Overshot OG - Let it ride?

[RyanMac]

Hello everyone - I've been reading this forum a while now and you guys really provide some great information. This is my first post. I have a question regarding a beer I brewed yesterday.

This is a 5gal batch. Somehow, I overshot my OG by quite a bit. I'm making an APA and ended up with a 1078 OG. OG is supposed to be 1052. I'm wondering if I made a mistake in weighing out my grains. My grain bill was supposed to be 12lbs of total grain consisting of 2-row, munich and crystal 40 which I thought that I got.

I pitched rehydrated US-05 and am worried that I didn't pitch enough yeast for the gravity. If I did, then I run into another problem, as all I have is WLP004 in a cold crashed starter for another beer that I was going to brew.

Should I just let it go, assuming that my rehydrated yeast will do the job?

Thanks for the noob help

 

[Nagorg]

Who knows why your OG was so much higher; likely the grain bill as you stated or possibly other things like much better efficiency than calculated, much faster boil off rate or some combination of these things.

I'm thinking you will probably be okay with the rehydrated US-05 pitch. Let it ride and don't get in a hurry for it to ferment. Check SG in about 3 weeks.

 

[andhou27]

Your final gravity will be higher than planned. Make sure you check the attenuation on US-05 (I think it's around 70? I'm not sure) and determine what you should expect from the FG.

 

[COEBRA]

I brewed a porter two weeks ago with a really high OG (1.080) and today it's down to 1.025. It's slowly chugging along. It will eventually finish but it just takes longer and chances are it will be as little sweet and definitely more ABV! Mine is somewhere in the range of 7.3% right now.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[bdknuc2]

If you have already pitched I would try to aim for the lower range of the fermentation temp range so you are not working the yeast as hard. High OG and a high fermentation temp can lead to off flavors.

 

[unionrdr]

If this was partial boil,you might not have got the wort & top off water mixed well enough. but I have gotten higher efficiency with my pb/pm biab beers before,so that's possible as well.

 

[RyanMac]

If you have already pitched I would try to aim for the lower range of the fermentation temp range so you are not working the yeast as hard. High OG and a high fermentation temp can lead to off flavors.

Thanks for the input guys. It's much appreciated.

It's sitting at 66F right now with no signs of activity yet. I just wonder how much yeast I wasted by pouring the slurry of yeast out of the measuring cup and through a funnel. I'm not sure if there's a calculation for that somewhere or if it even matters.

 

[unionrdr]

When I use a measuring cup covered with plastic wrap to rehydrate,I used the 2C Pyrex one with the pouring spot. Made it easier to direct the flow without a funnel to get more yeast in BB's & the like. I now use a 1,000mL flask for rehydrating & starters,but it pours about the same. I take my hydrometer test sample befor pitching. I take the reading & pour the sample into the flask & swirl it around to clean more yeast out of it. This all goes pretty quickly,so not much harm is done by nasties. If any at all,not enough to overcome the yeast thus far.

 

[Nagorg]

US-05 can be slow to start sometimes. Let it ride...

 

[RyanMac]

And....... We have liftoff.