NOOB question 1st time brew-High ABV beer

[mr2step]

Hello everyone. I've been trolling this forum for awhile now gaining info on the in's/out's of beer making 101 and i've learned a lot. I however, after searching various other forums and google have a question that is stumping me. I just today bottled my very first batch of beer. It was made from a recipe for an American Amber Ale using Crystal 20L barley among other things. My opening/starting gravity was 1.0826. At bottling it was down to 1.012 after 14 days of fermentation at 66 degrees F. My final ABV is 9.4% which seems crazy high for this type of beer. Is this normal? I followed the recipe meticulously to the drop. Here is the recipe so you can see yourself.
5 1/2 pounds dry light malt extract
• 1/2 pound Crystal 20L malt, crushed
• 1/2 pound American 6-row malt, crushed
• 1/2 ounce Centennial hops—60 minutes
• 1 ounce Cascade hops—15 minutes
• 1 ounce Centennial hops—15 minutes
• 1 ounce Cascade hops at flame out
• 1/2 ounce Centennial hops at flame out
• 6 gallons of tap water, split. If possible, place 3 gallons in the refrigerator to cool in a sanitized container.
• 11.5 gram package Safale US-05

What are your thoughts on this? Should I be concerned? I mean it's beer afterall and a higher ABV just means a good time I suppose but I was not expecting this is all. Thanks for your opinions and interjections everyone. Cheers

 

[ram5ey]

What are you worried about? Did you add top up water? Did you add that water after you measured the gravity? The only thing that seems off to me is the OG from that recipe....the key when you have fermented one of your first batches is not time, but realizing when your gravity has stopped (three straight days at same gravity).

 

[Kingbogart]

Entering your recipe into my software, I can't see how you would get anywhere near 1.082. Unless this is a 3 gallon batch, I'm seeing more in the area of 1.043. How much wort do you have in the fermenter?

If you are getting consistent readings on your hydrometer across 2-3 days, you should be fine to bottle. At the very worst you have higher alcohol beer, as long as it's done. If you did have a weird reading for your OG, it just means that you don't really know the ABV, but again not really an issue.

 

[blizzard]

Entering your recipe into my software, I can't see how you would get anywhere near 1.082. Unless this is a 3 gallon batch, I'm seeing more in the area of 1.043. How much wort do you have in the fermenter?

This. Explain a little how you measured the OG.

 

[ram5ey]

Yeah I'm thinking he added top up water after measuring OG

 

[narl79]

Im pretty sure the og is off because of the top off like said above. I did this once and thought I hit 11% and was bummed when I realized what I did. As soon as that happened I went to full boils.

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[DeBAD]

At only 7 lbs of fermentables for a 5 gal batch there's no way the OG would be that high. I'd guess 1.05 tops and likely less. You must have either missed your mark on total combined water at pitch or you accidentally measure OG before you mixed in your add in water.

Assuming its the latter you will likely end up with a good first batch. Ferm temp was right on and sounds like you pitched the right amount of the right yeast.

Brew on bro!

 

[duboman]

Based on the fermentable a your OG should be like 1.052, your of reading is way off due to a bad mix of top off water and wort or you didn't correct for temp or your hydrometer is not at all calibrated. That recipe won't produce a higher OG even with 100% efficiency

 

[BigFloyd]

You're OG reading wasn't accurate, most likely because the wort and top off water wasn't mixed enough to make it 100'% homogeneous. That's not unusual when doing partial boil batches and nothing to worry about.

Just operate under the assumption that it's 1.052 and go from there.

 

[mr2step]

Wow. So much info. If I can recall, I think I took OG AFTER adding my water to the wort after cool down. I knew I had to adjust the OG measurement according to temp so made that calculation beforehand. I did not mix it up though with a stirrer which might be a big reason. I did not think about that. I was trying to keep things as clean as possible.It's really odd. Ok, so FUTURE reference then, you all say I need to take OG reading after adding h20 right before adding yeast? The ONLY thing I can think besides lack of stirring is that when I added the Dry malt Extract, I eye-balled it. I had no way of measuring the EXACT amount per recipe due to lack of equipment. Perhaps I added a tad too much and ended up with too much sugar to begin with?? Is this possible?

 

[duboman]

For partial boil recipes meaning you add top off water, yes, using a Sabines spoon it is important to get a really good mix of water and wort. This stirring also helps aerate the wort of the yeast as yeast need o2 for the growth phase.

As for measuring, get a scale! Precise measurements are needed throughout the brewing process for ingredients so the beer turns out as expected also be sure that all your measuring devices from thermometer and hydrometer are properly calibrated


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