Very high OG (1.130)! What went wrong?

[JMK1992]

I basically only brew 4.5litre batches and I am pretty new to brewing. So I was hoping to brew a chocolate caramel milk stout with an ABV of 10%. My grain bill was as follows:

2kg of Maris Otter Pale (60.1%),

400g of torrified oats (12%), 80g of Roasted Barley (2.4%), 200g of UK Chocolate (6%), 150g of UK Crystal 140L (4.5%), 300g of Lactose (9%) and 200g of Demerara Sugar (6%)

I mashed for 60mins at 64-66oC with 6litres of water and sparged at 77oC with 4litres of water to give me a total wort volume for the boil of 7litres.
I boiled for 90mins with 6g of Magnum @90mins, Lactose and disolved demerara sugar in 200ml of wort @15mins, 7g of East Kent G @10mins and 25g of cacao nibs @0mins. After the boil I had 4.5litres which was bang on what I wanted.

According to brewers friend I should have had an OG of 1.107 i got an OG of 1.130 which was way way off. Im not sure if it maybe didn't consider the demerara sugar added? Any ideas what I have missed?

All advice or suggestions are welcome.

 

[day_trippr]

Something went off the rails. Using either the freebie Brewer's Friend recipe builder or QBrew I come with an OG of 1.182-3 for 4.5 liters to the fermentor.

I'd try it with BeerSmith3 but two out of two should suffice - and setting up BS3 for a 4.5 liter batch would be a chore...

Cheers!

 

[JMK1992]

I'm wondering if Brewers Friend didn't consider the sugar? Either way the brew was way off.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

According to brewers friend I should have had an OG of 1.107 i got an OG of 1.300

I am guessing you meant 1.130? 1.160 is the highest my hydrometer reads. 1.130 is not crazy off from 1.107 and could be just that your actual mash efficiency was off from your estimated efficiency, or maybe you mismeasured some sugar. (Given the small batch size and metric units I would have to plug your recipe into a program to establish my expectation.)

Edit: I did plug those into an app on my phone and it kicked out an OG of 1.148 (with 80% mash efficiency and 64% overall efficiency).

 

[day_trippr]

I'm wondering if Brewers Friend didn't consider the sugar? Either way the brew was way off.

Brewer's Friend is totally considering everything you listed. Note, again, QBrew agrees with Brewer's Friend if they are both accurately loaded with what was listed.

So there are at least two oddities extant - your post-boil volume/gravity does not compute with anything, and your hydro reading is unreal...

Cheers!

 

[Soulshine2]

I basically only brew 4.5litre batches and I am pretty new to brewing. So I was hoping to brew a chocolate caramel milk stout with an ABV of 10%. My grain bill was as follows:

2kg of Maris Otter Pale (60.1%),

400g of torrified oats (12%), 80g of Roasted Barley (2.4%), 200g of UK Chocolate (6%), 150g of UK Crystal 140L (4.5%), 300g of Lactose (9%) and 200g of Demerara Sugar (6%)

I mashed for 60mins at 64-66oC with 6litres of water and sparged at 77oC with 4litres of water to give me a total wort volume for the boil of 7litres.
I boiled for 90mins with 6g of Magnum @90mins, Lactose and disolved demerara sugar in 200ml of wort @15mins, 7g of East Kent G @10mins and 25g of cacao nibs @0mins. After the boil I had 4.5litres which was bang on what I wanted.

According to brewers friend I should have had an OG of 1.107 i got an OG of 1.300 which was way way off. Im not sure if it maybe didn't consider the demerara sugar added? Any ideas what I have missed?

All advice or suggestions are welcome.

are you sure you're reading your hydrometer correctly ...and its actually 1.030 and not 1.300? also , did you read the hydrometer at the correct temperature? if not ,did you calculate for the correction for difference in temp?
how many brews have you done (successfully) before you brewed this ,which I would consider a complex brew for a beginner.

 

[JMK1992]

Hi apologies, yes it was meant to be 1.130 not 1.300 that was a typo. I took the reading at 22oC. I have brewed seven beers before this all all grain. Two of which were my own recipe. So far I haven't had any problems with the exception of this one. I probably have just bit off more than I can chew.

