OG and FG way off, please help

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Crispy31

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I brewed my first stout 3 weeks ago and had an expected OG of 1.055 but what I measured was 1.044(with temp correction)... This was an extract recipe so it wasn't just poor efficiency. Today I checked and the FG is holding at 1.026 which is quite a bit higher than the expected 1.015 estimated by my recipe calculator. I dumped the wort @ 60F right onto the Nottingham yeast cake from the previous batch and it took off right away and was done within a few days. I allowed the temp to raise to 68F over the first week and kept it there. I've checked the calibration of my hydrometer and it seems fine. I did add 8oz of lactose but that doesn't seem right that it would be 10+ points higher. It just seems weird, especially when all my other batches have been within a couple points of the recipe calculator I use. Any ideas what is going on with this batch?


Here is the recipe:
5.5gal batch / 4.75gal boil

6lbs Dark LME
1.5lbs Wheat LME


steeping grains:
1lb Crystal 120L
12oz Roasted Barley
8oz Chocolate Malt

hops:
1oz Perle 60m
0.7oz Willamette 30m
.3oz Willamette 5m

8oz Lactose 15m
 
Here is the recipe:
5.5gal batch / 4.75gal boil

6lbs Dark LME
1.5lbs Wheat LME


steeping grains:
1lb Crystal 120L
12oz Roasted Barley
8oz Chocolate Malt

hops:
1oz Perle 60m
0.7oz Willamette 30m
.3oz Willamette 5m

8oz Lactose 15m

Punching in your extracts BrewPal shows that 1.046 should be your original gravity.

How did you calculate your OG?

I am not at my PC so I don't really know what you should expect for FG.
 
You have plenty of unfermentables there plus the lactose, so I'd expect that you would never get this below 1.020.
 
Well, too many cooks...

Using Brewer's Friend Recipe Builder Your O.G. should have been 1.056 (assuming 35% efficiency of steeping grains) and as it's an extract it's pretty much has to be that. So I assume your low OG was a unmixed wort reading error.

Your final gravity should be 1.018 so I imagine you have some form of stuck fermentation. Others should know how to deal with that.
 
Woozy,

How can Crystal or chocolate malt add any fermentables? Where would the amylase enzymes come from?
 
How did you calculate your OG?

I used Brewer's Friend. Calculated the efficiency at 25% for steeping grains (Crystal adds sugar).
Also doing the math 37ppg*7.5lbs/5.5gal should be 1.051 with the extract alone. I might not have stirred it well enough after topping off, that would explain the low OG. The FG still seems really high but it tastes fine. I just hope I don't get any bottle bombs.
 
Woozy,

How can Crystal or chocolate malt add any fermentables? Where would the amylase enzymes come from?

Why are you asking me? I never claimed that crystal or chocolate malt add any fermentables.

Here's a question for you: How can Eddy Munster be a werewolf if his parents were a vampire and a Frankenstein monster? Where'd the werewolf venom come from?

(As long as we are asking irrelevant bizarre questions out of left field to random strangers.)

Brewer's friend calculates o.g. (and f.g.) by esitimating the extraction of unfermentable sugars from steeping at 35% extraction and calculates og at 1.056. If you ignore the steeping grains altogether the o.g. comes out to 1.051. Nothing in there about amlyse enzimes.
 
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