Og to high?????

[adamber]

I just brewed a recipe I'm going call it a brown ale.

its

6lb amber DME
1lb crystal malt 40L
1lb corn sugar (wanted to boost ABV)
8oz Malto-Dextrine
2oz cascade boil
1oz fuggle aroma
safale US-05 at 70

turned out with a OG of 1.071

I used beer smith and it calculated it to only be 1.058

I guess my question is will the yeast be able to handle all the sugar.

If not what shall i do

 

[Fid]

Did you include the 1lb of Corn Sugar when you put your recipe in Beer Smith?
I just threw the fermentables you listed into hopville's recipe generator and it gave a range of 1.066 for the OG. Take the Corn Sugar out and it drops to 1.057.

Either way, yes the yeast should be able to handle it however it is worth noting that dextrose (corn sugar) additions while adding to the ABV of your finished beer will also thin the beer out and give the final product less body.

 

[adamber]

do you think the Malto-Dextrine will help with that at all?

How do you get a full flavored big beer?

 

[adamber]

yes everything was included in beer smith

 

[dbhokie]

There are a few things that could have happened.

You could have possibly had better efficiency than what BeerSmith calculated you at.

When you took your OG reading, was it at a point when the wort was well mixed? It could have been the "heavier" part of the wort. For instance after it sits in the kettle for a bit post-boil. Naturally the bottom will be a bit "higher" in gravity than the top.

If you know it was a good OG reading, simply enter in your OG into Beersmith and go to the Yeast and fermentation tab. Tell it what kind of yeast you are using, and it will tell you how many cells you need for a proper pitch. With your gravity, a completely proper pitch would probably be just about 20 percent above 1 dry US-05, so you will be fine without more yeast.

 

[Pie_Man]

Double check the gravity points of the extract you were using and other adjuncts.

There's not really better efficiency with extract brewing as the efficiency is determined by the person who mashed the grains and created the extract. As long as the extract gets dissolved in the wort, your wort gets the gravity points contained in the extract.

 

[homebrewdad]

Been there, done that. Was sure that my first two brews were just going to be rocket fuel. I was a newbie who didn't understand - and so are you.

Your OG reading was high because you were using top off water to reach your volume. If you added all of the extract, your OG *will* be what the recipe specifies unless you miss your volume. Unless you mix it insanely, your gravity will probably always be a little high or low, depending on where you pull the sample from. Worse, once you let the wort sit, it will "de-mix" to a point.

Gravity readings measure how much sugar is dissovled in a sample of water. Since you don't have uniform mixing, you don't get uniform readings.

Good news is that the fermentation process fully mixes everything for you.

The reason that all grain and partial mashes have varying OGs is due to the efficiency of converting sugars from grain. Since you are using extract, all of the sugars are there - you don't have to worry about OG as much.

Take a look at this Belgian Blonde I just brewed. This was AFTER sloshing it for fifteen solid minutes - I topped off with 1.25 gallons of water (which was spot on, according to BeerSmith).

Tell me that a sample deep in that would give the same SG as a sample from the top, or from the middle?

Exactly.

 

[Revvy]

The answers here- Attention new brewers, yes your original gravity reading is wrong. Don't panic.

 

[helibrewer]

If you want to get a good thorough mix in a carboy get a paddle mixer that wine makers use to rouse yeast. It attaches to a drill motor and mixes very well...or just use an accurate volume measurement with your extract and don't worry about it

 

[adamber]

thank you everyone very helpful

I did make sure it was mixed very well before checking
gravity home brew store guy gave me that tip.

I just entered the recipe into Hopsville calculator and it gave me 1.073
which is close enough.

anyways I'll take revvy's advise and relax