OG a little high - first extract with grains recipe

[kopper]

I brewed a Belgian Wit kit from a LHBS yesterday. The OG ended up at 1.058 while the recipe stated it should be 1.051. I did steep in about 2 gallons instead of 0.5 gallons thinking I would get a better conversion. I did some searching and couldn't find a definitive answer but could that be the reason for the high OG and if so is it not a good idea to do that? How will this affect the flavor of the recipe? It just seems like max conversion is a good thing but I guess I could be trying to over teach myself.

Boil was the steeping water plus 2 gallon tapwater and topped off in fermenter with RO/DI. Steeped grains were 0.5lb wheat and 0.5lb LHBS concoction (not sure what it was exactly).

 

[CTR08]

5 gallon batch? You got five gallons in the fermentor? Did you top off the batch with water? Often on an extract brew you might get an inaccurate reading as the water and wort may not have been mixed perfectly, it's possible you drew a strong sample. You should be okay-- anyway it isn't too far from the kit OG even if you did happen to get a perfectly mixed sample. RDW

 

[kopper]

Yes, sorry, 5g batch. Mixed VERY well. I'm confident it was a well mixed sample. I'm not too worried. Mostly just curious if it was likely due to the increased steeping water volume.

 

[freisste]

If you didn't mash (and it doesn't sound like you did), then I don't believe extra water causes extra efficiency. In fact, when steeping, you don't really have efficiency. You are just rinsing sugars off of the grain.

Not sure how you didn't get the target gravity if you used all of ye extract and topped off to the correct level. Is your hydrometer calibrated? Did you take a measurement at the correct temp (or correct for the temp)?

 

[kopper]

The way I've been using my hydrometer is to test water at the same temp as the wort and then use the reading to correct. So, the plain water measured 1.002 and the final wort was 1.060 hence my 1.058 reading. Maybe that is my problem. Shouldn't that process work (in theory)?

 

[freisste]

The way I've been using my hydrometer is to test water at the same temp as the wort and then use the reading to correct. So, the plain water measured 1.002 and the final wort was 1.060 hence my 1.058 reading. Maybe that is my problem. Shouldn't that process work (in theory)?

I think that is a good procedure.

 

[h22lude]

What temp did you take the reading? That will also change your reading.

Did the recipe call for those grains? Those grains would add a few points to the OG. What was your recipe?

 

[kopper]

What temp did you take the reading? That will also change your reading.

Did the recipe call for those grains? Those grains would add a few points to the OG. What was your recipe?

Temp was 70F. Obviously my hydrometer is off a few hundredths (cheap one) but i use the procedure mentioned which I believe should take care of that. Grains were in the recipe. I'll retype the recipe if needed but other than the steeping water volume I did not change anything.

 

[h22lude]

Temp was 70F. Obviously my hydrometer is off a few hundredths (cheap one) but i use the procedure mentioned which I believe should take care of that. Grains were in the recipe. I'll retype the recipe if needed but other than the steeping water volume I did not change anything.

Next time you test your hydrometer, do it at 60*. That is the most common temp to use. If the water you used for your test was high (like 70 or so), that could be the reason for the 1.002 reading.

Retype the recipe? Did you type it already and I missed something? Knowing the exact ingredients will help figure out what happened.

 

[billl]

Just so you know, extract is a highly standardized product and will produce the exact amount of sugar it says it will. The only way to get off by more than a point or so is if you don't have the volumes right. 1 lb of steeping grains really isn't enough to move the gravity more than a point or 2 based on poor/great extraction of that sugar.

So..... you either didn't have a well combined sample or you didn't have the proper volume OR you didn't calibrate/measure accurately.

 

[h22lude]

Just so you know, extract is a highly standardized product and will produce the exact amount of sugar it says it will. The only way to get off by more than a point or so is if you don't have the volumes right. 1 lb of steeping grains really isn't enough to move the gravity more than a point or 2 based on poor/great extraction of that sugar.

So..... you either didn't have a well combined sample or you didn't have the proper volume OR you didn't calibrate/measure accurately.

That was my thinking exactly. I'm leaning more towards calibrate/measure accurately combined with the grains. If the measurement was off by 2 or 3 points and the grain brought the reading up 2 or 3 points higher than the recipe said, those two combined would have brought the OG reading 7 points higher than the expected. All in all, 7 points isn't much at all.

 

[kopper]

My hydrometer says to add a degree at 70F so shouldn't it have read 0.999 at 70F? Did you see my procedure for taking readings above?

Recipe:
0.5lb Flaked Wheat (steeped 30 min at 154F)
0.5lb Belgian Aromatic (steeped same)

4lb Alexander Pale Malt LME
4lb Alexander Wheat Malt LME
Saaz Pellets (60min)
Styrian Golding Pellets (20 min)
0.5oz bitter orange (60 min)
1tsp crushed coriander (60 min)
0.5oz bitter orange (20 min)
0.5tsp crushed coriander (20 min)
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Witbier

 

[billl]

Are you sure you had a 5 gallon recipe vs 5.5? That LME is advertised as about 35-36 points. 36 * 8 / 5 = 57. 35*8/5 = 56. You should expect 1.056-1.057 + a couple points from your steeping grains. You'll lose a little to absorption by hops, so 1.058 is right on in terms of what goes in to the fermenter.

If it was a 5.5 recipe, then 35*8/5.5 = 51, so 1.051 + steeping minus hops would be more in the stated range.

 

[kopper]

Are you sure you had a 5 gallon recipe vs 5.5?

You are on to something and I completely missed it. Recipe says to bring volume to 5.25g not 5g. Very nice catch! Doh!

So, how much trouble am I in?

 

[billl]

No trouble at all. You've just a made a slightly higher ABV beer. It will have a minor impact on the various flavor balances ie everything is slightly more concentrated. This is a pretty small variance though - under 5%.

 

[kopper]

Thanks all! Lesson learned - pay better attention to ALL recipe details!