OG Always high on my brews

[Whipskipper]

Hello- I am curious why I am consistently getting higher than planned OGs on my brews. I am brewing all grain with a Rubbermaid orange cooler. Yesterday I brewed a cream ale it called for 1.040 I ended up with 1.058. I have calibrated my hydrometer and thermometer. Am I just brewing super efficient? My brews always hit FG #s but I am getting more ABV than plan for. I always preform 2 rounds of batch sparges and cosistantly end up with the proper amount of wort into my fermenter. I am not sure what is going on or even if I should be concerned my beer allways tastes great.

Thanks

 

[TheZymurgist]

What are you using to calculate your projected OG? If you're going straight from a recipe, you need to adjust the recipe based on your brewhouse efficiency. I would say there's nothing to be concerned about if everything tastes fine, but if you're looking to hit the numbers strictly, you'll have to adjust the recipes.

 

[Demus]

This is a much easier fix than too low OG. I actually brew this way on purpose because it allows me to hit OG exactly every time.

First, calculate how much fermentables you need in terms of "gravity points". This pretty simple, for example 5 gallons of 1.050 wort is 250 points. Just multiply the gallons by the gravity minus the one and decimal point. (5gal x 50).

Next, factor in your boil off. Say you're doing a :60 boil and usually get one gallon of boil off. Here's where the points technique comes in handy. What gravity do you need 6 gallons to be 1.050 at 5 gallons? Still 250 points! 250 divided by 6 is 41.66, or 1.042.

Finally, just figure your points as you go, every few gallons and stop your sparge when have what you need. Top up with water if necessary or better yet, make a bigger batch! You may waste a little grain with this "overshoot" method, but it yields consistent results. A refractometer is very helpful so you can take quick readings on the fly...

 

[billl]

I'm going with "User Error" as the problem here.

The numbers just don't add up. Even if your original recipe was built on 70% efficiency, your max sugar points would be 40/0.7=57. It is physically impossible to get higher than that. So, you either have something off in your software or aren't measuring properly.

What was the recipe? What was your final volume?

 

[Whipskipper]

My Latest recipe on tuesday was cream of three crops ale. 6lb 2row, 2.5lb flaked corn, 1 lb flaked rice. Not much of a grain bill The recipe called for OG 1.040. I ended up with 5 gal into the fermenter at 1.058. I use a mash thicknes of 1.3. The only thing that could have made this one be off so much is that I took a 10 gal recipe and just cut the grain bill in half to come up with a 5.5 gal recipe. I use Sparge Pal Iphone app for my calculations. this recipe I mashed with 3.1 gal for 90 minutes, then batch sparged with 6 gal split into two sparges.

 

[billl]

Yep - user error. That recipe was for 11.5 gallons and is

12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
1.00 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM)

So, you added an extra 25% corn and 50% rice and cut down the volume by 43% instead of half.

Anyway, looks like your efficiency was in the low 80's. Next time, plug that in to whatever you program is and scale back any fermentables to get to your intended OG.