Brewed Nut Brown last night

[KMart104]

We brew two batches of beer last night a nut brown and a oatmeal stout.

We cleaned and sitized everything we needed and also had a bucket with sanitizer to use during the brewing.

8 oz crystal
8 oz caramalt
4 oz chocolate malt

3 lbs muntons amber dme
3.3 lbs amber lme

1oz kent hops
1oz uk fuggle hops
irish moss

White labs irshi ale yeast WLP004

First we steep our grain in 2 gallons of 158 degree water for 30 min
We used a thermos to steep in to keep water temp consitant.
Then put wort into our brew pot and added 1 gallon of water that was the same temp as wort

our steeped gravity was 1.018 @81 degrees

Brought to boil and added
3 lbs muntons amber dme
3.3 lbs amber lme
and first hops
.5oz bittering hops (fuggle), .5oz aroma hops (kent golding)

45 mintues in added irish moss
60 minutes took off boil and took 48 min took cool wort in ice bath
strained into fermenting bucket then added water to make 5 gallons
sloshed bucket around and then pitched our white labs irish ale yeast @ 64 degrees

our OG is 1.064 which is a lot higher than the target OG of 1.040-1..045.
Any reason for this being so high?

 

[Justibone]

Did you take the gravity before you added the water? How well was the wort mixed when you took the gravity? How did you weigh out the malt? Are you certain your hydrometer works properly?

 

[KMart104]

It was measured after it was raised to 5 gallons and was mixed very well. The malt were pre measure. The grain was measure from lbs and the dme was packaged and lme was out of can. As far as we know everything was right on.

 

[Justibone]

According to my recipe calculator, malt is worth:

LME = 37 p/p/g
DME = 45 p/p/g

Plato degrees info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement

1 "brewer point" ~ 4 degrees plato (approximation only)

Plato degrees = 3(45) + 3.3(37)
135 + 122 = 257
257/4 = 64.25 brewer's points [EDIT: IN 1 GALLON]

1.018 (steep OG) + 64.25/5 = 1.041

Hmm, my software disagreed with this number. Have you tried putting this in software to see what it says? For a free beer spreadsheet, google "recipator".

 

[KMart104]

Took gravity reading today. It's been 7 days not since brewed. Took about 36 hours to see anything going on in the air lock and about another 36 hours and there was no more action going on in the air lock. Waited till today to check it and i measured a 1.028 for the gravity reading with a temp of 62.5. This is high what do you recommend? Pitching more yeast? Add dextrose while bottling?

 

[RM-MN]

The first thing I would do is give it another week or 2. I don't think your yeast is done with that stuff yet.

 

[jonmohno]

Seems the norm for dark beers is at least a month.before botteling.

 

[Justibone]

I agree with RM-MN, if the gravity is going down you are more likely to do harm than good by messing with it. At a certain point you just have to leave it in the yeasts' capable hands.... well, they don't have hands... I guess you leave it in their buds?

If you let it be, it will be beer, I'd wager. Try to fix the mistakes for the next time.

 

[flabyboy]

Nothing wrong with making 5.5 gallons instead of 5 when your OG is too high is there? I add water until I reach my target gravity when doing extract beers. My furious clone extract needed more than 5.5 gallons because of all the hops in it

 

[KMart104]

Well it's been 19 days in the primary. I racked into the secondary tonight and the gravity was 1.020. Taste was pretty good. Going to keep in secondary for another two weeks then bottle with an oatmeal stout that i have in my other secondary already.

 

[Justibone]

Make sure you get a steady gravity before you bottle... or bottles go "ka-BOOM!".

I had a bottle burst this weekend, smelled up the joint, went everywhere.