Is this right?

[bgcoving]

I don't know if I have made a blunder or not...

Steeped 14# grains in 155 degree water for 60 min...gravity read of runoff was 1.060 @ 60...Gathered @ 4.5 gallons wort

Added @10# of extracts, all amber, mostly liquid, rest DME...

2 oz Columbus pellets 1hr
2 oz Centennial pellets 45 min
2 oz Cascade pellets 15 min

Boil for 75 min

Cooled with chiller, collected 5 gal final wort

Gravity is 1.320 @77 degrees...

Does anyone know what to expect at this point? I was shooting for a high grav Strong Scotch Ale, which I certainly got, but I didn't expect it to be this high...

Ooooops....

 

[homebrewer_99]

1.320? Are you sure?

That's like 30+%

 

[Fingers]

Does your stir stick stand straight up in it?

 

[reshp1]

That seems way too high for the amount of extract you used.
10lbs of LME would give you 360 pts/gal, so at 5 gallons you'd have 72 points. Add the 60 points you got from steeping grain and that's 1.132. Are you sure you read the hydrometer right?

 

[bgcoving]

That seems way too high for the amount of extract you used.
10lbs of LME would give you 360 pts/gal, so at 5 gallons you'd have 72 points. Add the 60 points you got from steeping grain and that's 1.132. Are you sure you read the hydrometer right?

Honestly, I don't know. I drew off the sample and it has the general character of a mud puddle, so I am wondering if I should wait for the particulate to settle out and read again. But yes, honest injun, it read 1.320...Hence, my post.

 

[conpewter]

I think your OG was measured incorrectly (perhaps not stirred enough)

I put something similar into Beertools.com

14 lbs. American 2-row info
10 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract info
2 oz. Columbus (Whole, 15.00 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
2 oz. Centennial (Whole, 10.00 %AA) boiled 45 min. info
2 oz. Cascade (Whole, 5.50 %AA) boiled 15 min. info
Yeast : WYeast 1728 Scottish Ale info


Original Gravity 1.138
Terminal Gravity 1.043
Color 15.52 °SRM
Bitterness 153.0 IBU
Alcohol (%volume) 12.9%


Granted taking it as very generic with the grains and extract.

I don't know if you will be able to ferment this out. It generally takes a lot of care to ferment out something with that high of a gravity (generally by doing feedings).

Also I think your IBU's might be high even for this brew.

 

[bgcoving]

1.320? Are you sure?

That's like 30+%

PAbV of 18%...I thought it was wayyyyy too high....

 

[Yooper]

My hydrometer doesn't even go up that high! To the very bottom it goes up to 1.170. Now, that's pretty darn high, but it's not 1.300 or anything like that.

I bet it's really 1.132. Which is still very, very, high for a beer!!!!! Even my wines don't go past 1.100 usually.

 

[Brewsmith]

What are you doing for the yeast? I hope you didn't just throw in one package without a starter and expect it to finish. I'd be afraind of the yeast dropping out way too early.

 

[bgcoving]

I dropped the zero, it is indeed 1.132 and not 1.320...Stupid new guy error....

However, as for the yeast question, I haven't used a starter in the past other than warm water and time...I'm using safale 004 as the brewstore was out of Scotch ale yeast and this was recommended...I've used in the past with excellent results.

I also just put the whole recipe into Beertools to see what the software had to say and it 'claims' i'm within 79% compliance of style, although the whole 287 IBU's is a bit confusing... We do like our brews a bit hoppier...

 

[conpewter]

Looking over it again, I think you may end up with an under attenuated brew.

A robust ale yeast able to tolerate high alcohol conditions (up to 11.5% v/v).

High yes, but to finish out a 1.132 brew? Looks like for it to attenuate completely you will end up with something like a 1.033 FG. That's 13% alcohol, so that would be over the limit for this yeast. I imagine it's hard to even get 11.5% unless you treat the yeast really really nice.

In the end if you want to use S-04 I'd rehydrate two packages and pitch them both and see what it can do, give it plenty of time.

 

[Gordie]

Wow. That's a pretty impressive gravity. You may want to take another reading and bear in mind that SG readings are all relative to the sample's content of things other than water. If you've got hop particles or trub or whatnot in your sample the hydrometer is going to interpret the particulates as sugar and you're going to get an elevated reading.