 

[Soulshine2]

do you have notes from your brew day? Something just doesnt sound right. Like how you arrived at an OG of 1.107 ...although ive never brewed for a 10%abv , even an OG of 1.130 sounds incredibly high. My 60*F calibrated hydro only goes to 1.170 .
Like when you float it ,for it to be that high it would be floating almost an inch to the top of the bulb at the bottom. Can you take and post a picture of your hydrometer while taking a reading ?
check the bottom of the scale thats inside your hydrometer to check for its calibration temp. its either 60*F or 68*F .
baffling

 

[day_trippr]

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Moving forward...you have a big beer there. You could have diluted with water, but at this point it might be best to just roll with what you got. The only experience I have with a big beer is a 1.104 Stout that I brewed a few weeks ago. The things that I thought about mostly were yeast pitching rate, yeast alcohol tolerance and temp control.

I planned my beer around harvesting yeast from a Porter, so I was able to pitch a full pint of slurry (the calculators called for around 6 oz of slurry). What yeast are you using and how much did you pitch? In my case, S-04 seems to do okay up to around 11% and my Stout is around 10%. This might not be the case for you. I also read that the hearty fermentation of a strong beer can push temps way up causing off flavors. I just ferment in my basement but in this case put my fermenter in a tub of water and added some ice now and then.

 

[day_trippr]

The pitch better be "Global Thermonuclear War Size" of a big-ass strain to bring that gravity back to Earth...

 

[JMK1992]

I basically decided to dilute the beer with water. As I was worried about the high OG. Mangrove Jacks New World Strong Ale M42 was the yeast I used. I basically diluted 1 litre of water into one 4.5litre bucket which brought the OG to 1.088. I didn't want to waste the remaining so just diluted it with 2.5 litres to bring the OG to 1.052. Obviously none of this was ideal or likely the best way to do it but I am only learning and had came so far with it that I didn't want to waste anything.

Big learning curve. Made a bit of a mess of the whole thing.

Thanks for all advice and help.

 

[S-Met]

I took the reading at 22oC.

You might want to check the temperature calibration of your hydrometer. 22°C is a little over 72°F. Most hydrometers I've seen are calibrated to 60°F or 68°F (15.5°C or 20°C) unless you have calibrated for temp correction.

Warmer liquid would give you a lower reading as it is less viscous.

 

[Soulshine2]

You might want to check the temperature calibration of your hydrometer. 22°C is a little over 72°F. Most hydrometers I've seen are calibrated to 60°F or 68°F (15.5°C or 20°C) unless you have calibrated for temp correction.

Warmer liquid would give you a lower reading as it is less viscous.

I suggested the same but its what you just said that confuses the situation even more, at a higher temp than the calibration his reading would be lower instead of higher as he has.
His reading of 22*C is 71.6 *F

 

[bobeer]

I once brewed a huge beer and wondered what the deal was... in the end, I realized I forgot 2 gallons or so of sparge water. This when I instituded the rule of no homebrews until the sparge is done!

The beer was awesome in the end though so I had the last laugh. Muwhahaha!

 

[S-Met]

A few gere have re-calcef his brew @ estimated og 1.145+. If he had 1.130 @ 72, 67 would be cliser to 1.140.

 

[Soulshine2]

A few gere have re-calcef his brew @ estimated og 1.145+. If he had 1.130 @ 72, 67 would be cliser to 1.140.

still sounds unbelievably high ,dont you think?

 

[grampamark]

still sounds unbelievably high ,dont you think?

The OP had a 6 +lb grain bill for a batch size of just over a gallon. Of course he ended up with a big ass beer.

 

[Homergah]

Big learning curve. Made a bit of a mess of the whole thing.

Welcome to the club. Homebrewing can lead to drinking.

 

[Soulshine2]

Welcome to the club. Homebrewing can lead to drinking.

leads to drinking? I thought it was a prerequisite

 

[Soulshine2]

The OP had a 6 +lb grain bill for a batch size of just over a gallon. Of course he ended up with a big ass beer.

true, I can just imagine the hydrometer floating on end.