Crazy hgh OG

Brewed an imperial IPA today and the OG came out to 1.160. Took three readings with a calibrated hydrometer. Had 2.5 gallons after the boil and topped to 5.5 gallons. Any idea of why it came it so high? Below are the details if t helps.

OG: 1.080
FG: 1.013

Boil time: 90 minutes

Extract:
10.9 lbs Light liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs corn sugar
.5 lbs Wheat liquid malt extrac

Steeping Grains:
.5 lbs Crystal 40

Hops:
2 oz Warrior (90 minutes)
2 oz Chinook (90 minutes)
1 oz Simcoe (45 minutes)
1 oz Columbus (30 minutes)
2.25 oz Centennial (0 minutes)
1 oz Simcoe (0 minutes)
3.25 oz Columbus (dry)
1.75 oz Centennial (dry)
1.75 oz Simcoe (dry)

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 America Ale

The wort wasn't thoroughly mixed

I aerated the hell out of it before taking a sample. Could there be another issue?

zeebo18 said:

Brewed an imperial IPA today and the OG came out to 1.160. Took three readings with a calibrated hydrometer. Had 2.5 gallons after the boil and topped to 5.5 gallons. Any idea of why it came it so high? Below are the details if t helps.

OG: 1.080

Click to expand...

Your gravity is off by a HUGE amount. 1.080 expected but 1.116 measured.... that's an error of 0.08! Your wort has twice as much sugar in it than expected.

Which begs the question....

Did you take your gravity reading on the 2.5 gallon of boiled wort or the 5.5 gallons of diluted wort?

zeebo18 said:

I aerated the hell out of it before taking a sample. Could there be another issue?

Click to expand...

Yeah.... you might have put more extract in than you thought.... but you would have to throw a LOT more extract in to double your gravity.

A calculation based on the added ingredients indicates an OG of about 1.088. Possible reasons for the extaordinarily high reading:
- faulty hydrometer;
- reading was taken before topping up;
- misread the scale, added 10# corn sugar;
- not enough wort in the test cylinder to float the hydrometer;
- some other type of operator error I can't think of right now.

Anyway, relax; there's really no way to get that reading with that bill of materials. Assume the recipe-specified OG is correct, and enjoy the beer you will get.

Took my reading after topping off to 5. Added the last half gallon to top off the fermenter to dilute as much as possible. I poured 2.5 gallons of water on top of the original wort and shook the hell out of it before taking my sample so it should be aerated pretty well.

Also, I normally double pitch yeast and did not here because I though the gravity would be much lower obviously. How concerned should I be bout a stuck fermentation after this thing takes off?

Thanks Frazier. I'm going to assume operators error as well. I'll keep the forum updated.

If it truly is 1.16 I would be very concerned. Did you taste it to see if its unbelievably sweet? That might give you an idea if your hydrometer is being wonky.

I did taste and it is very very sweet. That was the beginning of my concern. Things are just not adding up.

Unless you screwed up a measurement (of either fermentables or volume) it's either your hydrometer or a mixing problem. There's no way that OG just happened. FWIW, have you tasted a sample of an OG that high? Granted my high gravity OG samples taste sweeter than session OG samples, but they still all taste sweet to me. I'm sure you're fine.

beersmith says 1.103 og.
so probably a volume|mixing|temp err.

I'm sure it is my/hydrometer error with this recipe. No Other explanation for a gravity this high. I'll keep the thread updated.

this happened to me two nights ago. i also shook the hell out of my primary, which was the first time i didn't use a spoon to aerate. after being pissed about it for a couple hours i opened it back up and stirred vigorously. like magic my o.g. was normal. good luck