Too high OG

[mafeeker]

So, i overshot my og by about 15 pts on my oktoberfest. i was going for 1.055 and i hit 1.068. Im just worried that this will make it too malty. I am fermenting it as a lager at 50 deg and then lagering for at least 4 weeks. What do you think, i have already made a yeast starter fermenting at 50 deg.

 

[mafeeker]

checkin too see if my signature changed

 

[smizak]

Wow. Is this all-grain? That's a huge efficiency jump. I'd check the accuracy of the hydrometer.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

The level of 'maltiness' will be determined by the temp you mash it at and what your grain bill is. As far as your question, you will obviously have more alcohol and you'll need to lager it a bit longer.

 

[spiny_norman]

This was discussed on a recent BrewStrong podcast at thebrewingnetwork.com. Apparently it's routinely done in commercial breweries so that they can produce more beer per batch.

So you have your OG of 1068. Get your FG (which will probably be too high for a lager in any case) and total quantity at packaging time. Calculate how much water you need to add to get a "virtual" OG of ~1055. Your FG will come down by the same percentage of course. When you calculate the abv, just reduce the number by whatever %age of water you added.

Better to be way above target than below; you get more beer

One thing they did say was to boil the water first to remove the oxygen. If it was me I'd be putting it through a 1 micron carbon filter and / or adding campden to de-chlorinate (esp. if it's a lager).

 

[Pivovar_Koucky]

Your Oktoberfest is too strong?

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

If I was you I'd drink it as is, assuming there are enough hops to balance the additional gravity. Maybe call it bocktoberfest?