O.G. Too high?

[Klickmania]

Fairly new here. This is my first batch of beer I've made outside of a few Mr. Beer kits. I decided to make Charlie Papazian's Palilalia IPA with a few of my own modifications. Here's what I used and the process I decided to go with. Hopefully you guys can see what I did wrong:

- Toasted 1/2 lb 2 row for 10 min @ 350*F
- Combined with 1 lb 60L crystal malt
- Put in 2 gallons of cold water and brought to 155*F-160*F and held for 30 minutes
- Had another 2 gallons of water @ 155*F on the stove for "sparge water".
- Took the grains out of the brew kettle and steeped in the hot water for 15 minutes.
- Added 2oz Northern Brewer, 6lb Muntons Amber malt (recipe called for 5.5lbs...oops) and 2 tsp gypsum per the recipe.
- Brought to a boil and held for 60 minutes. Added 3/4 oz. cascade hops during the last minute.
- Moved the wort to a big tub full of water ice and salt to cold crash, which worked surprisingly well.

Here comes the issue...this is naturally the time to take your original gravity reading, and mine says I'm at ~1.085. The recipe calls for an OG reading of 1.052-1.056. What's the deal here? Did I accidentally make an Imperial IPA???

Going to pitch my 1272 Wyeast American Ale II yeast regardless. I would just like some seasoned brewers advice on what I did wrong, and where to go from here. Thanks.

 

[JLem]

Not possible. Even with 100% efficiency of your steeping grains (which, with the base malt, was really a partial mash of sorts), you'd only be able to hit about 1.063.

Either your volumes are off or you didn't get a good mix after you added your top off water. With extract brews, you are pretty much going to hit your expected OG every time (or real close to it anyway).

EDIT: was this was a 5 gallon batch?

 

[Klickmania]

Yeah it's a 5 gallon batch yes. Am I supposed to take the OG reading after I top off the fermenter??? Because I took mine right after the boil. That's probably what the issue is.

 

[JLem]

Yeah it's a 5 gallon batch yes. Am I supposed to take the OG reading after I top off the fermenter??? Because I took mine right after the boil. That's probably what the issue is.

Yup, that's your issue. Before the top-off water, your wort is more concentrated. By adding the top-off water you dilute it, so your gravity reading will be lower. If you know the volume after your boil and after adding the top-off water, you can calculate your actual OG.

 

[Klickmania]

Ok, good. That definitely makes sense. I added just around 2.5 gallons of water to top off the fermenter with a 4 gallon boil. Sound right?

 

[dbreienrk1]

what was the total volume after you topped off?

 

[JLem]

Ok, good. That definitely makes sense. I added just around 2.5 gallons of water to top off the fermenter with a 4 gallon boil. Sound right?

Sure. So, if you ended with 5 gallons in the fermenter you had approximately 2.5 gallons post-boil, yes?

If so, 2.5 gallons of 1.085 wort diluted to 5 gallons would give you an OG of 1.043.

 

[Klickmania]

I had already pitched my yeast after I topped off the fermenter so I didn't get a true og reading.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Post boil volume was more around 3-3.5 gallons. I didn't really measure my top off water but I had a gallon of lukewarm water in the bottom of the fermenter. Then I had to add around another gallon-ish to get it up to 5 gallons. Just curious but what formula did you used to get that OG reading? Would love to be able to figure out all this stuff myself. I definitely appreciate all the help.

 

[JLem]

I had already pitched my yeast after I topped off the fermenter so I didn't get a true og reading.

Thanks for all the replies guys. Post boil volume was more around 3-3.5 gallons. I didn't really measure my top off water but I had a gallon of lukewarm water in the bottom of the fermenter. Then I had to add around another gallon-ish to get it up to 5 gallons. Just curious but what formula did you used to get that OG reading? Would love to be able to figure out all this stuff myself. I definitely appreciate all the help.

First, you need to know to use "gravity points" for the calculation. This is just the last digits of the gravity reading. So, a gravity of 1.075 has 75 gravity points.

To calculate the OG under different dilution levels, use the following equation (GP = gravity points; V = volume):

GP1 x V1 = GP2 x V2

So in your case, using your rough estimates from above, GP1 was 85 and V1 was 3 gallons. V2 was 5 gallons. Solving for GP2 gets you 51 gravity points...or 1.051.

This sort of calculation is useful any time you are trying to figure out how much water you need to hit a certain gravity or how much water you need to boil off if you want to concentrate the wort, or really any time you need to mess around with volumes and want to know what the effects will be on your gravity.

 

[Klickmania]

Thanks a ton man! This place friggin rocks. :rockin: Most online forums are chock full of grown men squabbling about some random BS, but this place is actually helpful.

p.s. Got some good looking fermentation going on as we speak too. Pretty much all my worries are put to bed now thanks to this place. Can't wait to bottle it!

 

[Qhrumphf]

First, you need to know to use "gravity points" for the calculation. This is just the last digits of the gravity reading. So, a gravity of 1.075 has 75 gravity points.

To calculate the OG under different dilution levels, use the following equation (GP = gravity points; V = volume):

GP1 x V1 = GP2 x V2

So in your case, using your rough estimates from above, GP1 was 85 and V1 was 3 gallons. V2 was 5 gallons. Solving for GP2 gets you 51 gravity points...or 1.051.

This sort of calculation is useful any time you are trying to figure out how much water you need to hit a certain gravity or how much water you need to boil off if you want to concentrate the wort, or really any time you need to mess around with volumes and want to know what the effects will be on your gravity.

The other reason I love this technique is for precisely this situation, for precisely the reason stated above- it's nearly impossible to mix wort and top off water to get an accurate OG reading, you're almost always going to either have to dense a sample or too thin a sample depending on which part of the wort you're drawing off. After the boil, the wort will be uniform, and by sampling the wort before top off, you can accurately calculate your true OG.