OG unexpectedly high

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing
1

Last night I brewed my second batch of Northern Brewer’s Zombie Dirt Pale Ale. I used the extract kit and followed the directions as called for in the recipe.

According to the recipe, the extract ingredients should have an OG of 1.060. The first time I brewed the beer, that’s exactly the reading I got. But this most recent batch has an OG of 1.080.

I brewed the beers nearly identically, the only difference being that I added a scant teaspoon of Irish moss at 20 minutes remaining in the boil.

Here’s the extract “grain bill” for the recipe:
Specialty grains

  • 0.5 lbs Carapils
  • 0.5 lbs Medium Crystal
    Extract
  • 3.15 lbs Gold malt syrup
  • 3.15 lbs Munich malt syrup (10 min)
  • 2 lbs Golden Light DME (10 min)

Any ideas what could cause such a high OG reading? I’m pretty confident the reading is accurate, but perhaps not.

thanks,
Fed

2

Did you possibly top off with water and create a stratification of denser sugars at the bottom? My buddy just did that with the Ace of Spades and got a higher grav than expected

3

With extract, there’s not much chance to vary the gravity. If you used all the extract, and hit your volume, you have the prescribed OG. It’s just not completely mixed.

1 Like
4

Not enough water during boil. Did you recheck ?

5

Yes, exactly. With kits, if you followed the instructions, topped up to 5 (or whatever the kit size) gallons and mixed it well the OG should be close. Give yourself a pat on the back for using a hydrometer!

6

Thanks for all the feedback. Much appreciated. Right, my understanding is that there shouldn’t be much OG deviation if you follow the extract recipe correctly. I wasn’t even going to take the hydrometer reading, but the equipment was out…

I started the boil with 2.5 gallons of water, and did not add back any volume I lost to evaporation. But I did top off to 5 gallons, and I mixed/aerated this batch by topping off to five gallons in the fermenter, pouring to a sanitized bucket, then pouring back to fermenter. So I think mixing is adequate, but perhaps not.

All that said, the batch is fermenting extremely well and looks great so far.

Thanks again.

1 Like
7

Not sure how much hydrometer knowledge you have. A couple things that come to mind. Hydrometers are calibrated @ a specific temperature. My hydrometer is calibrated @60°F some are @68°F. They have calculators to adjust reading at different temperatures. Also did you check the hydrometer in distilled water to check that it is indeed 1.000 at the calibration temperature?

1 Like
8

Me after the boil and transfer to the fermenting bucket. Use a refrectometer. And for the rest. Use the hydrometer. For ad. Sample tests at least 3 times.