REALLY high OG

[mikeandjenn99]

Hi,
Been brewing for a little while now, and because of some difficulty with all-grain recipes a while back, my wife and I have been sticking to extract batches for the last year or so. We just brewed today, and have a super high original gravity reading. The recipe we are using calls for an OG of 1.085. Well, after following the recipe to the letter like always, our OG is 1.150! What the heck is this beer going to taste like? Will the yeast be able to process everything or will the alcohol get too high for them?
Thanks
Mike

 

[david_42]

If this is mainly extract, you can't miss the gravity by that much. I'd suspect less than complete stirring.

If the reading is real, even a strong ale yeast will die before finishing. It's headed for 13-14%. Plan on racking to a secondary in a couple weeks and adding a finishing yeast if the gravity is still above 1.030.

 

[Beer Snob]

Hmm.... what was the recipe?

 

[Mykel Obvious]

Ok, to get 1.150 you'd need around 16 lb DME in 5 gallons (21.5 lbs in 5 gallons if you are using LME)... either you used a 10 gallon recipe for a 5 gallon batch, or you got a bad reading... I'm voting bad reading myself...

let us know what the recipe was and what your procedure was etc.

 

[mikeandjenn99]

Well, I didn't put too much DME in, and my reading is correct. I've taken it a couple of times, with the average reading being 1.145 or so. The recipe is a 5 gallon batch, taken from the "Clone Brews" book. It is for Skull Splitter, which is a high gravity beer, but not as high as I am getting. Along withe the 17oz. of specialty grains, it calls for (and I added) 4# light DME, 1/2# wheat DME, 6.6# light malt syrup. That's it for anything other than hops. I had a 20 min. steep of the grains, added the DME and syrup, added water to 3 gallons total, brought it up to a boil, and added hops. Boiled for 45 minutes, added irish moss, and boiled another 15. Cooled the wort with an immersion chiller. Transferred to my fermenter and added water to 5 gallons total. I took an OG reading at this point. I pitched the yeast and just to double check my reading, took another OG, with the same result.
I'm not exactly new to brewing, so I really do know what to do. I've brewed quite a lot of good batches, but nothing was ever so high before, thus I come to you guys. Any ideas on this one?

 

[Mykel Obvious]

According to ProMash the extract you stated should give around 1.088 and even with 17 oz of grain and 100% efficiency the reading is only 1.096... There just isn't enough sugar available to get a reading of 1.145 - 1.150 in 5 gallons...

The only thing I can think of is your hydrometer is reading WAY off... I would check it in 60 F water and see if you get anywhere near 1.000... then you can add 1 lb of table sugar to 1 gallon of water and see if you get 1.046 at 60 F... if either one or both of those numbers are way off, then you have a problem with your hydrometer

Let us know what you figure out

mikey

 

[the_bird]

I had the opposite problem on my last problem, an OG reasing that was significantly lower than expected (although not to that magnitude). I'm voting for the wort not being fully mixed when you took your reading. Next time I'll gently stir before taking my reading.

 

[mikeandjenn99]

I did the test for the hydrometer, and it appears to be fine. Water reading was 1.000, and after dissolving 1 lb sugar in 1 gal of water, I got 1.044. So everything looks to be correct. The temp of the wort at the initial reading was higher than 60 deg. Would that have made the reading that much higher? It was around 75 at the time.

 

[Beer Snob]

According to ProMash you need 21.5 pounds of LME to get a gravity of 1.145. Thats a lot of LME......

 

[mikeandjenn99]

I know...but look at the recipe I put in earlier...I olny added a little over 11# of extract total! Weird! The yeast are loving it though...total blowoff

 

[Shambolic]

The temp of the wort at the initial reading was higher than 60 deg. Would that have made the reading that much higher? It was around 75 at the time.

Higher temperatures will give lower specific gravity readings, so the true reading is actually higher by a couple of points!

This is quite baffling. Perhaps the DME/LME were measured in kilograms rather than pounds? Grasping at straws, but otherwise I have no idea...

 

[mikeandjenn99]

Well, I took a reading upon transfer from primary to secondary. The gravity was showing at 1.034. I added some more yeast for the secondary just to get anything that was still in there, but they don't seem to be doing a whole lot. I've probably gotten what I'm going to get, so we'll see what turns out after a week in the secondary and a week in bottles. I'll keep you all informed!

 

[sirsloop]

Holy hell... thats gonna be ONE HELL of a beer!!! I'd officially call that beer "The panty dropper" cause its gonna be real sweet and knock the panties off any female that drinks it. HAHAHAH!!