Unusually High OG?

[Lucky137]

Good morning All,

Been awhile since I've been on the forums. I have recently gotten back into homebrewing, and have had some interesting results.

Yesterday, I brewed an 5 gal. extract wheat beer with the following bill:

6 lb Wheat DME
1 lb Malted Wheat (Steeped at 160 F)
.5 lb Crystal 10L (Steeped at 160 F)
.5 lb Flaked Oats (Steeped at 160 F)

Everything went great, until I took my pre-pitching gravity reading and got a 1.067! I was astonished. From the DME I was expecting about 1.048, and I was NOT expecting any sort of conversion from my specialty grains (is that even possible at 160 F?), and so have no idea where that extra 19 gravity points came from.

Everything was well mixed and at room temp when I took the reading, so I'm not sure what else it could be. Any thoughts?

 

[bennie1986]

How long did you steep the grains? Maybe your thermometer is off and you actually did a little mashing lol!

 

[bennie1986]

Or maybe your scale is off and you used more Dme than you thought.

 

[Lucky137]

How long did you steep the grains? Maybe your thermometer is off and you actually did a little mashing lol!

30 min @ 160 F (about 2 gallons), then sparged with 175 F water (about 1 gallon). is that really a big enough grain bill for 19 points worth of gravity??

And I doubt my thermo is off... I used it to time my boil right after and it was at exactly 212 F when the wort started to bubble.

 

[Lucky137]

Or maybe your scale is off and you used more Dme than you thought.

They were two 3 lb bags direct from NB. Maybe THEIR scales are off??

 

[skeezerpleezer]

What was your volume? If less than 5g that would contribute.

 

[Lucky137]

What was your volume? If less than 5g that would contribute.

Came out to 4.75 gallons, but that last .25 was caught up in the hop sludge, so I don't think it's a contributing factor.

 

[Lucky137]

So NB says that the Wheat DME gives 43 points per gallon, so:

(43 pts * 6 lbs)/5 gallons = 51.6, or ~ 1.052. So we're looking at 15 extra points.

Is this correct? Does this help at all?

 

[mdgagne]

Did you do a partial boil? If so - maybe your top up water and wort weren't mixed thoroughly when you took your gravity reading.

 

[Lucky137]

Did you do a partial boil? If so - maybe your top up water and wort weren't mixed thoroughly when you took your gravity reading.

Nope, full boil. Added 3 lb for 60 minutes and 3 lb with 15 minutes left, to reduce darkening, but I'm not sure this would have any affect...

I'm beginning to think it may be a hydrometer issue? What's the best way to test this?

 

[Yooper]

Nope, full boil. Added 3 lb for 60 minutes and 3 lb with 15 minutes left, to reduce darkening, but I'm not sure this would have any affect...

I'm beginning to think it may be a hydrometer issue? What's the best way to test this?

Float your hydrometer is 60 degree water (distilled if possible). It should read 1.000. If not, your hydrometer is off.

Mashing a pound of wheat will give you some fermentables, but more like .009 points. With 6 pounds of DME, and a pound of wheat, and a little specialty grains, if you ended with 5 gallons the OG has to be +/- 1.066ish so you're right in there.

 

[Lucky137]

Float your hydrometer is 60 degree water (distilled if possible). It should read 1.000. If not, your hydrometer is off.

Mashing a pound of wheat will give you some fermentables, but more like .009 points. With 6 pounds of DME, and a pound of wheat, and a little specialty grains, if you ended with 5 gallons the OG has to be +/- 1.066ish so you're right in there.

Really? So not an unusually high OG? My calculations, at 43 points per gallong for the DME, are giving me an estimated OG of 1.052... What am I doing wrong?


Thanks for your reply. I'll be sure to test out my hydrometer ASAP.

 

[Yooper]

Really? So not an unusually high OG? My calculations, at 43 points per gallong for the DME, are giving me an estimated OG of 1.052... What am I doing wrong?


Thanks for your reply. I'll be sure to test out my hydrometer ASAP.

DME generally has 44 ppg or so, while the oats should give you a little (about 3 pts in 5 gallons) and the wheat will give you a little (about 5 pts), and of course the caramel malt gives you some as well (about 3 pts).

 

[Lucky137]

DME generally has 44 ppg or so, while the oats should give you a little (about 3 pts in 5 gallons) and the wheat will give you a little (about 5 pts), and of course the caramel malt gives you some as well (about 3 pts).

OK, I just want to make sure I understand all of this!

(44 pts * 6 lb) + 3 pts + 5 pts + 3 pts = 275 total pts, and 275 pts / 5 gallon = 55 pts/gallon, or a SG of 1.055. Is that correct?

Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Yooper]

OK, I just want to make sure I understand all of this!

(44 pts * 6 lb) + 3 pts + 5 pts + 3 pts = 275 total pts, and 275 pts / 5 gallon = 55 pts/gallon, or a SG of 1.055. Is that correct?

Thanks for all of your help!

No, I meant a total of 3+5+3, added onto your estimate of just the DME in 5 gallons. As in "an additional 11 points" to your 1.052. So, 1.052 (your estimate with just the DME), plus 11 points total from the grains, for a likely OG of 1.063 (low estimate)-1.066ish (higher estimate).

You don't have to mash crystal, as it gives up its sugars via steeping, but with sort of mashing the oats and wheat you'll also get fermentable sugars.

 

[Lucky137]

No, I meant a total of 3+5+3, added onto your estimate of just the DME in 5 gallons. As in "an additional 11 points" to your 1.052. So, 1.052 (your estimate with just the DME), plus 11 points total from the grains, for a likely OG of 1.063 (low estimate)-1.066ish (higher estimate).

You don't have to mash crystal, as it gives up its sugars via steeping, but with sort of mashing the oats and wheat you'll also get fermentable sugars.

OH!!! I get it! This is very very good to know, thank you so much!

 

[MKBoitnott]

A random suggestion plus a funny story... maybe useless.

I once did a DIPA, and then got a CRAZY OG reading. It was my first beer ever so I called my dad frantically saying "WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?" He asked me to check if the hydrometer was sitting on some hop sludge... it, in fact, was and once I got a sample without it then I got a much lower gravity.

Did you take multiple readings with multiple samples?

 

[peterj]

This may be a few days late, but I figured I'd comment anyway.

Yeah I agree with Yooper. Judging by your grainbill that OG sounds about right. The contribution by your "specialty grains" is never going to be 0. And I put specialty grains in quotes there becuase the grains you used are not specialty grains (except the crystal) and they have to be mashed. Fortunately you did mash them. A mash temp of 160 is very high but will still allow for conversion, but it did probably produced a lot of dextrines and other unfermentable sugars. So I would not expect the FG to go too low.

 

[TriggerFingers]

I noticed that a lot of my beers were off by 20 points for a while with BeerCalculus---found out Briess Gold DME and Golden Light DME have different input #'s (I was buying it in bulk from MoreBeer).....once I started using Golden Light in my calculator I hit my #'s everytime.