Huge efficiency that wasn't intended- 17 points over

Last night we brewed an alt, that was already estimated to be towards the upper end of the 7A style range (1.053 @ 75% efficiency for my recipe vs. 1.054 limit for style 7A). We did a double decoction mash. I didn't take a pre-boil reading...perhaps I was cutting corners where I could, and I figured I would get the OG in the fermenter anyway.

I let the wort sit in the pot overnight and this morning I checked my OG. Umm, yea...I'm not sure what I'm going to do now with a 1.070 Alt beer! I'm a little concerned that the whole beer might be off balance a bit with the lack of bitterness and alcohol. The final mix-up in this haphazard brewing experience was that I accidentally pitched the Kölsch starter into the pale ale carboy this morning when I first got up, before I was thinking clearly enough to differentiate between the two fermenters. So now it seems that the Pac-man starter that I had been building up for a week will have to wait.

Recipe:
8 lbs UK Pils malt
1.5lbs Munich II
1 lb Belgian Aromatic malt
8 oz Caramunich II
4 oz Carafa II
(11.25 lbs grain total)
.75oz Columbus 14.7%AA @ 60 minutes (31.5 IBU)
.5oz Tettnanger 4%AA @ 15 min (2.8 IBU)

Mash shedule:
122F for 35 minutes
decoct ~8qt, boil for 2 minutes
150F for 45 minutes
decoct ~7.5qt, boil for 2 minutes
167F for 10 minutes
Batch sparging to collect 6.5G wort pre-boil

Mashtun:
10G Rubbermaid cylinder cooler with stainless steel false bottom

My OG measurement came to 1.070 on the hydrometer, at room temperature. One thing that was somewhat surprising was the measurement of the refractometer on the last runnings coming out of the mashtun. I did this to verify that I wasn't pulling sub 1.010 wort out of the tun and to my surprise it read about 1.023, which is higher than I normally see for my mashes after already collecting 6.5G of wort. According to beersmith, for the recipe I used, 1.070 means that I hit 95% brewhouse efficiency. I usually get between 70 and 80% for infusion mashes, although this is only my second decoction mash. I collected just about 5.5G of boiled wort from the boil pot.

Options?
First, because I already pitched my Kölsch starter into the other brew, I have only a Pacman starter (1/2 G) that is on-deck. I would rather still have an alt-beer if I can help it. What would you do? Pitch 2 packages of new Kölsch yeast (since it is yeast-less at this point and 1.070), or pitch the pacman? The pacman was started from the dregs of a Rogue bottle about a week ago.

Second, with this beer at a stratospheric 1.070, would you expect it to still taste something like an alt? Might it be better to go in a different direction with this beer, yeastwise?

Any other ideas?

Why don't you add some boiled/cooled water to bring down the OG? You haven't pitched it yet anyway so you are basically just "topping off". If you add bit under 1.5 gallons of water to that you will end up with 1.054 wort. That is assuming you have 5 gallons now.

Before you do that MAKE SURE your gravity readings are accurate. Diluting a 1.054 by that much would suck.

With dilution of sugars will come a dilution of IBU's -what are the opinions on this?

I think either your grain bill has more grain or your volume is lower than suppose to because its hard to believe you got 97% efficience. ither way i would add some boiled water, maybe to 1.060og just not to throw your hops balance to much

The recipe was slated to finish at 5.5G, and I'm actually a hair under that, but not by much (a quart or less). More grain would make sense, and I'll doublecheck what I have left and find the difference between what I had in the first place (I did a full grain inventory before setting aside grain for this batch).

nebben said:

With dilution of sugars will come a dilution of IBU's -what are the opinions on this?

Click to expand...

This is a good point, and if you were higher gravity during the boil the IBUs are already lower than anticipated. I just don't think there is an easy answer to your problem.

Is this a Northern German alt, or a Dusseldorf alt? One thing you may try is just letting it ferment out, get yourself a glass of this and a glass of pilsner, and try blending in various ratios.

nebben said:

With dilution of sugars will come a dilution of IBU's -what are the opinions on this?

Click to expand...

Well, if you add water to get to the "correct" OG, you will dilute the IBUs to the "correct" IBUs as well, and fix the SG/IBU ratio.