OG issue with late LME addition

[BrewPiper]

So I emailed the guys over at Avery, and got an exact recipe for their White Rascal Witbier.

OG: 1.050
AE: 1.010

Grist:
Pale 2-Row – 50%
Pale Wheat – 50%

Hops:
60min – Sterling (6.0% AA) – 0.10oz
30min – Sterling (6.0% AA) – 0.18oz
0min – Sterling (6.0% AA) – 0.45 oz

Spices (added at end of boil):
Coriander – 0.31 oz
Bitter Orange Peel – 0.06oz
Sweet Orange Peel – 0.25 oz

Yeast – Hoegardden
Ferm Temp – 66F for 75% of fermentation then no cooling


I wanted to brew it, but didn't have a whole lot of time in the upcoming weeks, so I decided to do an extract brew. I followed this exact recipe, but decided to do a late boil extract addition to lighten the beer. So, I boiled the light extract, and added the wheat with 15min left for sanitation. (btw, I used 3.35 lbs of each extract to hit the 1.050 OG)

However, when I measured my OG, my hydrometer (which is accurate to the best of my knowledge) registered 1.076, which is to my knowledge impossible with a 5 gallon boil and that amount of malt. This is the first time I've done a late extract addition. Could this discrepancy have anything to do with that? Also, my yeast went crazy for the first 24 hours and then stopped dead, leaving me with a 1.040 gravity and no more Co2 production, which leads me to believe the ferm is stuck. Any suggestions, ideas, or comments would be appreciated.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,when I brewed my dark ale for my Whiskely Ale recipe,it too went from OG 1.050 down to FG 1.010. That's nearly 5.9%ABV all said & done (by cooper's ABV formula). Maybe that yeast was getting overwhelmed?
That,or you under pitched. Did you get any temp spikes?
Trying to think of all the possibilities.

 

[Calder]

Extract is just sugar. You can't get any more gravity points out of it than pure sugar.

6.7 lbs of pure sugar in 5 gallons = 1.061. If you only added 6.7 lbs of fermentables, the maximum the gravity could be is 1.061.

6.7 lbs of Dried Malt Extract would give you a 1.060 OG.

6.7 lbs of Liquid Malt extract would give you a 1.048 OG

Your reading of 1.076 is just wrong. Have you checked your hydrometer? Use plain water and it should read close to 1.000.

Stuck at 1.040. I would add a pack of decent dry yeast and aerate (aerating is debatable, but I think you are still high enough to be OK). Did you aerate to begin with; that can stall yeast.

 

[sfrisby]

Did you top off with water? If so it likely wasnt mixed completely and your gravity sample was wort heavy.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Did you top off with water? If so it likely wasnt mixed completely and your gravity sample was wort heavy.

Bet that's what happened. This same question gets asked a ton around here. You probably got a concentrated sample.

 

[logan3825]

btw, I used 3.35 lbs of each extract to hit the 1.050 OG

I know this wasn't your question but you probably should have just used wheat extract or 2/3 wheat and 1/3 light. Wheat extract is already 35-40% barley. Using an equal amount of each you probably have something like 33% wheat.

 

[Revvy]

We get this question every day

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

More than likely your true OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.