I may have messed up. For serious. Lol

Ok, so I couldn't figure out why my OG was so high. It's 1.20. Which according to everyone on this forum is high. I'm making a choc. stout. Well, I think I know where I went wrong. Not only is my recipe super malty, like a metric **** ton of malt, but I used a coffee grinder instead of a miller. Ummm.... so yeah, I've got a lot of visible sediment in my fermenter from it. Would this affect my OG? Guessing that it would. So I know I'm going to need to filter it, but how do I filter it and keep the yeast in for bottling to build up my carb? My only idea right now is to filter into a secondary ferm, then dropp another pack of yeast in it. Good plan, bad plan? Btw, coffee grinders = extra work.

i'm not sure if that would jack it all the way up to 1.200, can you give us more information? start out with the malt bill of the recipe. how many gallons are you brewing? are you sure you aren't measuring the gravity of the wort?

I think you need to post more information on your recipe. Is this an extract brew, extract with grains, or All grain?

If you added any top off water did you mix it well? (This is a common new brewer error that throws gravity readings off).

I'm guessing extract with grains. I can't see someone using a coffee mill to grind up enough grain for an AG batch.

+1 on posting the recipe you used.

It's got 6.6lbs of dme
3.3 dry malt powder stuff
and several other specialty grains. it's a 5gal recipe. I did top off with water, but not much. Used 2 3 gal pots for the boil. I didn't have a hydromter when I first made it, but I siphoned some of the beer off and took my readings. I may be reading the hydrometer wrong, the instructions sucked. It read -1.00
-20
-30
I was at the twenty mark. Is that 1.2 or 1.02? And any ideas on filtration? The coffee grinder just ground too fine for the steeping bags.

Tx. Cuch.

size said:

.....are you sure you aren't measuring the gravity of the wort?

Click to expand...

Ummmmm, isn't that the procedure of measuring of "OG"? The OG of the sanitizer wouldn't be of much use.

Sorry, just busting your chops......... and enjoying it too, by the way.

Cuchalain said:

It's got 6.6lbs of dme
3.3 dry malt powder stuff
and several other specialty grains. it's a 5gal recipe. I did top off with water, but not much. Used 2 3 gal pots for the boil. I didn't have a hydromter when I first made it, but I siphoned some of the beer off and took my readings. I may be reading the hydrometer wrong, the instructions sucked. It read -1.00
-20
-30
I was at the twenty mark. Is that 1.2 or 1.02? And any ideas on filtration? The coffee grinder just ground too fine for the steeping bags.

Tx. Cuch.

Click to expand...

I don't understand what you used. 6.6 pounds of DME and 2.2 dry malt powder? DME IS dry malt powder, so I'm not able to figure out what you mean.

I think your reading is incorrect, because it sounds like your reading was 1.020. I don't think your hydrometer even goes up to 1.200.

Cuchalain said:

It's got 6.6lbs of dme
3.3 dry malt powder stuff
and several other specialty grains. it's a 5gal recipe. I did top off with water, but not much. Used 2 3 gal pots for the boil. I didn't have a hydromter when I first made it, but I siphoned some of the beer off and took my readings. I may be reading the hydrometer wrong, the instructions sucked. It read -1.00
-20
-30
I was at the twenty mark. Is that 1.2 or 1.02? And any ideas on filtration? The coffee grinder just ground too fine for the steeping bags.

Tx. Cuch.

Click to expand...

Yes, the 20 line would be 1.020. At this point, I'd leave it alone. The sediment will settle to the bottom after a couple weeks. Trying to filter it now will just raise your chances if introducing bad stuff into it.

While you're waiting for it to clear, read this.
How to Brew - By John Palmer - Introduction

sorry, when i said 6.6lbs of dme, i meant dark malt extract. Alrighty, I'll leaver it alone. Lol. Thx alot for puttying my mind to rest.

Cuch.

And I think that your reading was low because your wort and top up water didn't get properly mixed, which is really easy to have happen when you're using extract and doing a partial boil. It's probably right around what your recipe said it should be. Maybe a little off because of your... extra-extra fine grain milling you did but the specialty grains wouldn't add much even if there was something in it that would provide the enzymes to convert.

Thats a fairly high gravity recipe. I doubt you had a 1.02 @ 5gal for an OG. No worries. You probably didnt mix well and got a thin sample. As you will see if you hang on here long enough its a common and frequent mistake. Hell on my recipes that i make alot i dont even use a hydro anymore unless somethig gets screwy in the proceedure. Relax, have a beer and in 4-6 weeks everyhting will be fine....you'll see. But i could be wrong so toss it and try again.........Just kidding. Let it ride.

Thing is, unless you forget to add some extract, you really cannot **** up the gravity of an extract brew. You've got two cans and one bag of extract; you add those to the water, the sugar's neither getting lost nor magnified along the way! The only possible explanations are mis-measuring your extract or water, not fully stirring before taking a sample, having a bad hydrometer, or misreading it.

Really, you CAN'T **** it up.