Question with Russian Imperial stout

[kevinb]

I brewed an Extract Russian Imperial stout today. My OG should have been 1.109 but it ended up at only 1.096. Any input on how this might turn out? I am concerned that it is going to be missing a lot of flavor since the OG is so low.

 

[djbradle]

There's no problem with increasing the OG by adding a wort addition, dme, and or sugar at this point to get to your target OG if it's a very recent pitch. Depends on your original recipe. I'd go with a dme/water addition to get to the target. Your attenuation and final gravity will depend on your yeast strain and many other factors. A mere .5 lb of light dme will put you around 1.107.

Flavor may not be missing and the moutheel may be just fine with your 1.096 start but the abv will be lower than expected. Attenuation of 85% will put you at 1.014 which is too low for an imperial stout. It will lack mouth feel. If your at 70% attentuation you'll be around 8.8% and a 1.029 FG which is not bad for a ris (OG that is, not abv).

 

[LLBeanJ]

I wouldn't be too worried about it. 1.096 is a pretty hearty brew.

Back to your question: did you add any top-off water? If so, you gravity sample may not have been very well mixed. As long as the volume in the fermenter is correct, an extract batch should come in at the recipe's OG.

 

[kevinb]

The recipe had 3.5# of grains. Since they were only steeped, I have a very low efficiency. I wonder if that if why I missed the OG?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Unless there was also base malt included in the recipe to facilitate a mash, steeping of the specialty grains would have been the expected process and the recipe's OG calculated accordingly.

What are you fermenting in? How sure are you of your final volume in the fermenter? If you were over by .75 gallons (assuming a 5.5g recipe), that would account for all of the missing gravity points.

 

[kh54s10]

If the recipe called for top up water it is most likely an uneven mix. This is quite common when doing a top up.

For most kits, they have been tweaked by the manufacturer and the gravity is accurate.

If you used all the ingredients and got the proper volume you can be assured that the real gravity of your brew was in fact 1.109.

Steeping grains add mostly color and flavor and very little in the way of gravity points. The extract is what add that.

Efficiency doesn't really play much of a factor in extract brewing. That is more of a factor with partial mash and all grain brewing.

 

[adiochiro3]

...Back to your question: did you add any top-off water? If so, you gravity sample may not have been very well mixed. As long as the volume in the fermenter is correct, an extract batch should come in at the recipe's OG...

If the recipe called for top up water it is most likely an uneven mix. This is quite common when doing a top up.

For most kits, they have been tweaked by the manufacturer and the gravity is accurate.

If you used all the ingredients and got the proper volume you can be assured that the real gravity of your brew was in fact 1.109.

Steeping grains add mostly color and flavor and very little in the way of gravity points. The extract is what add that.

Efficiency doesn't really play much of a factor in extract brewing. That is more of a factor with partial mash and all grain brewing.

+1 & 2 -- you didn't get a good mix. Unless your volume is too large, you're OG is on target.

 

[kevinb]

I think you guys were correct. Fermentation hadn't started yet so I added 8 oz of Dark DME (dissolved in boiled water) and then shock the crap out of the carboy. I am now at 1.114. Thanks for the help