First PM - very high O.G. ????

Last night I brewed my first PM. It is an oatmeal stout recipe from Brew mag (march-april 07').

I followed the recipe to a T.....ok, who am I kidding.

The recipe called for a 45min mash rest at 154, collect first wort.
Refill with 180F water, rest for 5 min, collect second wort

Rather than following the recipe, I did a mash sched of 133F for 30min, then 155F for 45 min, then 158 for 20 min, then raise to 170. Drain and sparge.

I also added 1oz of baking chocolate.

After the boil, my O.G. was 1.078 whereas the recipe states an expected O.G. of 1.052.

What do you think were the major contributors to my high OG and what are the likely consequences?

I am not one to follow the rules (or recipes). After a 13 year stint in the military, I guess I have a problem with authority.

thanks,
Spearo

 

Probably a combination of a higher efficiency versus what the recipe had, plus the sugar from the baking chocolate.

Also, were the volumes the same? Did you end up with the same volume called for in the recipe? If you were short a little, that would be part of it as the sugar doesn't boil off.

 

If you're still adding in extract/topping off with water, you may not have mixed evenly.

 

It's probably a mixing problem.

 

ok. it's official...i'm a bonehead.
I was going over the brewing procedure, wondering if i had not mixed properly. that's when it hit me. for some reason (maybe because it was after midnight), i pulled the sample to test for O.G. as I was cooling the wort.....before i topped off with water!

at least i now know why i had such a high reading.