Please help, Original gravity came out to high???

[Osher]

Hey all, hope someone could help me figure out Why I missed my OG this high. Its my second all grain brewing, last time I had the same problem.

I've brewed a couple of days ago the Sierra Nevada pa clone by byo link- http://byo.com/cider/item/3025-sierra-nevada-pale-ale-clone

I'm using a 17 g kettle- a bit of an over kill
10 g igloo coller with stainless steel hose as false bottom
Propane burner

Measured sparge time(fly sparge)- 01:40 hour
Boil volume- 27 liter - I'm loosing Quiet a bit throw out the boil
Post boil volume 20.5 liter
The pre boil gravity came out- 1.041
Post boil gravity- 1.076

At the end I had to add about 2 liters of water to dilute the wort up to a 1.060 I would love to hear from you guys what is the reason for getting this high OG if the pre boil gravity was low? I guess sparging took me more than I expected but I'm not sure it's the reason. Any ways hope someone could solve the mystery.

Thanks a lot from advance to all,
Osher,

 

[Stonga]

Are you temperature adjusting your hydrometer readings?

 

[Osher]

First thanks for the quick reply, yes I do I'm chilling before measuring

 

[evchenko]

Bit of a semi novice here but next time I'd just sparge with an extra 2 litres.

 

[Jaybird]

A few things. 1 what is the measured mash efficiency you are using for your recipe formulation? 2 what is the boil off rate you are using for your recipe formulation?

Knowing just those 2 things is a great place to start when formulating a recipe and tailoring it for your system.

Cheers
Jay

 

[Simonh82]

Could this be a combination of dodgy hydrometer and excellent efficiency? Someone had a similar problem on another forum I inhabit and when they checked their hydrometer in pure water it was 0.006 out.

Also, I plugged the recipe in to Brewer's Friend with my standard efficiency of 80% and got an OG of 1.062. If I lower my efficiency rating to 65%, which is quite low but often given for publicly shared recipes then you get their anticipated OG of 1.052. To get to your OG of 1.076 you need to be hitting 95% efficiency which is probably unrealistic, even for a good fly sparging set up.

90% would get you to 1.072, and if you had a 0.004 error in your hydrometer then you could hit 1.076.

 

[theseeker4]

Hey all, hope someone could help me figure out Why I missed my OG this high. Its my second all grain brewing, last time I had the same problem.

I've brewed a couple of days ago the Sierra Nevada pa clone by byo link- http://byo.com/cider/item/3025-sierra-nevada-pale-ale-clone

I'm using a 17 g kettle- a bit of an over kill
10 g igloo coller with stainless steel hose as false bottom
Propane burner

Measured sparge time(fly sparge)- 01:40 hour
Boil volume- 27 liter - I'm loosing Quiet a bit throw out the boil
Post boil volume 20.5 liter
The pre boil gravity came out- 1.041
Post boil gravity- 1.076

At the end I had to add about 2 liters of water to dilute the wort up to a 1.060 I would love to hear from you guys what is the reason for getting this high OG if the pre boil gravity was low? I guess sparging took me more than I expected but I'm not sure it's the reason. Any ways hope someone could solve the mystery.

Thanks a lot from advance to all,
Osher,

It looks like something is wrong with your measurements. 76 gravity points times 20.5 liters is 1558 total points of gravity.

60 gravity points times 22.5 liters (after diluting) is 1350 total points of gravity.

Converting to gallons and then calculating, you end up with 410 gravity points, and 354, respectively.

There is no way you gained or lost total gravity points by diluting post-boil. Therefore, at least one of your gravity measurements, or one of your volume measurements, is inaccurate. No way to tell what is going on from here, but your measurements are off somewhere.

ETA: Calculating based on pre-boil numbers, your total gravity points of 41 times 27 liters is 1107, which doesn't coincide with any of the post-boil numbers. Again, measurement error is present somewhere, and it is impossible to tell you where from our end.

 

[Osher]

First of all big thank you's to all replyers really appreciate.
When I look back I really only took measurements from my refractrometer probably something is wrong there and you all right, there is some problem with the numbers.

Regarding mash effiency percent I really don't no where my system stands would love to hear any suggestion on how to calculate.
In the end I guess time will tell when I measure my fg I could approximately guess what was my OG.
Any ways thank again to all the help really helpful guys
Osher,

 

[Osher]

A few things. 1 what is the measured mash efficiency you are using for your recipe formulation? 2 what is the boil off rate you are using for your recipe formulation?

Knowing just those 2 things is a great place to start when formulating a recipe and tailoring it for your system.

Cheers
Jay

Hey man, acctually I dont know what is my mash effiency, regarding boil lose I something in between 7 liter in 75 minute boil. But whould love to hear how you calculate effiency and how to practically use those numbers in real life, thanks from advance