3rd batch - wheat doppelbock - didn't hit my intended OG : (

[jman300sd]

Hi Everyone,

Just finished brewing a wheat doppelbock ala Aventinus. On the initial gravity reading I only got 1.073. Kinda bummed as I was expecting a 1.081. I did calibrate the hydrometer and did adjust according to temp. I also took the reading before pitching the yeast. My thinking is that its the result of too much water. I boiled 3.5 gallons (with the assumption that ~1 gallon would boil off) and topped off with 2.5 gallons. I've done the same with my two previous batches and came out right on target both in terms volume of water and OG. This time I could tell it didn't come out right when I was pouring within the bucket - came out rather high.

I know the beer will come out fine, just a little lighter. Just wish I could have nailed it. Curious how you folks take into account the amount of water evaporating off during a boil? I thought the assumption that 1 gallon would boil off would be correct, but this time around it was definitely not the case.

 

[dantose]

Mark the side of your fermenter and fill to the line.

 

[jman300sd]

noted ; )

 

[devilishprune]

This is a common problem.

It's likely that you just didn't get the water and the wort mixed up properly because when you do extract it's next to impossible to miss your gravity (unless, of course, you miss your volume). Before your next brew, try calibrating your bucket/carboy with a 1 gallon pitcher. That way you can tell where the volume is in there, because those buckets are way inaccurate.

 

[jpm5171988]

it took me a little while to get used to my boil off rate...it would be anywhere from 1 to 2.5 gallons. One thing that I do is keep a few pounds of light malt extract on hond for emergencies. If you don't hit your intended gravity, add some malt extract to the boil. From what I understand, for a 5 to 6 gal batch, 1 lb of liquid light malt extract will raise your gravity around 6 points or 1.006. One thing I started doing so that i dont have to worry about losing too much to boil off is just make more wort than I need. For my last 10 gallon batch I ended up with a 13.5 gallon boil, and only lost 1 gal to boil off. You can increase the amount of water you use for the boil and compensate by steeping/mashing more grain or using more malt extract. To keep your recipe "on track" just total the amount of grains that you use combined with the number of pounds of malt extract that you use and divide that number by the number of gallons you use for the boil. This will show you how many lbs of grain/malt extract you use per gallon. Then just add the correct amount of grain if you plan on adding more water to the boil.