Help! OG reading waaay too high

[Dirt_McGirt]

Soooo...Beer Smith told me that my extract Red Ale was going to come in at 1.060. My reading last night came in at 1.081. I double checked that I didn't add too much extract (7.5lb light dry), or fail to top off to 5 gal. All clear.

Some possible factors:
- couldn't find glass thermometer, and wound up using digital, which broke during wort cooling. Had to eyeball temp, but it seemed room temp (64F) when I pitched yeast. If anything, my new wort chiller worked faster than expected and it was below room temp. The airlock is bubbling away downstairs, so the yeast seems happy for now.

- Accidentally forgot to take my reading until just after yeast pitch (1pkg. Danstar Nottingham). Shouldn't affect it that much, right?)

- I've heard that Beer Smith underestimates gravity contributions of extract. My cocktail napkin calculations said my OG should be 1.067. 1.081 still seems far away from even that.

Any ideas? I'm stumped. My only concern is that my yeast may stall out due to the higher gravity.

 

[ja09]

Did you do a full boil or partial boil? If partial boil the top off water probably wasn't mixed well enough for an accurate reading. No worries.

What yeast? Most should be fine with that og as long as you increase the temp towards the end of active fermentation.

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

It was a partial 4 gallon partial, so I added less than 1.5 gal including boil off compensation. I was stirring vigorously though to aerate, so I was thinking it was mixed. Plus I took a second reading this morning that still read 1.077.

The yeast was Danstar Nottingham, and I didn't make a starter. I couldn't even rehydrate because my thermometer broke.

All that said, thanks for the reassurance that it's probably going to be fine.

 

[ncbrewer]

I thought ja09 had the answer, but it does seem like overnight it should have homogenized by yeast action. I've never taken another reading the next day, so really can't be sure.

The things that affect OG are fermentables added and wort volume. Maybe volume is the culprit - I see Post 1 says 5 gallons, and post 3 says 4 gallons.

Possibilities for getting a bad OG reading would be lack of mixing, wrong temperature used for correcting SG, hydrometer being inaccurate (the paper scale inside can slip), and reading error.

Right now, the 4 gallons vs 5 gallons looks like the most likely possibility.

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

Just to clarify, I boiled 4 gallons, then topped the cooled wort off to 5 gallons in the fermenter. I double checked the level this morning because that was my thought, too.

The hydrometer being off is something I hadn't considered. I tested the calibration last week, but the paper could have slipped since then. Good idea.

 

[Calder]

If you took your reading from a spout at the bottom of the fermenter, I would say the wort has not fully mixed.

If you say you took the readings with wort taken from the top of the fermenter - I'm stumped.

67 sounds about right.

If you really want to get another check, get a refractometer, and take both a refractometer and hydrometer reading a the end of fermentation (well, can be done any time during fermentation), and from both off those number you can reasonable estimation of OG by using an on-line calculator (or the one in BeerSmith). I often do this when adding fruit or other sugar to a beer mid fermentation, so I can estimate my effective OG.

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

Thanks. Yeah, I pull from the top using a sanitized turkey baster.

At this point fermentation is pretty vigorous and flocculant, so I'll just roll with it. I mainly wanted a post Mortem so I don't repeat the same thing.

 

[slym2none]

Notty can handle that OG, but it's right at the top limit. It might be a slight under-pitch, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Congrats on making beer!

 

[ncbrewer]

Please post when you check the hydrometer calibration.

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

Oh! Sorry, yeah - I checked it and it's right where it was last time, only off by .001 in 60F water. So it's not the instrument.

 

[ncbrewer]

I've read on some posts on HBT that pouring the top-off water can "flip" the stratification so that some denser wort comes to the top. I'm not sure about this, but otherwise you may have violated the laws of physics and could be subject to severe penalties.

 

[Dirt_McGirt]

Huh....that's neat, and it sounds about as plausible as anything else. Curious to see where the FG winds up in a couple weeks. Thanks all for the suggestions.