What to do about a SG that is missed high...

[stonebrewer]

So I brewed up a pale ale yesterday with BeerSmith 2.x and two things went wrong. First, I did not have enough wort after the boil...short by 2-3 quarts. Not the end of the world, but BS usually is accurate for me and tends to yield a quart or so too much wort usually, not several less.

My question for those more experienced than me is about my gravity. My recipe called for a SG of 1.054. I ended up hitting 1.080 instead. I am very worried that what I am going to end up with is really sweet beer! I am okay with more alcohol, but I am using WLP007 and the last time I brewed this pale ale with WLP007 it was a tad too sweet with a FG of 1.013.

If the 007 cannnot get to my FG or if it does and the beer is too sweet still, what kind of adjustments, if any, can I make to fix this? Can I add a bit of high alcohol tolerant yeast at the end to eat more sugar? Appreciate any replies/insights!!

 

[castlefreak]

An alcohol tolerant yeast would probably help, and maybe a bit of dry-hopping to add bitterness up front. Sounds like you could have just added some water to the post-boil wort to replace the 2-3 quarts and that would have also brought down your OG.

 

[jetmac]

I would add water and stir. Figure out your gravity units then boil down to get close to where you want to be.

If this is post boil, you can add sterilized water.

 

[dbhokie]

What I would do:

Make sure my SG reading was accurate. Did I account for temperature? Was the wort well mixed when I took my reading?

If you boiled off too much, then simply add more water and bring to volume and take another SG reading.

(SG-1)*(1-[expected yeast attenuation)+1=Expected final gravity
EG: (1.08-1)*(1-.76)+1
.08*.24+1=1.0192

Take into account that this is a rough approximation of final gravity. There are many other variables especially the fermentability of your wort.

WLP007 is a fairly high attenuating yeast and does fine in high alcohol environments, at least according to White labs and the one time I used it. If you are shooting for a specific gravity. Estimate the fermentability of your wort, and adjust the attenuation number to a higher or lower end of the range.

Then since you were a couple quarts low, estimate your top off water to reach your desired OG.

If your desired is 1.06 and your current is 1.08

60/80=.75

So you need a 25% increase in your volume of water

.25 * CurrentVolume EG: (.25*4.5)=1.125 gallons

Finished Volume = 5.625 gallons

Now your starting would be about 1.06..say you get 78% att with this yeast (its range goes to 80 with a very highly fermentable wort)...so .06*.22+1=1.0132 expected approximate finish.

 

[dcp27]

what efficiency were you shooting for? that seems a bit too high to be real

If your desired is 1.06 and your current is 1.08

60/80=.75

So you need a 25% increase in your volume of water

.25 * CurrentVolume EG: (.25*4.5)=1.125 gallons

Finished Volume = 5.625 gallons.

your math is wrong, he'd need 6gals total to get to 1.06

80/60*4.5

 

[dbhokie]

Programming a lot of equations today, Indeed that was wrong. Thank you

[(Beg Volume] * [Beg Gravity Points])/[Desired Gravity Points]=[Desired Volume]

1.125 would be 25% of 4.5 gallon volume, but you want your liquor to constitute 25% of the final volume. Just got numbers mixed up in ma head.

 

[stonebrewer]

what efficiency were you shooting for? that seems a bit too high to be real



your math is wrong, he'd need 6gals total to get to 1.06

80/60*4.5

I was shooting for 72% efficiency which would have resulted in 1.054SG. My mash efficiency ended up north of 76% and my brewhouse ended up around 87%. I changed the way I sparged and that may account for this to some extent. I did a very long fly sparge with a new setup I "invented" on the fly, no pun intended. This made my brew day a lot longer, but I was able to wash out a lot more sugar from the grain bed...not sure where the water issue came in though, as I am pretty careful in measuring everything.

 

[jetmac]

So, where are you at with this? What will you do? Did you add water to the fermenter?

 

[dcp27]

I was shooting for 72% efficiency which would have resulted in 1.054SG. My mash efficiency ended up north of 76% and my brewhouse ended up around 87%.

if you were shooting for 1.054 (1.06 @ the 4.5gals finished at) and ended up at 1.08, then you got 96% efficiency.

 

[stonebrewer]

if you were shooting for 1.054 (1.06 @ the 4.5gals finished at) and ended up at 1.08, then you got 96% efficiency.

I haven't bothered doing the math myself, just going by what BeerSmith tells me. Did you take into account the water volume? I should have gotten 5.5 gallons of wort (according to BS) versus the 4.8ish I got. I know actual wort volume post boil goes into the BS calculation...

 

[stonebrewer]

So, where are you at with this? What will you do? Did you add water to the fermenter?

I added 1.5 quarts to get closer to my SG target. Will post back how it tastes. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[dcp27]

ok, adjusting it for 5.5gals (instead of the 5 I used) and 4.8 (instead of the 4.5), thats 93% efficiency

72% *80 / (54 * 5.5 / 4.8) = 93%

 

[dbhokie]

ok, adjusting it for 5.5gals (instead of the 5 I used) and 4.8 (instead of the 4.5), thats 93% efficiency

72% *80 / (54 * 5.5 / 4.8) = 93%

If that is correct (I didn't know your starting volume), I would say the gravity reading was not accurate.

If you are interested in diagnosing the issue further it may help to have a grist bill.

 

[tgmartin000]

Usually when I overshoot my og I just add more water to the wort prior to pitching.