How to deal with HIGH OG's?

[BrewToHeugh]

Hello - So I brewed yesterday a coffee malt stout kit from Austin brewery supplies and to my surprise, when everything was ready for yeast pitching, the OG was approx. 1.070! The OG was suppose to be @ 1.053...

I brewed about 3 batches so far so this time around I filled the wort with water at just a quart less than required and added until I got the desired OG. Well... I ended up adding almost a quart over the required and got it down to just below 1.060 (was afraid to add anymore water).

My question... why the high OG? I followed the directions to the T.

Will the extra water mess up my batch?

Aside from a higher alcohol content, what other side affects can i expect from a higher OG?

How will this affect my FG?

thanks everyone!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

How did you read the OG and did you compensate for temperature? I have never seen anyone approach 100% effeciency outside a professional brewery. If your SG measurements are solid, I'd look at your OG calculation process to verify the expected SG is corrrect. What expected efffeciency value did you use? Oh, if you really want to get down to the expected SG, just add water.

 

[BrewToHeugh]

How did you read the OG and did you compensate for temperature? I have never seen anyone approach 100% effeciency outside a professional brewery. If your SG measurements are solid, I'd look at your OG calculation process to verify the expected SG is corrrect. What expected efffeciency value did you use? Oh, if you really want to get down to the expected SG, just add water.

I'm noob still so bare with me...

I measured my wort temp at 80degrees F. before I added cool water. The directions called for 5.25 gallons. I added water to make just under 5 gallons and measured 1.070 using a basic hydrometer. I then added another quart of water still measured approx. 1.065. I added almost another quart of water and got just below 1.060. I couldve added more water to get closer to 1.050 but wouldnt that have a bad affect?

 

[jfk69]

Because unless you vigorously stirred your wort after adding the initial water to get really good mixing of the wort/water, it is probably inaccurate. There are several recent threads on this forum about this very topic. Basically, without stirring it well for quite some time (5 mins?), you will not get adequate mixing of the wort and water and thus your OG reading will be off (either low OR high depending on whether you gather more wort or more water in your sample). For an extract kit, I use their OG as my OG measurement, as you are adding LME or DME as your fermentables. As such, the amount of sugars is a known quantity and won't change based on efficiency such as in whole grain brewing.

Next time you boil a batch, add the ingredients, do the boil, and top it off to 5 gallons. Don't go over that or you WILL be lowering the kit's OG, which is what you probably have already done. FWIW.

 

[McGarnigle]

If this was an extract kit, you probably just have the wrong measurement. In fact, even for an all grain kit, you probably can't get 1070 out of something that's supposed to be 1050. And one quart of H20 wouldn't be enough to lower 5g from 1070 to 1060.

(EDIT: re-reading, it looks like you added 2 quarts more which would be more like a 7 point drop).

I'd be inclined to just ignore it and pitch the yeast, etc.

 

[Snake78]

Is your hydrometer reading correctly? Does it read around 1 for just water?
I read recently of one person whose hydrometer's paper had shifted inside and it consistently read 20 points high.

 

[seriousbeef]

Don't forget to read at your hydrometers calibration temp!!! Usually 20C.