Palmer's Mill Run Stout - Too light?

[aartdouglass]

I just bottled a batch of the Mill Run Stout described in John Palmer's "How to Brew" and it looks lighter than I expected, maybe a little less than 20 SRM. I followed the recipe for the extract version:

0.5 lbs Muntons Crystal 60L Malt (steeped 30 min @ 158-165*F)
0.5 lbs Briess Roasted Barley (steeped 30 min @ 158-165*F)
7 lbs Muntons Light DME
3.5 lbs added just prior to boil
3.5 lbs added at flameout
0.75 oz Nugget pellet hops (60 min)
1 oz Fuggles pellet hops (30 min)
BRY-97 ale yeast

I had a preboil volume of 4.5 gal, ended with 4 gal in the bucket. I added 1 gal and had an SG of 1.072. The target OG given in the book for a 5 gal batch is 1.054, so I added another 0.5 gal and ended up with an SG (OG) of 1.062, which I figured was ok.

Was the extra 0.5 gal enough to lighten my beer up so much, or is there something else going on here. I put the recipe into beersmith and got a predicted SRM of 19.6, so I'm guessing the recipe just results in a lighter-than-style beer. I was thinking the next time I brew this I could just steep more roasted barley to hit my target color. Any thoughts?

 

[agrazela]

Wonder how your gravity was so high, was the added water well-mixed into the wort when you got your reading?

Some black patent and chocolate malts (maybe 3-4 oz of each) would darken up that stout.

 

[aartdouglass]

Yeah, I was surprised at the high SG, too. I did mix for a few minutes with my paddle after each water addition. My hydrometer is calibrated at 60*F and I pitched at 72*F (I was too impatient to cool it to 66*F, which is my condo's room temperature and so my fermentation temperature), so maybe I need to adjust my measurements? It doesn't seem like the reading would be that far off because of the temperature...

I use a wine thief to take SG readings, so I don't think it was an error in reading the hydrometer.

I did vigorously pour my beer into the fermentation bucket to aerate it, which was before the water additions (my boil pot only holds about 4 gal or so safely). Maybe the aeration reduced the density of my wort, which would increase my SG reading. Does that make sense?

 

[fuzzy2133]

Does your hydrometer in straight water read 1.000?
Crap happens and some get miss calibrated at the factory. There is only 1 or 2 points for tempature correction of 72*F

Did you really get 7lbs of DME?
I know my LHBS sometimes goes over the target weight by 1/2-3/4 of a pound.

 

[aartdouglass]

My hydrometer reads 1.000 in pure water, so I don't think that's it. When adding the DME, I did pour straight from two 3lb bags from the LHBS without weighing them myself. It seems reasonable, then, that my high SG could be from "heavy" DME bags. I'll make sure to weigh them myself next time. Thanks!