Holy Smokes!!

[cgreene]

So I brewed what I thought was going to be a light american lager about 3 weeks ago. Today I kegged it and put it away for a month or so for lagering. The taste, color and clarity is spectacular but HOLY S%$#@!!! The ABV on it is telling me in the 7+ range and it definitely tasted like it. I'm not mad at all but was hoping for an all day drinker since all my IPA's I brew are pretty high as well. I am just getting into building my own recipes so I need a little advice on where to tone this down at. So where did I go wrong? Too much grain/type of grain? Too big of a starter? or did I just get crazy conversion during the mash?? I'm thinking it was the grains that I used but seeing what ya'll think? Thanks for any feedback on this.

Here is the recipe
5 gallon batch

7lbs american pale 2 row
1lb irish stout malt
1lb flaked corn
8oz carapils

Did a 2L starter of Wyeast Bohemian Lager
OG reading was 1.064
FG reading was 1.010

 

[kh54s10]

That is a 7.09% ABV beer. High but not exceedingly so. So it is not an all day beer. The OG and FG look normal. If you wanted an all day beer, shoot for an OG of 1.050 or less. So you would need to use less grain.

 

[cgreene]

That is a 7.09% ABV beer. High but not exceedingly so. So it is not an all day beer. The OG and FG look normal. If you wanted an all day beer, shoot for an OG of 1.050 or less. So you would need to use less grain.

Thank you for the feedback.

 

[beermanpete]

What was your post boil volume? To get that OG from 9.5 lbs of malt you must have boiled down below 5 gals

 

[kh54s10]

I didn't look at the amount of grain to the OG. Another thing is that you are just starting the lagering. I bet it will be quite a bit different when done. It will still be 7.09 ABV based on the numbers but will probably be smoother.

 

[azmark]

With my water ratios in Beersmith, I get about a 4.9% beer for 5 gallons into the keg. So I think you recipe is spot on, your process might be off tho.

 

[cgreene]

What was your post boil volume? To get that OG from 9.5 lbs of malt you must have boiled down below 5 gals

You are correct! I did a pretty vigorous boil and ended up only putting about 4 gallons into the fermenter. I had read somewhere that a good rolling boiling was recommended for lagers so I had the heat pretty high on it.

 

[beermanpete]

The issue you read about is likely DMS. You don't need a super vigorous boil to drive off the DMS. You do need it to be a steady boil, not a simmer, but it does not need to be jumping out of the kettle. Next time try a lower boil and add some water to make up the losses from the boil as needed to keep the volume and OH on target.

 

[kh54s10]

It is also said that DMS was a much bigger problem in the past with less modified malts. Today's malts are much better so the problem of DMS is smaller, a lightly rolling boil should be fine. Or you need to compensate for a stronger boil by starting off with more wort.