High OG

[jhart94949]

I Have brewing all grain for a while now. I recently bought a new igloo mash tun and HLT and have made two batches with it. I keep getting about .10 high with my original gravity. I made a pumpkin ale this past weekend and it was supposed to be around 1.053 and I hit 1.064....I followed all directions and times, my mash was 170 degrees before adding pumpkin and grains, then went down to 152, I closed it and didn't touch for 1 hour....I then lautered/sparged with 170 degree water for about 45-60 min getting 6.75 gallons of wort. 1 hour boil, chilled and pitched yeast....took off in less than 12 hours and still bubbling away. All my temps were hit....I know thermometers can be inaccurate but I just bought a new floating and it read 212 when I did a boil test.

 

[progmac]

can you show us your grain bill and the amount of water you used to mash?

 

[duboman]

I Have brewing all grain for a while now. I recently bought a new igloo mash tun and HLT and have made two batches with it. I keep getting about .10 high with my original gravity. I made a pumpkin ale this past weekend and it was supposed to be around 1.053 and I hit 1.064....I followed all directions and times, my mash was 170 degrees before adding pumpkin and grains, then went down to 152, I closed it and didn't touch for 1 hour....I then lautered/sparged with 170 degree water for about 45-60 min getting 6.75 gallons of wort. 1 hour boil, chilled and pitched yeast....took off in less than 12 hours and still bubbling away. All my temps were hit....I know thermometers can be inaccurate but I just bought a new floating and it read 212 when I did a boil test.

sounds like your system is simply getting better efficiency than what the recipes are calculated at if this is a constant occurrence. Many recipes are calculated for 70-75% efficiency and if you are always above the desired OG then it sounds like your efficiency is closer to 80%. You can simply scale the recipe to the experienced efficiency you get.

 

[jhart94949]

sounds like your system is simply getting better efficiency than what the recipes are calculated at if this is a constant occurrence. Many recipes are calculated for 70-75% efficiency and if you are always above the desired OG then it sounds like your efficiency is closer to 80%. You can simply scale the recipe to the experienced efficiency you get.

I wins thinking that also....I will post my grain schedule tonight when I get home

 

[jhart94949]

Ok so here is what went into the mash tun;
1/2lb : Cara Munich Malt
7 1/2lb : 2-Row
1 1/2lb : Vienna Malt
1/2lb : Crystal 60L Malt
3-4 lbs diced baked fresh pumpkin

Again mash was right around 150 degrees for 1 hour. The sparged/lautered for around an hour until I had 6.5 - 7 gallons of wort.

 

[spark_plug]

That sounds actually bang on for gravity looking at the grain bill. I actually did a very similar recipe with real pumpkin and was at 1.063, and I always get good efficiency. Hopefully it won't dry up to much on you, so some of the residual sweetness lingers letting the pumpkin shine through. Mine turned out really yummy, better than I had expected. I finished around 1.016.

 

[progmac]

i've got to think the pumpkin adds some sugar, increasing the OG

 

[duboman]

Ok so here is what went into the mash tun; 1/2lb : Cara Munich Malt 7 1/2lb : 2-Row 1 1/2lb : Vienna Malt 1/2lb : Crystal 60L Malt 3-4 lbs diced baked fresh pumpkin Again mash was right around 150 degrees for 1 hour. The sparged/lautered for around an hour until I had 6.5 - 7 gallons of wort.

Excluding the pumpkin that basically equates to 75% efficiency so I think your efficiency is better, probably closer to 82-3%