High OG??

[bufitfn]

Question, I made biermunchers cent Blonde and the brew day went fine, followed the recipe exact, but My OG came in at 1.046
Beersmith said 1042 and the recipe said 1039
I don't fully understand efficiencies but did I do that well or did I do something wrong?
I'm sure the beer is fine, but what did I do to get a high gravity?
Thanks

 

[BendBrewer]

How much did you end up with in the fermenter?

 

[bufitfn]

11 Gallons total, So I was actually a little more than expected after the boil.
Maybe 10.75 or so

 

[Veinman]

Assuming this was an all-grain there are a number of factors that can lead to a higer OG:
1. You got a higher efficiency than anticipated. It means you pulled more sugars out the grains than you expected thus the higher OG.
2. You ended up with less wort volume than predicted. If you boiled off more water than you planned the right amount of sugar are not sitting in a smaller volume leading to a higher concentration of sugars and higher OG
3. Your hydrometer is not calibrated properly, in this case your true OG may be right but your readings are off. To test calibration read your hydrometer in reverse osmosis water that is 60F or 72F (depending on what its calibrated to).

Some people think that getting a higher efficiency is "better" because they've extracted more sugar, while this is true and higher efficiency can save you a small amount of money what is more important when you are trying to follow recipes is getting a consistent efficiency with your system and process. By knowing what efficiency you will get on each batch you can write a recipe for your system and hit a desired OG each time.

Also this Blonde will be delicious so RDWHAHB.

 

[BendBrewer]

11 Gallons total, So I was actually a little more than expected after the boil.
Maybe 10.75 or so

I'm not sure I understand that. Did you end up with 11 gallons or 10.75 after cooling the wort.

 

[bufitfn]

Thanks Veinman, I'm sure the result was due to high efficiency now!
1. More wort after boil than expected
2. Brand new hydrometer because I thought the old one was off because I always get higher OG than beersmith estimates.
Thanks Much! I guess I should be happy my new all grain system works and I seem to know what I'm doing for being fairly new at this.

 

[bufitfn]

I'm not sure I understand that. Did you end up with 11 gallons or 10.75 after cooling the wort.

I put it in 2- 6 gallon carboys and each is about 1" over the 5 gallon mark, so I'm guessing 11.

 

[BendBrewer]

K, just making sure that you did get the volume as that would have done it.

I now remember my OG being a little higher than BM's when I did it as well. It still turned out great, and I bet your will as well. You'll just get more bang for your buck than BM.

Enjoy it. It's a very quaffable beer.

 

[bufitfn]

Thank you, Let me hit you up for some more expert advice.
If I want to make a lower gravity beer, how should I go about reducing the recipe?
Lower all the grains, or just the Base malt?

 

[BendBrewer]

Thank you, Let me hit you up for some more expert advice.
If I want to make a lower gravity beer, how should I go about reducing the recipe?
Lower all the grains, or just the Base malt?

You could get away with just lowering the base malt. If you want to be anal about it than you should lower all to keep the same ratio of grains. I just lower the amount of base grain. Wait, I have never lowered it. I've raised it though.

 

[bufitfn]

I'm with ya all the way, If it were up to me.
I'm trying to put together a summer poolside beer for all my BMC drinking friends and My SWMBO friends, so I wanted to stay around 4% ABV

 

[Veinman]

Thank you, Let me hit you up for some more expert advice.
If I want to make a lower gravity beer, how should I go about reducing the recipe?
Lower all the grains, or just the Base malt?

If you already have the recipe in BeerSmith scaling the recipe to your desired OG is really easy.
First we need to find out what efficiency you got on this recipe
1. Adjust the "batch size" box in the top right to 11 gallons (or 10.75)
2. Next adjust the "Brewhouse efficiency" box in the top right hand corner upwards until the "orig gravity estimate" box in the bottom left reads the 1.046 that you got, the number in the "brewhouse efficiency" is your efficiency for this batch.
3. Finally set the brewhouse efficiency back to where it originally was now click "scale" on the top tool bar and adjust the brewhouse efficiency to efficiency you got on this recipe. BrewSmith will adjust all the grain amounts to your new efficiency.

Also now that you have calculated your efficiency you can adjust any future recipes based on that efficiency, after each batch check your efficiency your goal is be getting the same or very similar number each batch consistently.

 

[bufitfn]

Thank so much! I have not learned all the stuff beersmith can do yet.
Thats a big help!

 

[Veinman]

It really is an awesome software program. Once you do a few batches and get your numbers consistent and "My Equipment" dialed it will do all of the calculations for you and my brews are rarely off more than .001 gravity points if I do what I'm supposed to.

 

[bufitfn]

Yes, I'm working on my "Boil Off" rate now to get my volumes correct.