5 Gal OG of 1.075??? Possible?

[NEPABREWER]

3 lbs german pilsner malt
.25 melanoidin + .25 light crystal
6 lbs pislner LME
5 gallons after top off
with a reading of 1.075 at 79 degrees I believe

Should I add another .5 gal of water to this?

 

[NEPABREWER]

bump bump bump

 

[Lou]

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

 

[PT Ray]

Let me go on a limb, the numbers don't add up. A volume close to 4 gallons would yield 1.075. If this is the case, I would add some water. If you are fine drinking high gravity beer during the summer or plan on holding it until cooler weather than leave it. I just find it hard to enjoy heavy beer in the heat of summer.

 

[NEPABREWER]

I don't quite understand how that works? I have little idea what my efficiency was - hell I don't even have a proper mash tun I just steep the grain at 150-159 for an hour than rinse. bring to a boil ad my hops and LME, 1 hour later cool and ad water to equal 5 gal in the bucket.

 

[NEPABREWER]

Its at 5 gal now - I dont mind a big beer in the summer, but I don't want malt liquor skank flavored beer either. This recipe was supposed to be for a clean light ale with a lager like finish?

 

[Lou]

where did you get this recipe?

 

[NEPABREWER]

LOL - on this board - but well uh I guess I overlooked the 6 gal boil volume part of it. so 5.1 - 5.2 gal it is. I'll see what happens. what ever it is it will be beer hopefully it ferments out ok
The last batch of hefe I made seems to be light on alcohol - 5 gal @ 6 lbs LME? oh well.

 

[NEPABREWER]

added most of a gallon of water - now wait and see

 

[DrewsBrews]

with a reading of 1.075 at 79 degrees I believe

Just a shot in the dark - how do you take the measurement? I draw a sample with a "thief" and drop the hydro straight in that and have found it's pretty difficult to get the hydro to float freely in the liquid without sticking to the wall of the thief.

Another reason might be that the hydro had an air bubble stuck under it, causing it to float a little higher.

I'm about ready to join Walker in retiring the hydro to a dark corner of the brewing tools cabinet. It's too much of a pain in the arse and not worth the worry when it gives a weird reading.

 

[NEPABREWER]

I am familiar with the issue you speak about, but I spun her in the thief pretty good and checked 2x. I added a gallon bringing the volume up to about 5.5 - 6.0 and today its bubbling away like mad @ 72 degrees - I may move it to the cellar soon

 

[vtfan99]

Have you tested your hydrometer with plain old water? It should read 1.000, temperature corrected.

 

[NEPABREWER]

yes it does

 

[Brewby, my beer]

If you took the hydro reading before adding the extra gallon of water, that would explain why the OG was so high.

I just had a similar thing happen to me. I to the OG once the wort was at pitching temp and it came out 1.060. Higher than I expected it to be. Then I pitched to the fermenter and realized that I lost almost a gallon in the boil.

When I figure out what the OG should have been it makes sense when divided by 4 gallons instead of 5 gallons. (I.E. if you have less than 5 gallon when you take the hydro reading your result will come out higher than it should. )

If you take the 9lb of LME and multiply by 34 (34% utillization) you get 306. Divide that by 5gallons and you get ~1.076-1.077. But, if you didn't have 5 gallons, but only 4 you would get 306/4g= ~1.062

I'm thinking RDWHAHB

 

[NEPABREWER]

alright this baby is at 1.018 is she cooked or should I leave it in the primary another day or two and test again? If it was 1.065 after I added the gal what am I lookin at here around 8% - sample tastes nice wish it was cold and bubbly