freakishly high gravity in my oatmeal stout...

[deranged_hermit]

just brewed an oatmeal stout extract kit from austin homebrew. followed the directions to a T. this is my 5th batch, so i'm pretty confident i can follow the procedures correctly. the kit suggests that i should hit an OG of 1.053. my OG when i just tested some after i sent it to the primary was get this....

1.094!!!

What in the hell could have happened to get that mark so high!? what kind of things can i expect to happen with this batch? is it going to finish at a high SG? or is it going to finish with a high ABV? i'm really lost for words. its sitting in a plastic primary with 5.5 gallons of water at room temperature. i will let the hydrometer set over night incase the temperature is skewing the reading. but i am seriously dumbfounded. any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

much thanks in advance

 

[Dude]

I'm willing to bet you took the gravity reading before you added the top-up water to the fermenter, right?

 

[Glibbidy]

That's kinda...um really high. Woah
Did you make the adjustment for temperature? You may have overboiled,what kind of volume do you have right now? is it really 5.5 gallons?

 

[Lou]

I'm willing to bet you took the gravity reading before you added the top-up water to the fermenter, right?

that must be the issue...:cross:

 

[Lou]

or your hydrometer's f'ed.... what does it read in water?
no reasonable temperature can account for a 40-point hydrometer adjustment.....

 

[deranged_hermit]

i wish any of those suggestions were the case. the water line is up to the 5.5 gallon mark in my primary bucket. if anything, it is a little too much water IMHO. there is no way that a temperature difference could be so high as to alter the gravity that much. and i just checked the hydrometer, and it reads 1.000 in room temp water.

what effect would boiling the wort too long have?

 

[Lou]

what effect would boiling the wort too long have?

caramelization, which would darken your wort, but i don't think it should change the gravity. out of curiosity, how long did you boil the wort?

 

[Glibbidy]

what effect would boiling the wort too long have?

It would reduce your overall volume as well, therefore hypothetically increasing your OG. If carmelization occurred, it wouldn't neccesarily affect your gravity. hmmm...

How much water did you start with? Did you do a 90 minute boil? account for 10% evaporation?

 

[deranged_hermit]

caramelization, which would darken your wort, but i don't think it should change the gravity. out of curiosity, how long did you boil the wort?

i followed the directions that AHB provided:
started with 2.5 gallons of water
steeped the grains for 45 mins at 155 degF
heat until boiling, add extract, return to boiling and add the bittering hops and boil for 1 hour.

I'm certain that the time was right, because i watched two episodes of Inked on A&E while i waited (great show btw, a lot better than Miami Ink).

 

[Lounge Lizard]

Maybe someone at Austin Homebrew accidentally doubled the amount of extract they sent you. Hey, even with your OG, it is going to be a tasty brew.... and it sure shouldn't be weak! I think I could live with it...

 

[Glibbidy]

Maybe someone at Austin Homebrew accidentally doubled the amount of extract they sent you. Hey, even with your OG, it is going to be a tasty brew.... and it sure shouldn't be weak! I think I could live with it...

Yeah give it six weeks and you'll be loving it. You could call it an Imperial with an OG that high.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

yup their website says that recipe comes with 7 lbs. lme which would be around 1.050 so double that and youve got your 1.094 og...

14 lbs. is ALOT of lme, i think you should have noticed the difference?

 

[Dude]

Yeah give it six weeks and you'll be loving it. You could call it an Imperial with an OG that high.

More like 6 months.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

How did you take the sample for your hydrometer? I recently read that SG may vary signifigantly within the wort from top to bottom, and if you use a theif to take SG and you put the theif in all the way, you are pulling a sample from the bottom which may be different from the top. I experienced this myself on my last brew. I took two readings from the bottom and got 1.060 and took two by just submerging the theif an inch or two and filling up my hydrometer tube with about 3 smaller samples from the theif, and I got 1.040. so the I mixed it up with the theif and dropped the theif in slowly, so that it would pull from all layers as it submerged, and I got 1.048. has any one else experienced that or am I just completely off base?

 

[Salsgebom]

Maybe someone at Austin Homebrew accidentally doubled the amount of extract they sent you.

That's got to be it. Extract is pretty simple and straight forward- its not like your process can make much of a difference to the gravity. Either you have way too much extract or not nearly enough water. To reach 1.093 in 5.5gal of water you'd need 11lbs of DME. You just couldnt get there with much less. This is going to dramatically decrease your hop utilization. You're going to get a super sweet beer that requires ass-loads of aging. Hope you have a spare secondary!

What kind of yeast are you using/ whats your hop schedule? Depending, you could easily hit over 9.5% abv with this one.

 

[HomerT]

Did you mix your top-up water thoroughly before the sample? I have done that before, when added my top-up water, and took a sample but it wasn't homogeneous in the fermenter...result was a really high OG. Mixed it well/aerated and took another reading....twenty points lower.

-Todd

 

[deranged_hermit]

Did you mix your top-up water thoroughly before the sample? I have done that before, when added my top-up water, and took a sample but it wasn't homogeneous in the fermenter...result was a really high OG. Mixed it well/aerated and took another reading....twenty points lower.

-Todd

you know what... i think that might be it. i added a gallon to the wort right away after the boil to help it cool down quicker. then added the remaining 2 gallons to it after i vigorously poured the wort into the primary with the yeast. i added the 2 gallons right on top... and that has to be it... it never mixed thoroughly with the rest of the wort. since i take my SG samples thru a spigot at the bottom of the fermetner... i bet i was taking the gravity reading of almost pure-untopped wort.

but now it is already fermenting, bubbling once every few seconds. how should i go about getting an accurate reading for the SG? i dont really want to open the fermenter to mix it up and all. could i try swirling the bucket itself and then taking another reading from the spigot? i dont feel that the batch is a waste by any means. i would just like to be a bit more accurate in my log book.

 

[Walker]

you know what... i think that might be it. i added a gallon to the wort right away after the boil to help it cool down quicker. then added the remaining 2 gallons to it after i vigorously poured the wort into the primary with the yeast. i added the 2 gallons right on top... and that has to be it... it never mixed thoroughly with the rest of the wort. since i take my SG samples thru a spigot at the bottom of the fermetner... i bet i was taking the gravity reading of almost pure-untopped wort.

but now it is already fermenting, bubbling once every few seconds. how should i go about getting an accurate reading for the SG? i dont really want to open the fermenter to mix it up and all. could i try swirling the bucket itself and then taking another reading from the spigot? i dont feel that the batch is a waste by any means. i would just like to be a bit more accurate in my log book.

since it is already fermenting, there is nothing you can do other that assume that the estimated gravity your kit stated is what you actually had in the fermenter prior to ferment starting.

I'd call it 1.053 in your log/notes and move on.

-walker

PS: I hate hydrometers.

 

[sause]

PS: I hate hydrometers.

So your in Janx's boat?

 

[Walker]

So your in Janx's boat?

On that subject, yes.

-walker