Specific gravity question

[mich067]

So this is my first time brewing and Im making an irish stout from extract.
After sparging (topped up to 5 gal) I took a specific gravity reading at room temp and got 1.15.
This seems way too high to me.
I noticed there was some grain and hops still in the wort after putting it in the fermenter (will have to strain better next time.)
Does this OG seem right? I expected more around 1.07ish.
Thoughts?

 

[photobru]

That is very high, especially considering your expected OG. What was your recipe?

 

[Kent88]

Make sure you are using a lot of healthy yeast. I've heard some people add more yeast on day 2 or 3 with that high of gravity. What kind of yeast did you use and did you do anything to prepare it? Also with gravity that high you should be able to get away with rocking the carboy (or, with a sanitized spoon or other appropriate utinsil, stirring the bucket) to rouse the yeast and get a little oxygen in there for the first couple days, which you wouldn't normally do for fear of oxidation. Careful for the krausen.

 

[Chadwick]

Let me get this straight. You expected the OG to be around 1.070 and instead you got an OG of 1.150?

That does not jive. I'm going to ask for details on your ingredients and recipe you used. Also your measuring equipment. It's one thing to expect an OG of 1.070 and get 1.080, that would be technically possible. But to get a 1.150 OG when you expected 1.070 is beyond crazy.

Somewhere, somehow, there is an error in measurement, equipment, maybe a combination of both. Post the recipe, provide as much detail as possible and we'll figure this puzzle out.

 

[bu_gee]

Yeah. Second for it being way out of whack. That would be more than twice as much extract; almost as if the recipe called for 6lbs of extract and you used 6kg.

 

[RM-MN]

So this is my first time brewing and Im making an irish stout from extract.
After sparging (topped up to 5 gal) I took a specific gravity reading at room temp and got 1.15.
This seems way too high to me.
I noticed there was some grain and hops still in the wort after putting it in the fermenter (will have to strain better next time.)
Does this OG seem right? I expected more around 1.07ish.
Thoughts?

When you brew with extract there is a specific amount of sugars in the extract so if you use the correct amount of extract and the correct amount of water, your OG has to be nearly exactly where it is predicted.

However, when you top off the fermenter with water, the concentrated wort doesn't like to mix and if you take a sample near the top, you get a really low OG reading because your sample is mostly water. If you happen to get your sample where there is more concentrated wort, your OG will read really high.

One way to see this is to put a tablespoon of honey in a glass and fill it with water. Use a toothpick to stir. Notice that the honey stays on the bottom and doesn't like to mix. That honey emulates your concentrated wort. If you could take a sample from near the bottom of the glass the hydrometer would float very high and you would think your water and honey had a very high OG but it really wouldn't.