Just finished brew, off the chart reading?

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Brewnoob1

Brewnoob1

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Hey guys, my lhbs put together a specialty grain extract kit for me. It's a Mai Bock recipe. I didn't have the recipe with me to know what the original gravity should have been. The process I followed should be the standard process:

1) Steeped grains at 155-160 for 45 minutes, sparged another gallon or so at 170
2) Brought to a rolling boil, added 60 min hops
3) at the 45 min mark, added 15 min hops
4) at the last 2 min mark, added aroma hops

Bringing it down to temp now, I took a sample to test the gravity so that when it gets to the 70-75 degree mark, I can pitch my liquid yeast smack pack. It's about 85 degrees now and my hydrometer reading was at 1.100. I've never seen anything so high! I don't think my process was screwed up and since the guy at the LHBS put it together, I thought I'd have nothing to worry about. What are your thoughts? Is this an off the chart reading? If so, what should I do differently than something a bit more normal in the 1.040 to 1.060 range? :confused:
 
I would double check the volume that you were supposed to have made... And check the quantities of your extracts. 1.1 at 85 is actually 1.103, when corrected for temperature of the sample vs the calibration of the hydrometer.

Sounds like you just made too little beer for the ingredients.

A mistake that I could guess at, was that you were only supposed do use half of one of the extract containers.
 
Hmmm, so now what? haha. I only have the available equipment to me right now to keep it at a 5 gallon batch. I won't be able to do anything with it until tomorrow if I need to wait or do something else. Is this a hosed batch? Or pour some out of the fermenter and just top off with cold water?
 
Brewnoob1 said:
Hey guys, my lhbs put together a specialty grain extract kit for me. It's a Mai Bock recipe. I didn't have the recipe with me to know what the original gravity should have been. The process I followed should be the standard process:

1) Steeped grains at 155-160 for 45 minutes, sparged another gallon or so at 170
2) Brought to a rolling boil, added 60 min hops
3) at the 45 min mark, added 15 min hops
4) at the last 2 min mark, added aroma hops

Bringing it down to temp now, I took a sample to test the gravity so that when it gets to the 70-75 degree mark, I can pitch my liquid yeast smack pack. It's about 85 degrees now and my hydrometer reading was at 1.100. I've never seen anything so high! I don't think my process was screwed up and since the guy at the LHBS put it together, I thought I'd have nothing to worry about. What are your thoughts? Is this an off the chart reading? If so, what should I do differently than something a bit more normal in the 1.040 to 1.060 range? :confused:
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The temp is probably too high for a correct reading. Did your hydrometer come with a chart that shows the temperature offsets? Most are calibrated at 60 F. Did you add any top-off water? Sometimes the mixing is inadequate to get the wort and water mixed well. How much extract did you use, how much grain? What size batch? You can back calculate to get the potential gravities from the amounts you used. If you post the quantities you used someone can help you.
 
I wish I had the recipe in front of me. He put it together, and I left the recipe sheet at my house. I'm currently house/dog sitting for my in laws. So, should i just dump some out and add water? Or just add the yeast and let her rip?
 
If I had to guess, I think it was about 3lbs of LME, 1lb of honey, and I can't remember the steeping grains amount. It was a smaller bag, so not much. It would be hard for me to think that it was for the wrong size batch considering I buy all my stuff from them including my fermenter, but I'm not 100% sure without having the recipe in front of me. I'm just wondering what my options are at this point?
 
Maybe your hydrometer is off. Not likely.
I'm assuming you're making a 5 gallon batch, is that what you ended up with at the end of the boil? If isn't five gallons at least, that will increase your OG. Rolling boils = a big loss in wort level therefore an increase in gravity.

Check your gravity again when the wort is around 60 (without yeast added) and look at your volume level. If at 60F and it is less than five gallons, you boiled off to much. If that is the case add some boiled and then chilled water to your fermenter to achieve 5 gallons. Mix it well, take another gravity reading and hopefully it will come out where it is suppose to be.. then aerate, pitch yeast, ferment 2-4 weeks and get ready to bottle/keg.
 
First, I would stir like hell, and take another sample, to make sure that the first was accurate. (remember to be sanitary, and boil spoon, and be careful pulling sample)

Double check the temperature of the sample and og reading.

Something is up... It would take over 10lbs of extract plus 1 pound of grain to get over 1.090... It would otherwis take 3lb of lme and over 10lb grain to get over 1.090...or the 3lb and about 1lb in a 2 gallon batch. Double check your readings, and if all else fails, i would go by what i put into the batch over a not likely but possible faulty hyrdrometer.

If nothing comes of these steps, I would seal it up and wait till the morning and check the recipe to see what you did wrong.

The eventual repercussions are that you will either have a strong malty beer, or if you add water you will have a regular gravity beer that is low hopped.
 
