Question about original gravity

[lurker18]

Last night I made up a Brew House kit with modifications, no problem there. Question is when it comes down to taking the OG, will all the hop particles floating around affect it? The recipe said to dump the whole brew kettle after cooling, hops and all. The OG came out at 1.092, kind of higher than I expected, but being new to this I wasn't really sure how high it would get.

 

[Yooper]

Last night I made up a Brew House kit with modifications, no problem there. Question is when it comes down to taking the OG, will all the hop particles floating around affect it? The recipe said to dump the whole brew kettle after cooling, hops and all. The OG came out at 1.092, kind of higher than I expected, but being new to this I wasn't really sure how high it would get.

No, the "floaties" won't affect the gravity. Sometimes the extract/honey/etc doesn't mix up completely and you get a "heavier" sample so that the reading isn't accurate. Could that be what happened here?

 

[lurker18]

Shouldn't have happened, not being mixed. I was expecting it to be fairly high, but not that high. If everything goes well, this looks like a 11% ABV, not killer, but higher than planned. I made up the India Pales of Ale recipe from the Brew House website, followed exactly except I could only get about a gallon and a half into the pot, not the two they were calling for.

Thanks for the reply the floaties don't affect the OG

 

[JLem]

what was the recipe? or do you have a link to the recipe? If it was a kit, I'm assuming it was an extract batch - if so, your gravity shouldn't be far from expected.

 

[lurker18]

Ingredients for 3 gallons:
1 Brew House Pale Ale kit
1 lb. Irek light caramel malt (or other caramel malt of less than 3°L)
2 oz. Cascade hops
2 oz. Saaz hops
4 oz. East Kent Goldings hops
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

Note that this is for a three gallon brew, so there was no extra water added to the concentrated wort. Also, there are only generic instructions that come with this kit, and it recommended that after adding water to the wort, the OG should be in the 1040-1050 range.

 

[davesrose]

If everything goes well, this looks like a 11% ABV, not killer, but higher than planned. I made up the India Pales of Ale recipe from the Brew House website, followed exactly except I could only get about a gallon and a half into the pot, not the two they were calling for.

No, it would be closer to 10% if you didn't have any unfermentables: but IPAs tend to have variants of crystal malts that keep the FG higher. Most IPAs get up to 7%: and then if they start getting into 9 or 10%, they're then called Double IPAs. Here's a ABV calc:

Rooftop Brew » ABV and Gravity Calculator

Just so that I'm clear....did you end up with 3 gallons of wort once you were done? I would have topped off with water if you did lose a lot of wort that you were boiling with hops (as their own calculations were factoring that much fermentables in 3 gallons of liquid). I found the website for Brew House, and they say their IPA kit should get a gravity of 1.051-1.053. To have that much discrepancy, I'm thinking it's either volume and/or the method of taking your readings. I assume you still mixed up the wort well before pitching the yeast (to aerate it)? Make sure you spin the hydrometer while it's going in your sample so that it gets rid of air bubbles and the meter doesn't settle on the wall of your cylinder.

 

[JLem]

Ingredients for 3 gallons:
1 Brew House Pale Ale kit
1 lb. Irek light caramel malt (or other caramel malt of less than 3°L)
2 oz. Cascade hops
2 oz. Saaz hops
4 oz. East Kent Goldings hops
Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

Note that this is for a three gallon brew, so there was no extra water added to the concentrated wort. Also, there are only generic instructions that come with this kit, and it recommended that after adding water to the wort, the OG should be in the 1040-1050 range.

Was the kit and directions intended for 3 gallons or 5? If it was for 5 and you did not top off to 5 then your OG seems about right - your wort, without the extra 2 gallons, is going to be 67% more concentrated, so your OG would be considerably higher.

 

[lurker18]

Didn't measure the wort, but it would have ended up very close to the three gallons. The kit comes with 15 litres (3.3 gal). As for the 1050 gravity, I am assuming this is to brew out the kit as designed, adding two gallons to the three gallons of concentrated wort. The kits contain 15 litres of wort brewed to an original gravity between 1.070 and 1.080, depending on the style. On top of this I steeped 1lb of carafoam. This recipe is a modification from their website, Imperial India Pales of Ale, The brew house.

 

[davesrose]

On top of this I steeped 1lb of carafoam. This recipe is a modification from their website, Imperial India Pales of Ale, The brew house.

OK...I think that's it. The title of it even says imperial IPA. The regular instructions for the regular IPA might have you add more water to dilute 1.09+ to yield 1.051 of 5 gallons of wort. To get an imperial IPA, it looks like they're just having you keep a smaller volume and add more hops to the original wort that they prepared (which was geared for a less hopped, lower gravity IPA). The original IPA is supposed to be around 50IBU and 5.3 ABV: while this is trying to be an immitation of the Rogue Imperial IPA, which is 75IBU and 9.2 ABV. When you take your final gravity reading, I'm assuming the ABV you wind up with will be 9.2. The smaller volume is adding the extra fermentables: an extra pound of crystal malt isn't going to add that much gravity: it's mainly used for balancing out the extra hops and ABV.

 

[lurker18]

Thanks for that, I guess I should have put up the whole recipe right at the start. The hydrometer that I have has a chart with it that converst OG to ABV so that is where I got the 11% from. Yes it is an Imperial IPA, taking the concentrated wort only to the fermentor.

I really like these wort kits, very simple to put together, but being a newbie to this, all the calculations and what to expect from what I have gets me thrown off every once in a while. Good thing there are helpful people here that you can throw things at who will help pull you out of the hole you are digging yourself into.

BTW, it is bubbling away quite vigourously right now, and I will be transfering and adding dry hops later in the week.

 

[davesrose]

Thanks for that, I guess I should have put up the whole recipe right at the start. The hydrometer that I have has a chart with it that converst OG to ABV so that is where I got the 11% from.

Yeah, those scales are for wine....with beer, which keeps a lot of unfermentables in solution, those ABV scales on your hydrometer aren't quite right. Just record your OG and FG and then use a calculator for getting your ABV. I'm thinking you'll hit 9.2, but am pretty positive it will be below 10%.

Higher gravity beers do ferment like crazy! I just finished fermenting out a 10.5 ABV stout that had quite a bit of blow off (even with fermentation temps of 65 degrees). If you wind up liking this and brewing it a lot, make sure you're using a blow off tube

 

[lurker18]

This was pitched last Friday night, got really going by Saturday morning, and it is now Thursday and it still has a bubble in the airlock every 5 to 10 seconds. I was hoping to transfer to a secondary and dry hop this weekend, but it looks like that may have to be delayed.

What is the opinion on dry hopping into a fermenting wort? I have read that this is not recommended, but this will be my first dry hop attempt and would like other opinions from those who know.