I decided to brew the New Belgium Ranger IPA Clone from BYO Magazine. I did the extract version, details of recipe below. I did some things a little differently than what the recipe calls for. I have noted those changes below in the recipe in BOLD font.
Everything went well during the brew day. What happened though, was my FG reading was 1.083!!! Not sure how this happened, b/c the biggest things I changed were the amount of hops, which I wouldn't think it would make a difference for the gravity reading. I have let the beer ferment for 13 days now (was out on business travel for the last half). I took a gravity reading last night and it was down to 1.004!!!! So fermentation is done... So in went the dry hops for a week.
With that being said, my ABV reading as of now would be about 10.37! That is much higher then expected. Does anyone know what might have caused this? I tasted the sample from the gravity reading and it tasted fine. Just flat warm beer. I'm assuming the cane sugar I used is the biggest culprit, but that is just my assumptions being a newbie still (although yeast needs sugar to ferment and make alcohol). Any ways, if anyone know why this may have happened, please let me know. If it was only slightly higher, say 7-8% ABV I wouldn't be so concerned, but this is way up there!!! Also, I will post back next week after it's been kegged and sampled for an update.
Here is one thing to note about the brew day that might help.
Final wort was 2.5 gallons after boil off. I topped to 5.5 gallons to account for the collection ball loss from my FastFerment conical fermentor.
Thanks in advance everyone!
New Belgium Ranger IPA Clone (BYO Magazine)
Batch Details:
5 gallons/19 L, Extract with grains
OG = 1.059 FG = 1.009 IBU = 70 SRM = 7 ABV = 6.5%
Ingredients:
4.5 lbs. (2 kg) Briess light dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) cane sugar (15 min.) - Didn't have a scale, used 2 cups.
1 lb. 13 oz. (0.82 kg) pale malt
4 oz. (113 g) crystal malt (120 L)
12 AAU Chinook hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 12% alpha acids)
6.5 AAU Simcoe hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz/14 g at 13% alpha acids)
3.8 AAU Cascade hops (15 min.) (0.75 oz./21 g at 5% alpha acids) - Used 1 oz.
0.5 oz. (14g) Chinook hops (0 min.)
0.5 oz. (14g) Simcoe hops (0 min.)
1 oz. (28g) Cascade hops (0 min.)
2.5 oz. (71g) Cascade hops (dry hop) - Used 3 oz.
Wyeast 1792 (Fat Tire Ale), Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II), or White Labs WLP051 (California Ale V) yeast - Used Wyeast 1272.
3/4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step:
Steep grains in 3 qts. (2.8 L) of water at 148 F (64 C) for 45 minutes (did one gallon instead of 3 qts.). Add water to make 4 gallons (15 L) of wort and bring to a boil. Stir in roughly half of the dried malt extract and boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at times indicated. Add remaining malt extract and cane sugar for final 15 minutes of the boil. Cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Top up to 5 gallons (19 L) with cool water, aerated and pitch yeast (pitching temp about 62 degrees). Ferment at 68 F (20 C). Dry hop in secondary or keg for one week.
Everything went well during the brew day. What happened though, was my FG reading was 1.083!!! Not sure how this happened, b/c the biggest things I changed were the amount of hops, which I wouldn't think it would make a difference for the gravity reading. I have let the beer ferment for 13 days now (was out on business travel for the last half). I took a gravity reading last night and it was down to 1.004!!!! So fermentation is done... So in went the dry hops for a week.
With that being said, my ABV reading as of now would be about 10.37! That is much higher then expected. Does anyone know what might have caused this? I tasted the sample from the gravity reading and it tasted fine. Just flat warm beer. I'm assuming the cane sugar I used is the biggest culprit, but that is just my assumptions being a newbie still (although yeast needs sugar to ferment and make alcohol). Any ways, if anyone know why this may have happened, please let me know. If it was only slightly higher, say 7-8% ABV I wouldn't be so concerned, but this is way up there!!! Also, I will post back next week after it's been kegged and sampled for an update.
Here is one thing to note about the brew day that might help.
Final wort was 2.5 gallons after boil off. I topped to 5.5 gallons to account for the collection ball loss from my FastFerment conical fermentor.
Thanks in advance everyone!
New Belgium Ranger IPA Clone (BYO Magazine)
Batch Details:
5 gallons/19 L, Extract with grains
OG = 1.059 FG = 1.009 IBU = 70 SRM = 7 ABV = 6.5%
Ingredients:
4.5 lbs. (2 kg) Briess light dried malt extract
1 lb. (0.45 kg) cane sugar (15 min.) - Didn't have a scale, used 2 cups.
1 lb. 13 oz. (0.82 kg) pale malt
4 oz. (113 g) crystal malt (120 L)
12 AAU Chinook hops (60 min.) (1 oz./28 g at 12% alpha acids)
6.5 AAU Simcoe hops (30 min.) (0.5 oz/14 g at 13% alpha acids)
3.8 AAU Cascade hops (15 min.) (0.75 oz./21 g at 5% alpha acids) - Used 1 oz.
0.5 oz. (14g) Chinook hops (0 min.)
0.5 oz. (14g) Simcoe hops (0 min.)
1 oz. (28g) Cascade hops (0 min.)
2.5 oz. (71g) Cascade hops (dry hop) - Used 3 oz.
Wyeast 1792 (Fat Tire Ale), Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II), or White Labs WLP051 (California Ale V) yeast - Used Wyeast 1272.
3/4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step:
Steep grains in 3 qts. (2.8 L) of water at 148 F (64 C) for 45 minutes (did one gallon instead of 3 qts.). Add water to make 4 gallons (15 L) of wort and bring to a boil. Stir in roughly half of the dried malt extract and boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at times indicated. Add remaining malt extract and cane sugar for final 15 minutes of the boil. Cool wort and transfer to fermenter. Top up to 5 gallons (19 L) with cool water, aerated and pitch yeast (pitching temp about 62 degrees). Ferment at 68 F (20 C). Dry hop in secondary or keg for one week.
