Gravity reading

I Recently brewed a batch of pike kilt lifter the og was supposed to be 1.068 mine was 1.082. I decided to let it ferment without adding water to bring it down I just took a sample with a finished gravity of 1.028 it was supposed to be 1.017 it has roughly the same drop in gravity. Mine being 1.004 higher than my recipe calls for. I need the bucket it's in to bottle. I have to get my ipa bottled it's been dry hopping for 14 days. It was supposed to dry hop for 7.would anyone rack the kilt lifter or let it ride to bring it down another 4 points

 

I would not bottle a beer at 1028. Unless you used a ton if crystal malt or lactose or other non fermentable, you could be stalled at 1028

I would bottle that ipa ASAP. I find dry hopping to get grassy flavors and become vegetal if left too long. I usually will go 10 days max (and that's usually with a two stage dry hop). Many will say 14 days is no problem, but for me... I'd get that bottled quickly.

Since you need the bottling bucket, I would rack that 1028 beer over, warm it up and swirl it and see if you can get another 10 points off. You may need to repitch if you can't get it lower with warmer temps and resuspending the yeast. Once you've freed up your bottling bucket, get the ipa packaged up ASAP.

Maybe post your recipe for the high FG beer so we can help you figure out why it's stalled.

 

Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

 

1.068 to 1.082 is huge! If you did not start with twice as much ingredients or end up with 1/2 the expected volume I would question the gravity reading. If the OG was off that much I would also question the final gravity.

Check the hydrometer, if it's calibration is OK I would swirl up the trub to try to get more activity from the yeast, warm it up and if it doesn't drop some more, maybe pitch some more yeast.

But again I suspect the problem is elsewhere.

 

I did not calibrate I did not know I had to. I have been using this hydrometer for a while now. This is the first batch that came out so far off. All other brews have been within a point or two of recipes stated Og I will post up the recipe let me know what you think

 

Ok here is the recipe for the kilt lifter scotch ale 8 oz. crystal 20 - 8 oz. german Munich malt - 5 oz.belgian cara Munich malt - 3 oz.cherry smoked malt, 9 lbs.light lme, 1 lb.wheat lme .steeped grains for 30 [email protected] 150.added all lme at beginning of 60 min boil cooled and pitched Scottish ale yeast w labs 08 from 24 hour old starter started fermenting 4 hour later active fermentation for slightly over four days. I racked it and bottled the ipa sitting in a carboy now no activity yet. The ingredients were not put together by me. Local brew store owner put it together beer smith puts it at 1.070. That is the last time I will let that happen.

 

You should check that it reads 1.000 in pure water at 60°F just to be sure. Sometimes the paper inside can slip and your measurements are off...if you find that it is not 1.000 you can simply adjust your readings appropriately.

I just plugged this recipe into BeerSmith and it comes up with an estimated OG of 1.076 and an estimated FG of 1.020. However, I don't really know how steeping grains impact the gravity or the fermentability of the wort. If you racked after only 4 days, you probably moved it too soon and could have stalled/slowed the fermentation. I'd hesitate to bottle this beer at the current gravity - check the hydrometer...it would not be unheard of to have it be off 8 pts. If it checks out OK, I'd let it ride a little longer (how long has it been fermenting?) - maybe try rousing the yeast and moving the fermenter to somewhere warmer.

 

We ll I checked my hydrometer it was dead on. I racked the beer off of the yeast after 7 days of fermentation so can is till pitch another vile of yeast and see what happens.reading bjcp styles for scotch ale puts this as a wee heavy if this is correct this may not be a bad beer left as is ?