Accidental High Gravity Brown Ale

[beerguy707]

Hey guys,

This is my first time posting in these forums so go easy on me

So, this weekend I brewed up a batch of Honey Nut Brown Ale. I decided to add a couple more pounds of extract to it so that the final ABV would be a little higher. When I racked to primary, the OG was 1.10! I did not expect it to be that high as the recipe stated that target OG is usually 1.045.

So now I guess I am making a high gravity ale - which is cool, but I have 1 worry and that's because the recipe only called for a couple of ounces of hops during the boil. I noticed that a lot of high gravity recipes have anywhere from 6 - 8 ounces. My question is, would dumping a bunch in the secondary to dry hop be a good substitute? I don't want the beer to be super hopped up, but I also don't want to be drinking a sweet syrup either. What would be a good amount?

 

[duboman]

2 lbs of DME would add approximately 17 points to the OG so it should have been 1.045 + .017 or 1.062. Was there top off water involved? IF so you did not get a good mix of water to wort and thus the very high reading, which in essence is wrong.

Yes, the beer will basically be sweeter on the finish without having added hops to balance but you might be able to get good attenuation of the yeast which may off set some of it. If it finishes high then yes, it will be a bit sweeter

 

[beerguy707]

The 1.10 reading was after topping off with water to get 5 gallons. I did about full 5 gallon boil but lost some due to evaporation. Also note there was about 2lbs of honey in there.

So, should I add some hops to the secondary?

 

[scoundrel]

Higher ABV doesn't necessarily translate to more hops. As was mentioned earlier, attenuation, IMO is key in determining the overall impression of this beer. I'd be much more concerned about not having enough yeast to fully attenuate it to a gravity where it doesn't come across as cloying and syrupy.

So the real question is did you make a starter, pitch a single vial or use dry yeast?

 

[beerguy707]

I did not make a starter. Like I mentioned, I did not plan on this being a high gravity ale. I am going to be weary of taking gravity samples and making sure the fermentation doesn't get stuck. If it slows down before my target FG, I will repitch (being careful of sanitation of course) and make sure it completes.

My worry is that with such a high abv and lack of hops, if the ale will come out very unbalanced towards the sweet side.

 

[duboman]

Go back to my previous post, while the gravity is higher with your additions the gravity is NOT as high as you measured it be

Attenuation will be the key to how this turns out. What yeast did you use and what are you fermenting at?

How well did you aerate the wort?

I would expect this to finish around 1.015 or so

 

[beerguy707]

I used a Wyeast #1098 Whitbreaad Ale Yeast Smackpack. I aerated the wort by sloshing the carboy manually for 10 minutes.

I read somewhere that with these higher abv ales, adding some champagne yeast 4 days before bottling will prevent flat beer. I am wondering if that will even be necessary.

Hoping for the best.

 

[scoundrel]

I used a Wyeast #1098 Whitbreaad Ale Yeast Smackpack. I aerated the wort by sloshing the carboy manually for 10 minutes.

I read somewhere that with these higher abv ales, adding some champagne yeast 4 days before bottling will prevent flat beer. I am wondering if that will even be necessary.

Hoping for the best.

Alcohol is fatal to yeast around 5%, so unless you pitched enough yeast to fully consume the majority of fermentabke sugar, it will indeed stall. I hope I'm wrong and will finish but if it were me, I'd pitch another smack pack, but it may be too late.

Let's cross our finfers and hope for the best

 

[eric19312]

Alcohol is fatal to yeast around 5%, so unless you pitched enough yeast to fully consume the majority of fermentabke sugar, it will indeed stall. I hope I'm wrong and will finish but if it were me, I'd pitch another smack pack, but it may be too late.

Let's cross our finfers and hope for the best

This is not right....

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=7

You are going to be fine. Control temperature, give primary plenty of time. RDWHAHB

I think Scoundrel is messing with you...

 

[scoundrel]

This is not right....

http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=7

You are going to be fine. Control temperature, give primary plenty of time. RDWHAHB

I think Scoundrel is messing with you...

I'm not messing with him. Fatal was too strong a word (although yeast can and do die at 5%). Toxic is the right word and just because 1099 it is tolerant to 10% doesn't mean that all of the yeast will be able to tolerate 10% alcohol. Additionally, a single smack pack is not even close to the amount of yeast required to fully ferment a 1.100 beer. The yeast will be severely stressed and although, if you're lucky enough to have it fully ferment, it will in no way have an optimal result.