I say just add the yeast. Maybe you will find out you just stumbled upon the best recipe ever, or perhaps it's sewer water. Either way, I just planted the idea in your head, and I know the suspense of not knowing what greatness it could possibly turn out to be is too large to stop now. Throw them in there, and let them do their thing. (one suggestion, and it's a little late now) for such a high gravity wort, you probably should have used a started, and a fairly large one at that. But we'll see what happens
 
Brewnoob1 said:
I wish I had the recipe in front of me. He put it together, and I left the recipe sheet at my house. I'm currently house/dog sitting for my in laws. So, should i just dump some out and add water? Or just add the yeast and let her rip?
Click to expand...

I think I would let it cool, double check the hydro reading. If it's still high, I would add boiled and cooled water and mix very well until I achieved the gravity I needed. That's what I would do. Your only other choice is an Imperial Mai Bock!
 
Do you have any Idea on a grain bill? Next question, do you record any of your brews with either a notebook, spreadsheet, online brew calculator, or software? You may want to look into one of these for future brews, just to help you along. There are really 2 things I learned about brewing; 1. keep it clean and sanitized, 2. somehow record everything you do. #2 comes into play when things don't always go as planned and you need to see where and what went wrong, but on the positive side if you make that really great beer and want to make it again you have documentation. Here are you guidelines for the style of beer you are trying to make.
http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style05.php#1a

Next question is, if you are only pitching one smack pack of yeast, you are underpitching and risk infection if you do not have enough yeast. Usually 1 smack pack works for 5 gallons of beer not more than 1.060 OG. Here is a link to calculator for pitching rates.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

Just trying to help. If this is too overwhelming, I appologize; if you yern for more, just ask.

Corey
 
It's at the 5 gallon mark right now. I didn't have a pot big enough to do a full boil. It was about 3 gallons of boiled wort with water poured in to bring it up to the 5 gallon mark. I can always dump some out, re-boil some water, chill and add it to the fermenter. Maybe I'll just wait until it gets cooler and retake the reading. I'm not sure how much it will drop though :(
 
Brewnoob1 said:
It's at the 5 gallon mark right now. I didn't have a pot big enough to do a full boil. It was about 3 gallons of boiled wort with water poured in to bring it up to the 5 gallon mark. I can always dump some out, re-boil some water, chill and add it to the fermenter. Maybe I'll just wait until it gets cooler and retake the reading. I'm not sure how much it will drop though :(
Click to expand...

I would be more worried about your potentially serious yeast problem more than your abnormally high OG, with out good/healthy yeast you wont have a good/healthy beer.
 
Corey_James said:
Just trying to help. If this is too overwhelming, I appologize; if you yern for more, just ask.

Corey
Click to expand...

No, I appreciate the help. I wouldn't have asked the question if I didn't want the correct responses. This is how we all learn and work through an issue. I do need to record everything I do. I have the exact quantities and ingredients on the recipe sheet, it just isn't with me at the moment. I was also worried about underpitching. Is there anything I can do now that the yeast smack pack is fully bloated and ready to go other than just pitching and keeping fingers crossed? I'll try and stir like crazy, continue to cool, and take another reading. I'll get back to you guys once I get this done to see where I am currently.
 
Brewnoob1 said:
It's at the 5 gallon mark right now. I didn't have a pot big enough to do a full boil. It was about 3 gallons of boiled wort with water poured in to bring it up to the 5 gallon mark. I can always dump some out, re-boil some water, chill and add it to the fermenter. Maybe I'll just wait until it gets cooler and retake the reading. I'm not sure how much it will drop though :(
Click to expand...


Sounds like you didn't mix it well enough. Stir the living **** out of it before you take a hydro reading. Your ingredients don't add-up to account for that gravity at that volume.
 
I just stirred it like crazy and it dropped to 1.080. I through a small sample in the freezer to bring it closer to 60. It wasn't quite there but went up slightly so now it's in the 1.080 to 1.090 range. Maybe I should just keep stirring and praying to the beer gods that I don't pick up an infection and that the little yeasties can survive. I'm also surprised after thinking about it that if it was meant for a bigger batch, I'm sure the guy at the shop would have sold me more yeast. So, maybe It's just a stirring issue as I did add some of the non dissolved LME to the bottom of the bucket since it didn't fit into my pot for dissolving.
 
Brewnoob1 said:
No, I appreciate the help. I wouldn't have asked the question if I didn't want the correct responses. This is how we all learn and work through an issue. I do need to record everything I do. I have the exact quantities and ingredients on the recipe sheet, it just isn't with me at the moment. I was also worried about underpitching. Is there anything I can do now that the yeast smack pack is fully bloated and ready to go other than just pitching and keeping fingers crossed? I'll try and stir like crazy, continue to cool, and take another reading. I'll get back to you guys once I get this done to see where I am currently.
Click to expand...

I would pitch what yeast I have to get something started. The longer you wait till pitching time, the more bad bugs will grow (learned the hard way). If you get something going, you should be alright; but no promises.

Off subject, if you are interested, we are hosting a learn to brew day up here in Poulsbo next week Saturday. I plus to other brewers will at least be on hand to help answer questions if you like. You are welcome to join, just PM if you need directions.
 
Are you in a bucket or carboy? If you have a carboy, you can pick it up and shake like crazy. It will do 2 things, one it will mix your wort and topoff water really well. The other big thing it will do is add O2 to the wort. This is a good thing, Yeast like O2 when growing and starting the fermentation. O2 is a bad thing in finished beer.
 
