High O.G.

[polecreek]

Just out of curiosity I am wondering what the highest o.g. beer members here have brewed. I just overshot my barley wine with a o.g. of 1.380. I am hopeing my s-o5 will work. I did make a starter but this still looks kind of high to me. So put my mind at ease and tell me you have made bigger beers.

 

[ChshreCat]

Holy crap! What was your recipe on that?

 

[polecreek]

Well I decided to try an extract I usually only do A.G.
I used 6lbs of dry amber dme
9lbs of light dme
1/2 lb of crystal
1/4 lb of carapils
1/4 lb of caramunich
2 oz of summitt
2 oz of centennial
2 oz of cascade
I ended up with 6 gallons.
Damn that reminds me I forgot the irish moss.
I made a starter with s-o5 yesterday.

 

[noblesquirrel]

did you mean you ended up at 1.138?

 

[ChshreCat]

No way your OG was 1.380. Beer smith estimates it at 1.112

What happened was that when you either measured something WAY wrong (which I doubt, because you'd have to have like... 15 pounds of extra DME without knowing it), ended up with less volume than you expected (I doubt that because you'd have to be like... half), or your extract and water didn't get mixed together completely and you got a thick sample from the bottom. Or you seriously misread your hydrometer... do they even go that high?

edit: I just checked it out in beersmith. To hit 1.380, you'd have to increase your light DME to 45.75 lbs!

Did you do a full boil or did you top up with water?

 

[annasdadhockey]

1.380 fermented down to 1.050 would be about 50% ABV. DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ChshreCat]

1.380 fermented down to 1.050 would be about 50% ABV. DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And you'd need to use a bale of hops to balance out the maltyness.

 

[polecreek]

I could be wrong which i am frequently, but the hydrometer read 1.38. I was reading it at about 80 degrees but that still would not make that big a difference. I have already pitched yeast but I might check with my refractometer just for kicks.

 

[polecreek]

My bad, I checked just know and got 1.093. This is 4 hours after pitching but its not active yet. Now I am disappointed I was shooting for 1.123 but I got 6 gal instead of 5. Guess I will have to settle for a little smaller beer. I think I must have gotten a strong sample as suggested as I pulled the sample out of the plate chiller as it was running. and not the carboy. Then again maybe i was sampling way to much apfelwein off the tap.