 1/2 gallon, I'd decant the liquid and only pitch the yeast. Either siphon of carefully pour off the starter liquid and then pour in some of the cooled wort, give a good shake to get all the yeast in suspension and pitch into the fermenter.

If you used a stir plate, I'd definalty decant, regardless of size.

Well I'm glad to here you made a starter because a beer that big would most likely need at least a 1000 ml starter. I always check mrmalty.com for the proper pitching rate.

Good luck

Bull

Well, I'm not sure what this means but when I took my first gravity reading it was 1.069 or 1.070. Beer calculus said the OG should be 1.086 so... I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

I tasted the wort and it was SWEET! Delicious but sweet. We'll see what happens.

Any comments?

Of course it's sweet. Right now you only have soup. The yeast will change that!
I haven't plugged your recipe into beer smith yet, but at a quick glance your gravity looks about right.

If I have some time I'll enter it and post what I come up with.

Bull

I used promash and @70% eff, I came up with an OG of 1.090
If your gravity reading is more than a couple of points off that, I would start to look at your equipment and or water volumes.

Bull

So, I got an OG of 1.070 but it's really supposed to be 1.090? What does this mean and how will it affect the end result of my beer?

eon said:

So, I got an OG of 1.070 but it's really supposed to be 1.090? What does this mean and how will it affect the end result of my beer?

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How big of a batch did you make? Are you sure you used DME and not LME? I think I've only seen the liquid in 3.3 pound packages. What temp was the wort at when you took your gravity reading?

Assuming your recipe is a five gallon batch and correct as written, you only got 20% efficiency which is basically impossibly low. Assuming you meant LME, you got 50% efficiency which is not good but at is a believable number at least. I'm not mash expert, but depending on your answers to those questions, my guess would be that you didn't have enough base grains to convert your specialty grains. The rule of thumb I've always heard is to have at least as many pounds of base grains as specialty grains in the mash.

Well, slowbie your post has certainly ruined my day! I used light DME. I used 6 lbs. 9.6 ounces of it.

I did a 3 gallon boil and then added a few more gallons in the fermenter. I made a 1 liter yeast starter. The temperature of the wort was around 68-70 degrees. I can't remember exactly right now.

I really hope this beer isn't ruined.

But like everyone says: RDWHAHB

First of all your beer isn't ruined! It may end up with a little less abv but it will still be tasty.

Second, just by adding the DME and brown sugar I come out with an OG of 1.065, so I find it hard to believe that you didn't extract any sugars from your grain bill.

They were crushed, right?

So you may have a fault hydrometer or the incorrect amount of water.

Don't sweat it, it'll be fine.

Bull

I forgot to mention. I don't know how but I lost 1 gallon in the boil! now it just hit me...I mashed for 1 hour in the pot and then brought that up to a boil and boiled for an hour. Damn...I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Yes, the grains were crushed.

Also, I have a small brew pot. I have only been able to boil 3 gallons at most. Was my brew pot too small for this kind of recipe? I wonder if I should pick up a new hydrometer. Is there a way I can see if mine is broken before I go buy a new one?

I'm not too concerned with ABV as long as it's a decent amount (4-6% so it tastes like beer!) and that it tastes good. That's all that matters.

Thanks!

I'll keep everyone updated on this beer in a three weeks when I bottle.

I second the fact that your beer is not ruined.

I wasn't thinking when I wrote my post and wasn't considering the fact that you were doing a partial boil. Chances are good that you were reading low just because the wort wasn't fully mixed with your top off water. It's almost impossible to get an even mix, but it all evens out during fermentation. I used to have the same thing all the time when I did partial boils. So your beer is even better off than it looks. Sorry to make you worry unnecessarily.

If you want to test your hydrometer anyways, you can take it and put it in some distilled water. It should read 1.000.

slowbie said:

If you want to test your hydrometer anyways, you can take it and put it in some distilled water. It should read 1.000.

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Make sure to correct for temperature, though.

It does happen that hydrometers are off, though. I picked up a spare for the "have doubles of all breakable necessary equipment" rule, and it was reading 0.96 for tap water, which either meant it was off or the city is putting booze in the water and maybe I don't need to brew beer.
I returned the hydrometer to my LHBS.

I just realized something! When I took my first gravity reading I took the sample from the 2 gallons of wort in the brew pot. The pot was sitting in an ice bath. Should I have waited to take the OG after I topped off my fermenter with another few gallons of water?

eon said:

I just realized something! When I took my first gravity reading I took the sample from the 2 gallons of wort in the brew pot. The pot was sitting in an ice bath. Should I have waited to take the OG after I topped off my fermenter with another few gallons of water?

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Yep. And make sure you mix and aerate the wort well before taking it.

eon said:

I just realized something! When I took my first gravity reading I took the sample from the 2 gallons of wort in the brew pot. The pot was sitting in an ice bath. Should I have waited to take the OG after I topped off my fermenter with another few gallons of water?

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Yes, but this would have made your OG LOWER, not higher since you're diluting the sugars more.

I'm sure that you just didn't mix it up properly, because you had to have extracted more sugars than .005 from 3 lbs of grain.