Gravity estimates and actual from recipe calculator

SoccerBrewer

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So has anyone had a big difference in OG from calculated to actual OG? I used the recipe builder feature of this site for the first time and did a partial mash brew yesterday of a Brown Ale, that according to the recipe calculator should have been an approximate OG of 1.068; When I checked the OG with my trusty Hydrometer before I pitched the yeast it showed an OG of 1.106....! That is a huge difference!, I dumped that sample, swirled the carboy to make sure that it was well mixed and checked again, with the same results....Anyone else have a problem like that with the recipe builder?? If that's correct I am looking at a potential ABV of 11.68%.......not the 6.6% I had originally planned and calculated.....
 
Post a link to the recipe. Almost certainly you have something entered differently from what you actually did. All you had to do was dilute the wort to the proper OG. I don't know when you added your extract, but you could have used less of that, obviously.
 
So has anyone had a big difference in OG from calculated to actual OG? I used the recipe builder feature of this site for the first time and did a partial mash brew yesterday of a Brown Ale, that according to the recipe calculator should have been an approximate OG of 1.068; When I checked the OG with my trusty Hydrometer before I pitched the yeast it showed an OG of 1.106....! That is a huge difference!, I dumped that sample, swirled the carboy to make sure that it was well mixed and checked again, with the same results....Anyone else have a problem like that with the recipe builder?? If that's correct I am looking at a potential ABV of 11.68%.......not the 6.6% I had originally planned and calculated.....
What the:eek: you musta got dome great efficiency outta your partial grain mash. Or overdosed her with dme or lme? Thats way off mate. 1st off it aint the calculator its been pretty spot on in my books. What about.your volumes howd you go there on target ? Recipe please. Hydrometer calibrated in just water? Was there gunk in your sample? That can squew readings. Enjoy your rocket fuel lol:).
 
I posted the recipe link, I mashed at a pretty rock steady 154 degrees for an hour, and it was a lot of LME (9.9 lbs), according to the calculator it should have been 1.068 for an estimated ABV of about 6.7 or so..... maybe there were some particles in the sample, but I checked it twice with 2 different samples and came up the same....Thank goodness I had a really good starter going, if it is that high it needed it.....really active fermentation after 15 hours.....
 
I got nothin'...:confused:
There's nothing your recipe that'll give you that sort of gravity. Even if you subbed DME for the LME and got 90% efficiency from your mash you get to 1.088 or so. Absent anything that you might have missed in basic procedure I'm going with bad hydrometer.
 
Yeah....that's why I checked, and double checked.....I didn't miss anything, it was a standard brew, and I've had that hydrometer for 20 years and it's always been fine....just odd.....we'll see what happens I guess, it's fermenting like crazy, so at least I have that going for me! :)
 
I'd definitely calibrate that hydrometer with some 60 degree plain water (or whatever temp your hydro is calibrated at). Even a bad hydro shouldn't be off that much, though.
And there's just no way to get there with ingredient differences....it'd take an extra 5 lbs of LME to make almost 40 gravity points.
 
It has to be a measurement error of some kind. And I think I see the error. You didn't by chance measure the gravity of the undiluted wort concentrate, the wort after the boil? The recipe builder gives me your boil gravity at 1.125, about what you measured. There's not enough sugar in the grains you list to make a wort that high. The only other possibility is you didn't add enough water to the carboy. But there isn't enough sugar in your recipe, even at 100% conversion, to reach the gravity you measured.
 
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And I think I see the error. You didn't by chance measure the gravity of the undiluted wort concentrate, the wort after the boil?

I measured after I diluted by adding the rest of the water into the fermentor and mixed it to be as accurate as possible...

He says he diluted it. Can only assume that he means he diluted up to the 5.5 gallons his recipe calls for. But, yeah...big difference in dilution is the only thing that stands out as a likely possibility.
 
Fermrntor volume and gravity is where i start from. Double check hydrometer.

Has this happened on previous brews too?
 
I think I may have figured it out after Nosybear's comment, I am guessing when I added the water to top off the carboy and mixed, I didn't get a good mix all the way thru. I used a "thief" to get the sample, which would have pulled it from the bottom of the carboy, and if the water added to the carboy didn't mix all the way to the bottom the wort at the bottom would have been basically undiluted, and hence a much higher gravity....That has to be it....I think after 20 years of partial and extract brewing, it's time to go all grain....
 
No shame in extract. I'm toying with brewing that way more.
 
I dumped that sample, swirled the carboy to make sure that it was well mixed and checked again,
A good swirl should do it, but maybe not. Gotta be something like that.
 
I think I may have figured it out after Nosybear's comment, I am guessing when I added the water to top off the carboy and mixed, I didn't get a good mix all the way thru. I used a "thief" to get the sample, which would have pulled it from the bottom of the carboy, and if the water added to the carboy didn't mix all the way to the bottom the wort at the bottom would have been basically undiluted, and hence a much higher gravity....That has to be it....I think after 20 years of partial and extract brewing, it's time to go all grain....
I love a good, short extract brew day from time to time and have done award-winning beers using extract. My first award was using the concentrated wort method you are using. Glad I could help.
 

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