brewed the NB Irish Red last week and came in at the normal OG, today i brewed the Caribou Slobber and ended up with an extremely high OG of 1.080 or 1.078. Whereas its advertised at 1.052 OG, should i be worried in any way?
i dropped the the container earlier in the day and cracked it, but the actual measurer (?) never fell.
Can I ask how much your final volume is in the fermenter?
Is it about 2.5 gal or 5 gal?
My suspicion, without knowing more, is that you brewed to all the directions and then didn’t add the 2.5 gal of water at the end of the instructions maybe?
If it ferments well it will likely end up as strong beer - not to style exactly, perhaps a bit malty sweet, but pretty high AVB
[quote=“masquelle”]Can I ask how much your final volume is in the fermenter?
Is it about 2.5 gal or 5 gal?
My suspicion, without knowing more, is that you brewed to all the directions and then didn’t add the 2.5 gal of water at the end of the instructions maybe?[/quote]
no, its the full 5 gal.
[quote=“RandomHero”][quote=“masquelle”]Can I ask how much your final volume is in the fermenter?
Is it about 2.5 gal or 5 gal?
My suspicion, without knowing more, is that you brewed to all the directions and then didn’t add the 2.5 gal of water at the end of the instructions maybe?[/quote]
no, its the full 5 gal.[/quote]
Huh… Is there enough wort in your vial tater thingy? It’s not resting on the bottom by chance?
Could you describe everything you put in the wort?
[quote=“masquelle”][quote=“RandomHero”][quote=“masquelle”]Can I ask how much your final volume is in the fermenter?
Is it about 2.5 gal or 5 gal?
My suspicion, without knowing more, is that you brewed to all the directions and then didn’t add the 2.5 gal of water at the end of the instructions maybe?[/quote]
no, its the full 5 gal.[/quote]
Huh… Is there enough wort in your vial tater thingy? It’s not resting on the bottom by chance?
Could you describe everything you put in the wort?[/quote]
no, its not floating, i checked that over and over and over to make sure.
as far as whats in it…
i steeped the specialties, added the DME and LME from the recipe right before i hit the boil, got to a boil, hit the hot break and hit a small tiny boilover (didnt get to the regulator in time), added the hops in sequence. after 60 minutes did the cold break in a sink of ice, got to 100ish degrees, poured the wort through a strainer into the primary, topped up to 5 gal, put the lid on and gave a good shake, removed lid and took a sample.
pitched at 69 degrees.
maybe not adding the ME while at boil,but doing it before effected it? i dont see that making a difference as it boiled anyway and i stirred occasionally.
[quote=“masquelle”]
If it ferments well it will likely end up as strong beer - not to style exactly, perhaps a bit malty sweet, but pretty high AVB[/quote]
caught your edit.
this is what im hoping for, im just hoping the yeast can handle the job. i used the dry yeast that came with the pack. this is my 2nd brew and im not yet ready for yeast starters.
just put my red ale in the secondary.
I suspect stratification. This is where the the wort from your pot isn’t completely mixed with the top-off water. It can lead to bizarrely high OR low gravity readings depending on whether you’re sampling mostly kettle wort, or mostly top-off water.
Aside from being annoying, and throwing off ABV calculations, it’s no problem at all; once the yeast get active the will do a better job stirring.
If you really blow your gravity on an extract brew, just stir and measure again. It’s also completely reasonable to assume, “It’s an extract brew, of course I hit my gravity.”
ive got bubbles starting at 4 hours. i really need to find a way to drop my fermentation temps. my house is about 74 right now. summers is gonna be terrible for fermenting.
You just need a swamp cooler, and you may already own everything you need. You can use a large plastic tub, a laundry sink, spare bathtub, or even an old picnic cooler if the size is right. You just need a watertight container that you can place your fermentor into and fill with water up to about half the height of the fermentor. Then cover the fermentor with a towel that drapes into the water and place frozen water bottles (I use 20 oz, 1 quart, half gallon, and gallon containers) into the water. The thermal mass of the water will keep the temps in the fermentor way more stable. And while fermentation is active, I try to keep my water temps 2 to 4 degree F lower that my target beer temp. You can even use a fan to blow on the wet-towel-covered fermentor to keep temps down if your humidity is not too high. Happy brewing.
Ron
Gotta agree with JMcK–if this is an extract kit, unless they just packed the ingredients incorrectly, your OG is around 1.052. As someone on the forum once suggested, after you top off and before pitching, shake that fermentor like it owes you money.
[quote=“JMcK”]I suspect stratification. This is where the the wort from your pot isn’t completely mixed with the top-off water. It can lead to bizarrely high OR low gravity readings depending on whether you’re sampling mostly kettle wort, or mostly top-off water.
Aside from being annoying, and throwing off ABV calculations, it’s no problem at all; once the yeast get active the will do a better job stirring.
If you really blow your gravity on an extract brew, just stir and measure again. It’s also completely reasonable to assume, “It’s an extract brew, of course I hit my gravity.”[/quote]
I agree with ^this. If it’s an extract kit, you used all the ingredients, and you hit your final volume, you can’t get the wrong gravity. I think this is one of the reasons (aside from cheapness) that a lot of beginner brew kits these days don’t come with hydrometers; there’s really no point in taking an OG reading.
