OG high by a lot

[chaps]

I brewed a GF Brown Ale yesterday but ended up with an original gravity of 1.084 instead of the expected (according to Brewers Friend) 1.055 Link below if you want to check out the recipe. Basically everything went smoothly and according to plan. I had never done a 'specialty' grain recipe before and milled the grains per what i read on 'the internet'. Otherwise i can't think of why the OG would be 40% higher.

As a follow up question should i do anything about it? Or just roll with it and hope the yeast are up for a challenge?

Appreciate any thoughts.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/602127/american-brown-ale-gf-

 

[shoengine]

First things first, you'll need to verify your numbers. Steeping grains are steeped, not mashed, so they shouldn't add much to the total fermentables. That means that something is off. Either your measurements (did you top off from 3 gal to 5 gal?, how did you obtain your gravity reading? At what temp?), your ingredients (did you only use 7lbs of fermentables?), or some sort of cosmic anomaly (sunspots?).

 

[RM-MN]

Extract batches with steeping grains where you boil 3 gallons and then top off to 5 gallons often get you a wrong OG as it is very difficult to get proper mixing of the concentrated wort with the top off water. Most often the OG will be way low but you happened to get a sample from the more concentrated wort. Your OG is really very close to 1.055.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Not to start an argument in the thread, but I don't completely agree with RM-MN. I did 3 extract batches prior to switching to all grain and I hit the expected OG on the nose with 2 of them and was 1 point shy on the 3rd. I had mixed mine thoroughly though and I don't know how well you mixed yours after topping off, which is why I said I don't completely agree.

Alright, did some research for you. I plugged your recipe into brewers friend as you have it stated, then I changed it as to assume you forgot to top off to 5 gallons. Bingo! I'm assuming you didn't top off because the OG of that recipe at 3 gallons comes out at 1.086. Let us know if that's not the case and if you know you topped off.

 

[shoengine]

Extract batches with steeping grains where you boil 3 gallons and then top off to 5 gallons often get you a wrong OG as it is very difficult to get proper mixing of the concentrated wort with the top off water. Most often the OG will be way low but you happened to get a sample from the more concentrated wort. Your OG is really very close to 1.055.

I performed around half a dozen extract batches and never pulled 30 points of fermentables out of steeped grains.

 

[chaps]

Extract batches with steeping grains where you boil 3 gallons and then top off to 5 gallons often get you a wrong OG as it is very difficult to get proper mixing of the concentrated wort with the top off water. Most often the OG will be way low but you happened to get a sample from the more concentrated wort. Your OG is really very close to 1.055.

Okay that makes sense. I did top it off and ended up with about 4.9 gallons so pretty close to the 5 gallon goal. But i did not mix it and i pulled the sample using the spigot at the bottom of my speidel fermenter. So that seems likely that i got a sample of the denser actual wort.

Thank you guys for the replies and info.

 

[jlanius]

I had the exact same thong happen to me. I just finished a belgian witbier with a target OG 0f 1.056, however OG camein around 1.085. Called my LHBS and he said I must have a gotten a better efficiency. I asked if the batch was ruined, he said no, just water it down to target OG. FG came in right on as expected. Came out of carbing two days ago and tastes just fine. A little hoppier than I was hoping for but still delicious.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I too add water to drop the OG to my preferred OG. It works every time.

 

[jlanius]

This was only my 2nd FG brew, and i don't have proper fly sparging equipment. So instead of sparging for 30 minutes per the recipe, i sparged until my runoff had a gravity of 1, indicating I had extracted all the sugars available. This is why I think my gravity was so high, but watering it down gradually allowed me to achieve the target 1.056 OG exactly. Eventually I will build a fly sparging rig out of some pvc pipe, but I like my method of sparging till the 1.000 gravity, and will continue to do that in the future.

 

[homebrewer_99]

This was only my 2nd FG brew, and i don't have proper fly sparging equipment. So instead of sparging for 30 minutes per the recipe, i sparged until my runoff had a gravity of 1, indicating I had extracted all the sugars available. This is why I think my gravity was so high, but watering it down gradually allowed me to achieve the target 1.056 OG exactly. Eventually I will build a fly sparging rig out of some pvc pipe, but I like my method of sparging till the 1.000 gravity, and will continue to do that in the future.

If you go below 1.008 you're extracting tannins.

I tried Fly Sparging and EVERY time I got tannins. I won't do it again. Batch Sparging is all I do.

 

[jlanius]

Didn't know that about the tannins