High gravity Hefe

[brewawan]

Hey guys, Saturday I brewed a German Hefe from B3 (last Hefe brew blew up). 6lb DME boiled for 60 min with 0.5 oz Northern Brewer hops in for all 60 min. Boiling at about 180 deg and taking 35 min to get to 76 deg, my OG measured 1.12 honestly. What may be some of the causes for this? How long should I wait to move to carboy? Should it be based on time or get the thief and take a true measurement? Thanks.

 

[DeathBrewer]

your measurement is incorrect. you may have misread or maybe you took the reading from your partial boil? (you need to add water to 5 gallons and mix thoroughly)

or u need a new hydrometer

you should be at a little over 1.050 give or take with 6 lbs dme in 5 gallons

i see you're in walnut creek. howdy, neighbor!

 

[morrasy]

what was the temp of your sample when you read it? If it was 76 degrees that would be a problem. Most hydrometers are calibrated to read correctly at 60 degrees.

 

[Chris_K]

I just did almost the exact same beer last night. 6.1lbs DME into 6.5 gallons of water, boil for 60 minutes, yields a little over 5 gallons of wort. My OG was closer to 1.046. There's no way you're up that high unless you snuck around 5 lbs of sugar into your beer somehow.

 

[the_bird]

You probably didn't stir the wort before taking the reading. When you top off a partial boil, the heavier sugars in the part you boiled will tend to sink, so depending on what part of the wort you took the reading from, you could read either too high or too low. Honestly, it's basically impossible to f*ck up the gravity of an extract brew unless you don't measure out enough top-off water or someone knocks a bag of sugar into the wort.

 

[Blender]

You might consider not using the secondary. Let it ferment 2 weeks and when finished just bottle it up.

 

[brewawan]

your measurement is incorrect. you may have misread or maybe you took the reading from your partial boil? (you need to add water to 5 gallons and mix thoroughly)

or u need a new hydrometer

you should be at a little over 1.050 give or take with 6 lbs dme in 5 gallons

i see you're in walnut creek. howdy, neighbor!

Yes, Mr. Death Brewer, you are correct. Sorry about getting back so late, but I did not take measurement after I added it to the other 2.5 gal. I waited until it chilled down to around 76 then got the reading of a partial boil. Wow, another noob mistake. I guess that's how you learn.

Is there any way to figure out what my reading would have been around?

 

[DeadYetiBrew]

Boiling at about 180 deg

???????????

 

[Hemi]

Is there any way to figure out what my reading would have been around?

If you added exactly 2.5 gallons to exactly 2.5 gallons you would have had an OG of 1.060 after the addition if it was 1.12 prior.

 

[DeathBrewer]

you don't have to calculate efficiency with extract, so assuming you had 5 gallons and based on your recipe, i'd say it was about 1.050

and yeah, 180 degrees is not exactly boiling...?

 

[Wrey]

Another possibility for a bad reading is to make sure there aren't any bubbles sticking to the outside of your hydrometer. Make sure you spin it in the wort or sample to remove any bubbles. They have this nasty habit of being quite a bit lighter than water.

 

[FSR402]

and yeah, 180 degrees is not exactly boiling...?

Yeah that's crazy. If your thermometer was saying 180, you need to get a new one ASAP.

 

[SixFoFalcon]

Yeah that's crazy. If your thermometer was saying 180, you need to get a new one ASAP.

Hey, maybe he's brewing at like 16,000 feet above sea level!

 

[Hemi]

Hey, maybe he's brewing at like 16,000 feet above sea level!

Hey, maybe he's brewing at like 16,000 feet above sea level!

Here in the Mile High City, I can hit a boil at 198dF . He would have to be brewing on Mt Whitney at 14,494 to get anywhere near that boiling point.

Brewawan - Keep the boil at 212dF

 

[brewawan]

Well, my thermometer may need to be replaced . But, rest assured my boil was at a slow roll. I'm off to the LHB this weekend for my next concoction.