Way high OG - confused!!

[alexmatt86]

I decided to make a chocolate porter using this recipe:

extract: Boiled with steep for 60 minutes
7lbs - English Pale DME
1 lb - Munich LME

grain: (steeped at 155 degrees for 35minutes)
1lb - Crystal 40
1lb - crystal 80
.75 lb - choc malt
.5lb - Black Patent

Hops:
1oz Perle-7.7aa @ 60min
1oz Goldings-4.5aa@ 10
1oz Goldings-4.5aa @ FO

Extra:
8oz - Bakers Cocoa powder @ 1min

yeast:
Vial of White Labs P001 Cali ale yeast


I plugged it into beer tools and it gave me a predicted OG of 1.070 however after filling carboy and taking my reading I came up with 1.088-1.090

My reading was taken at a temperature when the wort was between 75-70 degrees.

>>The carboy was at 4.75 gallons approximately at time of reading. Could that quarter gallon be the reason?
I topped off until i hit my target gravity.. Is that appropriate in this case? and what effects will that have on my flavor?


Thanks!

 

[Bensiff]

That seems a bit high, I would double check that gravity. I brew to gravity so I would top that off if needed. A starter would be a good idea too.

 

[rocketman768]

Your estimate of 1.070 is wrong. I estimate 1.084 from your ingredients.

LME is 34 points/pound/gallon
DME is 44 points/pound/gallon
Crystal is 18 points/pound/gallon (when steeped)
Chocolate is 15 points/pound/gallon (steeped)
Black patent is 21 points/pound/gallon (steeped)
See How to Brew for where I got these numbers.

Since your final volume was 4.75 gal, this means that
OG points = (7*44 + 1*34 + 2*18 + .75*15 + .5*21)/4.75 = 84 points. In other words, 1.084.

 

[PHBalanced]

We have also brewed a beer with milk chocolate in it and the chocolate threw my gravity all wacky. My guess is your bakers chocolate is adding points that your software didn't know how to account for.

 

[patrck17]

Whew that beer is going to be a kick in the mouth. I bet it turns out good. My opinion on OG is to always manipulate your volume to hit your gravity. Either boil down or top off. If you mess up the gravity it will tip the scale on your hops to malt ratio and you will miss the intended flavor profile. I learned this the hard way with a IPA. I had poor efficiency and my gravity was low compared to the amount of hops I put in it. The result was a hoppy freakshow of bitterness. I had trouble drinking it, but I am not a hop head.

I do not think you will have to worry about any off flavors, I've never noticed anything with the beers I've topped off.

 

[Revvy]

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

More than likely your OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

Your estimate of 1.070 is wrong. I estimate 1.084 from your ingredients.

LME is 34 points/pound/gallon
DME is 44 points/pound/gallon
Crystal is 18 points/pound/gallon (when steeped)
Chocolate is 15 points/pound/gallon (steeped)
Black patent is 21 points/pound/gallon (steeped)
See How to Brew for where I got these numbers.

Since your final volume was 4.75 gal, this means that
OG points = (7*44 + 1*34 + 2*18 + .75*15 + .5*21)/4.75 = 84 points. In other words, 1.084.

I agree with this entirely

 

[Bensiff]

I agree with this entirely

I as well, I did a quick calculation on my earlier response and figured you should be in the low 80's not the high 80 point range, but still 70 is low