Original Gravity too high

[Razorback_Jack]

Before I begin I should say, this beer has already been in fermenting bucket for 12 hours.

Last night I did my first all-grain brew. Following the Mash and Boil instructions and calculations, my sparge only took volume up to 3.5-4 gallons. Very low, so I added another 1.5 gallon of sparge water. Ended up with 5 gallons and I knew I’d lose some but didn’t want to add too much more top-off.

After my boil I ended up with 4 gallons, and the OG was 1.065. Target OG was 1.052-1.055. So should I have added more sparge water, or just added more without sparging, before the boil to take up to 6-6.5 gallons? I thought at the time it would be okay, but now I’m wondering. It’s been in the fermenter 12 hours, so too late to fix anything at this point. Am I going to have over-malty beer? Or did I do something good and don’t even know it?

Jackson

 

[brewdude88]

Depends on the recipe. If there is enough bitterness, it could balance out fine. If your volumes were low, you could be lucky in the fact that your bittering additions added more ibu's than intended.

I personally sparge until I reach my target volume. This allows my bittering addition calculations to be accurate and allows me to get accurate efficiency calculations for consistency down the road.

Keep in mind, the general consensus is sparge runnings shouldn't dip below 1.010. I have gone lower without I'll effect.

 

[RM-MN]

Keep in mind, the general consensus is sparge runnings shouldn't dip below 1.010. I have gone lower without I'll effect.

Yes you should have sparged more. The above note is because as a fly sparge continues and the runnings go below 1.010 the pH rises which can lead to tannin extraction. That extraction depends on the pH going above 6.0 with the temperature over 170. Sparging with cool water avoids the extraction of the tannins but collects the sugars just as well as hot water does.

Since your beer boiled down to 4 gallons, it was just water that you boiled off so you could have just topped off the fermenter before you added the yeast to get back to the 5.5 gallon you should have had. Now that fermentation has started I would just leave it alone now as adding the water would likely add oxygen which could lead to oxidized beer.

 

[hottpeper13]

If you like the taste from the hydrometer sample then just package it . If you think it's too strong or malty you could add a gallon of water at packaging time. I would think that if you put the amount of sugar that gets you to the CO2 volumes you need into that gallon and boiled it then chilled and into either bottling bucket or keg, the refermentation would scavenge any O2 and you'ed have the beer you intended. The big guys do this all the time but use deoxygenated water. We can do that too if we use a pressure cooker at 250* and 15 psi.

 

[Dland]

I'd just let it be also. There is nothing wrong with high ABV beer, and malt flavor is not necessarily bad. {;

By the way, I seldom get down to 1.010 on my last runnings. My understanding is that's a target number for commercial brewers, maximizing usage of materials. If you ever taste runnings that low, you will realize there is not a lot of flavor there(nor is there at 1.015) Just saying, that is not a target for most home brewers to obsess over.