first reading 1.058 normal???

[Righlander]

1.058 or like 7 1/2% mark is that normal for the first reading?

 

[Yooper]

Oh what? What's the recipe?

 

[Beerthoven]

If this reading is before fermentation, then its probably normal. Please post your recipe and we'll be able to give you a better idea if you're on target or not.

 

[Righlander]

ok this is the recipe
1/2lb crystal malt
1/2lb munich malt
1lb pale malt
1/2lb vienna malt
3lbs plain light DME
3lbs amber DME
.5oz tettnang pellet hop
.5oz hallertau pellet hop
i cracked the 2 1/2 lbs of grain then put it in 2 gallons of water at 154f for 1 hour
took out the grain bag then brought to a boil added all the hops then after 15 mins i added the DME boiled for 15 more mins then cooled the wort was a 30 min boil total
i kinda took a couple recipes and mutated them in to this. im kind of new to this so it might suck but im going through trial and error at the moment 5.5 gallon batch

 

[Righlander]

any idea what the reading should be after fermentation?

 

[Yooper]

Well, it depends on the yeast. If you used nottingham, you should be around 1.013.

I'm concerned about the hopping, though. If you used low AAU hops (Tettnanger and hallertau tend to be low) and only boiled for 30 minutes, you're going to have NO bitterness to balance out that beer. I come up with like 2.8 IBUs, and you'd want at least 25 for that high of an SG.

What were the AAUs of the hops?

 

[Beerthoven]

I think 1.058 is reasonable, with 6# of DME and 2.5# of steeping grains.

As for final gravity, a common rule of thumb is to divide the OG by 4. So, 58/4 = 14.5...lets just say 1.015. Extract tends not to attenuate as highly as you'd expect, so anything less than 1.020 would be good, IMO. It depends a lot on the yeast you are using, how much you pitched, how well you aerated, and the temperature.

 

[thomasfgeary]

I ran the numbers and the OG seems a little low, but nothing to worry about. My calc has the OG at around 1.065. The final gravity depends on the yeast but it should be around 1.016

 

[Righlander]

Well, it depends on the yeast. If you used nottingham, you should be around 1.013.

I'm concerned about the hopping, though. If you used low AAU hops (Tettnanger and hallertau tend to be low) and only boiled for 30 minutes, you're going to have NO bitterness to balance out that beer. I come up with like 2.8 IBUs, and you'd want at least 25 for that high of an SG.

What were the AAUs of the hops?

well the thing is the last 2 batches ive made came out waaaay too hoppy. so i wanted to tame it down a bit ...hmmm that sucks though i didnt realize that it might be a problem with this recipe...what would you suggest for hopping with that boil? the reason i did a 30 min boil was cuz i didnt want it to caramelize.