I used a cold water/ice bath to cool it and then when brought down to where it's not steaming anymore, I go ahead and top it off with cold water
 
benbradford said:
Do you think it was ingredients for a 10 gallon batch?
Click to expand...

Well, I was thinking that it would be a small possibility, but then again, if it was for a 10 gallon batch, wouldn't you expect the recipe to call for 2 things of yeast and not just 1?
 
Doesn't really matter... unless there was 10lb of lme, you are getting a bad reading. The fact in dropped .02 points maeks it almost certain...

Make sure it is well stirred and pitch yeast and forget about it for 3 weeks :)
 
That's exactly what I just did. I pitched it and am just keeping my fingers crossed that the yeast don't get overwhelmed with a 1.080 reading and that I didn't pick up an infection. I had a spray bottle of sanitizer that I used each and every time before touching the wort....so let's hope it is okay. If not, we'll know shortly anyways! Thanks for the help tonight fellas. Also Corey, if you don't mind PM'ing me the directions, that would be great. I may try and make it, but have a busy few weeks coming up.

I'll keep you all posted on this batch. I'm just praying to the beer gods it will all stay okay.
 
ya, post when you take a look at the recipe...

It is actually pretty had to get an infection, although the bucket I believe will do it over time. It is just too hard to get the lid and o ring clean. I have had two, and both have been in buckets, while zero in better bottle. Go ahead and invest in glass, or a plastic carboy, or even better, start fermenting in kegs :)
 
Corny kegs are simple, here is what I did... chicompany.net has extra lids for like $4.00. I drilled a hole in my extra lids and added rubeer stopper, and there you go!

1/6 and 1/2 barrel kegs are even easier, because the hole in the top once you remove the spear fits a stopper too, and there are fewer parts remaining once the spear is gone. Even better, once all of this is done, you can connect keg to keg and move beer from keg to keg using co2!
 
I don't even bother taking an og with an extract brew; if you added all of your extract you should be at your OG. If your og is off and your volume is right I guarantee that your wort and top off water is just not well mixed. RDWAHAHB,
 
Just an update, I had very little bubbling out of the airlock (I know this isn't a great indicator of fermentation, but still....) I saw a little bit of Krausen Saturday morning so I knew things were slowly happening. All bubbling stopped by Saturday night so I popped the top just long enough to take a peak. It seems that I have about an inch to inch and a half of Krausen, so I'm just going to let it do it's thing. I'm really worried that I under-pitched and this will turn out crappy. I'm still not home to check the recipe numbers, but I'm seriously surprised by the OG reading with this being an extract brew with specialty grains that the LHBS put together for me. The LME wasn't out of a can or I'd be able to tell exact quantities. Oh well, nothing much I can do now but wait it out. Hopefully, this won't turn out with esters and lots of off flavors due to under pitching the yeast. Live and learn I guess.....

Side note question: I'll be letting this sit in the primary for about 4 weeks until I get back from vacation. Should I move to a carboy for another 2-3 weeks? Or go ahead and take a reading and throw it into the keg?

Second side question: I'm leaving this fermenting down in my in-law's basement. Would it cause any issues other than potentially stirring up the sediment at the bottom if I transferred the fermenter from their house to my own?
 
To answer your first question. There are people on here who say to leave it on the yeast and not use a secondary; then there are those that live by using secondary. The question is, what is the temp of the basement? The thing I would look at is fermentation done before you leave on vacation, then I would transfer before you leave and let that sit for the 4 weeks. Some fermentations can be quick or they can be slow. Did you pitch an ale yeast or lager yeast?

As for the fermentation, I also would take a gravity in a couple of days and see how far it has dropped; if you under pitched you can always add a second smack pack of yeast.
 
The basement is sitting in the mid 60s. I checked the fermentor before I left and the thermometer on the bucket was reading 68. I may have to find some time to get out there and bring it back to my home so that I can further monitor this. Would the transfer do anything to the brew except stir up the sediment in the bottom?

I won't be able to get yeast until tomorrow at the earliest. Being 3 days in, what should the estimated drop in gravity be? I believe it was an ale yeast, though I'll need to double check.
 
The reason I asked the question is different yeast required different temps. If your beer is sitting at 68, then is should be fine for an ale. As for what your gravity should be is based on a bunch of different variables. I would measure it either tonight or tomorrow and see. If it is 15-20 points above your target FG, then wait and check again in a day or so. If is greater than that, I would pitch another pack of yeast. There are more issues with underpitching yeast than to over pitching yeast; this is one of the time where you can err on the side of caution and over pitch and not really have issues.
 
Well, if that's the case, I may go get the fermentor tonight and then buy some more yeast tomorrow. My LHBS is closed today or else I'd pitch more tonight. There shouldn't be anything wrong with transfering the bucket in the car is there?
 
If you stir it up a little you may rouse the yeast a little and get it going again. Sometimes when they work really hard and need just to get resuspended it the beer to keep it working.

(side note, you need to clear your inbox so I can reply to your other comment.)
 

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