 

[ChshreCat]

Calm down. I know exactly what happened. It's happened to me. When you do a partial boil and top up with water, if you don't stir the living crap out of it after adding your top up water you can end up with denser, higher gravity wort at the bottom of the fermenter and thinner, mostly water wort floating nearer the top. Then if you take your sample and get more of the denser stuff from the bottom you'll see a higher reading in your hydrometer. I guarantee you that's what happened. Your actually OG is likely about what Duboman said in the second post in this thread. Unless someone snuck in and dumped in a few lbs of sugar or something when you weren't looking or you only filled your fermenter to 3gallons and thought it was 5, it can't be that high.

 

[eric19312]

I'm not messing with him. Fatal was too strong a word (although yeast can and do die at 5%). Toxic is the right word and just because 1099 it is tolerant to 10% doesn't mean that all of the yeast will be able to tolerate 10% alcohol. Additionally, a single smack pack is not even close to the amount of yeast required to fully ferment a 1.100 beer. The yeast will be severely stressed and although, if you're lucky enough to have it fully ferment, it will in no way have an optimal result.

Fair enough

I still bet result is going to be fine. Maybe not optimal but he is just getting started so optimal may be high bar anyway.

As cat pointed out, unless he accidentally made a 3 gal batch instead of a 5 gal batch there is no way brewing with extract the way OP described to end up with a 1.100 OG. So the hydrometer reading was wrong. OG was probably 17 points higher than the recipe, a biggish beer at say 1.075 but not a fatal toxic environment for yeast rated to ferment English barley wine. Points off for not making a starter, but points added for doing decent job with aeration (10 min splashing is significant). More points added since it is brown ale from a kit, I didn't review the exact recipe but I'm guessing not too hoppy.

Again overall I am betting it is going to be fine. I really doubt you will want to add champagne yeast or otherwise mess with it.

Give it 2-3 weeks in primary and take a gravity sample. Don't mix the beer when getting the post fermentation grav samples, fermentation mixed it enough. Expect grav to be a few (4-5) points higher than the kit expected because of the extra DME. Get another sample in a couple days and if no change, bottle it.

 

[D_Nyholm]

If you did all extract and post the recipe up here, it is easy to figure out the gravity. Unless someone walked by and dumped in 5 lbs of sugar when you weren't looking, I doubt it is 1.100

 

[beerguy707]

Hey guys. Thanks for all of the insight. I'll post the recipe tonight when I get home from work.

 

[duboman]

Hey guys. Thanks for all of the insight. I'll post the recipe tonight when I get home from work.

Just relax and have a beer already.............
This is NOT a high gravity beer and if you go back to my original post #2 you will see the math based upon the original recipe OG and the additional DME you added.

Your reading is off due to a poor mix of wort and water and the gravity of this beer is NOT 1.100 so you will not kill your yeast in some toxic batch of high alcohol and those little yeasties will be just fine

When brewing extract recipes it is virtually impossible to not get the stated OG of a recipe because their is a fixed amount of fermentable in the given extract. The ONLY way you can screw it up is if you either A. Don't add enough water to the given volume or B. Add way to much water and dilute the beer.............

So, assuming you properly brewed the beer and properly added the correct amount of water the recipe's OG plus the +/- 17 GPs you added with the 2# of DME gives you the new gravity regardless of what you got in your reading

 

[beerguy707]

Just relax and have a beer already.............
This is NOT a high gravity beer and if you go back to my original post #2 you will see the math based upon the original recipe OG and the additional DME you added.

Your reading is off due to a poor mix of wort and water and the gravity of this beer is NOT 1.100 so you will not kill your yeast in some toxic batch of high alcohol and those little yeasties will be just fine

When brewing extract recipes it is virtually impossible to not get the stated OG of a recipe because their is a fixed amount of fermentable in the given extract. The ONLY way you can screw it up is if you either A. Don't add enough water to the given volume or B. Add way to much water and dilute the beer.............

So, assuming you properly brewed the beer and properly added the correct amount of water the recipe's OG plus the +/- 17 GPs you added with the 2# of DME gives you the new gravity regardless of what you got in your reading

Thanks for the reassurance. I WAS mistaken and took the reading before adding water to fill to the 5 gallon line. So yes, the reading was inaccurate. Below is the recipe just in case anyone would like to add any comments:

- 8lbs amber malt extract
- 2.5 lbs of honey
- 1/2 lb English crystal malt
- 1/4 lb chocolate malt
- 1 tsp of gypsum
- 1 1/2 oz of Northern Brewer hops
- 1/2 oz of Willamette hops
- 1/2 tsp of Irish moss
- 1 package of British ale yeast

 

[ChshreCat]

Thanks for the reassurance. I WAS mistaken and took the reading before adding water to fill to the 5 gallon line.

That'll do it!