Way off target gravity! Please Help

[cs89]

So I decided to brew an Irish Red Ale as my sixth brew. It is still an extract beer and the recipe was copied almost verbatim from Brewing Classic Styles book.

6.5 lb of Amber DME (they did not have English Pale so we adjusted the weight for DME)
6 oz of c-40
6 oz of c-120
6 oz of Roasted Barely

1.25 oz of EKG

1 package of US-05

Estimated O.G. is 1.054

I boiled with 2.5 gallons and did a late extract addition (about half) and added about 3 gallons of cold water with an ice bath to bring to pitching temp. I then strained through a new strainer(albeit not a very good one) to get rid of the hop junk, pitched yeast and aerated with a ten minute shake.

I forgot to take a sample before I pitched and the reading was 1.072! I noticed a lot of the hop bits were in it so I waited twenty minutes and tested the sample again to allow the hops to settle out. The reading was still 1.070!

Could this crazy high gravity be from not catching all the hops in my strainer?
How do I find out the ABV if the OG reading is messed up?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[rodwha]

It may not have been completely mixed up thoroughly. When using extracts it's very hard not to hit the numbers within reason as long as your volume is correct.

I have had slightly higher numbers with steeped grains. Mine sat for 30 mins, though I was told the additional time shouldn't have mattered.

 

[myndflyte]

Sometimes the higher gravity wort will sit down at the bottom and your top off water may not mix so well and sit on the top. If you didn't really stir the heck out of it for a bit, that may be the issue. This is assuming you drew your sample from the bottom of the fermenter through a spigot or something like that.

 

[flars]

At a volume of 5.0 gallons in the fermentor, your OG should have been about 1.059. 5.5 gallons 1.053.
Your high OG could have been the top off water and the wort not being thoroughly mixed. Your sample came from near the bottom where the wort was heavier to sugar.
More vigorous aeration can sometimes eliminate this.

Strain through a mesh bag, held in the strainer,will remove almost all of the hop debris. Sometimes handy to have a second pair of hands to do this, unless you rig a stand to hold the mesh bag. Doing it this way will work better if you add the chilled 2.5 gallons of top off water to the fermentor first, and then pour the chilled 2.5 gallons from the boil kettle. Finally add chilled water to account for the boil off volume.

 

[cs89]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone!
I put the cold water in to help chill, then I stirred for about ten minutes until it hit pitching temp. then I poured it in the fermenter, added yeast and aerated for another 10 minutes and finally took a sample.
Is that not enough time to mix the water into the wort?

 

[cs89]

The mesh bag is a simple idea! I can't believe I didn't think of that, thanks flars !

 

[JR_Brewer]

I'm going to take a different approach. Did you ever measure the volume of wort you put in the fermenter?

You mentioned your pre-boil volume was 2.5 gallons, then you added "about" 3 gallons of water. If you boiled off more than a half gallon, and your water addition was a little shy of 3 gallons, you may only have 4.5 gallons in the fermenter. If you plug your numbers into a calculator, 4.5 gallons yields about 1.070.

Just another possibility, and one I've had before.

 

[GrogNerd]

also: floating hop gunk will have no effect on gravity reading. hydrometer reads amount of sugar in solution

 

[cs89]

JR_Brewer, that is probably what happened, I neglected to check the amount of wort until after I took a sample. I lit up the fermenter with a flashlight to see where the liquid level was but I bet it still had foam from the aeration. Thank you very much!

GrogNerd, thank you for that tid bit! I have been looking all over this site for that answer!

 

[JR_Brewer]

No problem. As long as fermentation doesn't stall out, you'll still have a very nice (but slightly stronger) beer. Good luck!