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Author Topic: HELP! OG way too high  (Read 7073 times)

Offline rbowers

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HELP! OG way too high
« on: January 21, 2012, 10:38:06 am »
Breweing up a All grain bock recipe today.  This is my first effort at a decoction mash.  I had originally plugged in the numbers to beer smith but now realized I used my baseline 65% efficiency as the standard.  Its got abot 14lbs of grain in it, mostly munich and pils.  My pre boil OG is coming in at 1.074 on an 8 gallon volume.  It's boiling now with plans for a 90 min boil.  I suspect the end boil OG is going to be ridiculous.  I was shooting for 1.066-1.07 but no way that's gonna happen after 1.5-2 gallons boil off.  Any suggestions on how to bring it back down?  I assume I could pull off a certain amount of wort and then replace it with water but I don't know how to calculate the amount.  Please help- boiling now. 

Offline tygo

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Re: HELP! OG way too high
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2012, 10:53:19 am »
You have a total of 592 gravity points (74*8 ).  At 6 gallons of final volume that's going to give you a gravity of 1.098 (592/6).  If you use three and a half gallons of that with 1.5 gallons of top off water that'll give you an OG of 1.069.  

But then you have lots of tasty wort left over.  If you want to get down closer to your desired gravity you're either going to have to make more beer or toss some wort.  Or mix up another batch with the remaining wort and some additional top up water, provided you have yeast you can pitch into it.  

Also, your hop utilization will be lower with the more concentrated wort.



Clint
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Offline repo

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Re: HELP! OG way too high
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2012, 10:57:24 am »
I don't think it's possible that you have 8 gallons collected at 1.074 from 14 pounds of grain. Not knowing the exact grain bill this does seem to exceed 100% efficiency. I would double check your numbers.

Offline tygo

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Re: HELP! OG way too high
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2012, 11:17:10 am »
I don't think it's possible that you have 8 gallons collected at 1.074 from 14 pounds of grain. Not knowing the exact grain bill this does seem to exceed 100% efficiency. I would double check your numbers.

Yeah, I agree with this.  I didn't actually pay attention to the grain bill before my earlier response.  100% efficiency would give you a boil gravity of about 1.065.  85% efficiency would give you about 1.055. 
Clint
Wort Hogs

Offline rbowers

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Re: HELP! OG way too high
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2012, 11:29:51 am »
Well I started mucking around withi things.  I drew off about 2 qt of wort, replaced with water and now i'm down to about 1.056 with about 6.5-7gallons remaining in the kettle.  I'm starting to think my hydrometer is off.  With some manipulation I can get it to read 1.0000 with water it sometimes sticks to a higher SG.  I may have misread the OG.  I assume with a decoction mash you will get higher efficiency but I agree that 106% probably isnt right.  
I'm through mucking around with it for now.  Gonna leave it be and proceed as planned.  Thanks for the help- good to know how to do the calculation for the future though- thanks.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2012, 11:31:34 am by rbowers »

Offline oscarvan

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Re: HELP! OG way too high
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2012, 06:40:25 pm »
 I'm starting to think my hydrometer is off.

Indeed.
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Offline jamminbrew

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Re: HELP! OG way too high
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2012, 06:58:51 pm »
 Gonna leave it be and proceed as planned.
yes. It will probably turn out just fine,as long as you stick to your normal proceedures
In caelo cerivisiae nil, hic igitur bibimus.