In the meantime, you may want to look into Pasteur (champagne) yeast or some strains of wine yeast like Davis to make sure that the yeasties don't produce more alcohol than they can deal with. Low-alcohol yeast strains can kill themselves by producing levels of alcohol that are toxic to them and you end up with residual sugar and a buncha dead yeast (well-fed fat and happy dead yeast, but dead nonetheless).

If the wort has settled and you can get a clean sample that you think isn't effected by trub or whatnot and your reading is still that high, I'd go to the LHBS and get some wine yeast and see what happens in a week or so.

Gordie

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

But yes, honest injun, it read 1.320

Seriously could you have said something a little more ignorant? As a Native American I highly resent that comment and the ignorance that it originated from. You should really know what your saying and be a little more aware of what your saying.

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

No Im just playin Im 100% German baby just bustin yer balls.

 

[Bobby_M]

That S-04 is gonna crap out too soon. I'd rehydrate TWO packs of Nottingham or S-05 and get them in there.

 

[bgcoving]

In the end if you want to use S-04 I'd rehydrate two packages and pitch them both and see what it can do, give it plenty of time.

Okay, so I don't completely understand the whole attenuation thing and I'll be reading up on that over the next couple of days but I do understand alcohol toxicity in fermentation from making wine in my younger days...if I interpret your advice correctly I should have used, originally, two packets of yeast instead of the one. Since my LHBS doesn't open till Wednesday, in your opinion, am I going to be cool if I pitch a second packet in 2-3 days? If so, is the sensible thing to leave the batch in the primary an extra ??? days? Would there be any crossover issues if, when LHBS opens and they have restocked yeast, using the Wyeast Scotch Ale which I had originally intended to do?

LHBS tends to be a bit thin on diversity in materials...

 

[bgcoving]

Seriously could you have said something a little more ignorant? As a Native American I highly resent that comment and the ignorance that it originated from. You should really know what your saying and be a little more aware of what your saying.

See previous post where yours truly humbly ackowledges fundamental idiocy regarding erroneous visual placement of decimal point and accept humblest apologies for same. Regarding your Native American Heritage -- Ugh.

 

[bgcoving]

That S-04 is gonna crap out too soon. I'd rehydrate TWO packs of Nottingham or S-05 and get them in there.

Two? On top of the original one? Dayum....What sort of monster have I created?

 

[bgcoving]

No Im just playin Im 100% German baby just bustin yer balls.

Regarding your German American heritage, Seig...Oh never mind.

 

[Bobby_M]

Two? On top of the original one? Dayum....What sort of monster have I created?

Basically people have a hard enough time getting a 1.080 beer to finish where they want it. Big beers aren't easy.

You also mashed 155F which means a very unfermentable wort there. You also didn't use any simple sugar which would have helped dry it out a bit.

My estimate, if you don't pitch more highly attenuative yeast, is an FG somewhere around 1.045. A couple packs of Nottingham will cost you $3 and it's a little insurance.

 

[TexLaw]

Just dilute it down to something you can work with and work with it from there. Your mistake was in executing that recipe without figuring out what you would get.


TL

 

[bgcoving]

Just dilute it down to something you can work with and work with it from there. Your mistake was in executing that recipe without figuring out what you would get.


TL

Indeed it was...I'm still pretty new with this and have been fooling around with various recipes and enjoying the outcomes...So far I haven't made too many misteaks...:cross:

However, this morning we woke up with nothing less than Mt. Vesuvius erupting in the laundry room...I have cleaned up and skimmed off as much foam out of the primary as I felt I could, keeping sanitation up front...

I am afraid I have lost a considerable amount of product through a VIGOROUS chemical reaction!!!! My primary is cooking hard. I mean, HARD! Does anybody know how much final product loss can be expected through foam off and what if anything I can do to minimize it?

I ask myself...as you just posted...whether to dilute or not. I also have to wonder from a couple of other posts about my yeast crapping out on me, whether or not I need to give it a couple of more days and then decide whether or not to pitch another round of yeast...

For me, this may be an expensive learning experience, but it is worth it not only from making my own mistakes but from getting great input from this board.

Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated...

 

[tentacles]

You, er, skimmed the krausen off the fermenter? Or you had a blowoff and there's foam coming out of the fermenter? You shouldn't ever need to skim anything off the top of the fermenter - with the possible exception of right before you rack off to secondary/keg/tertiary.