Yikes unexpected OG.

Kane Brews

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See recipe ink below. I brewed this recipe today as an experimental batch to put in our mini keg. Its similar (hopefully better) to a recipe we have brewed before, and If it's good I'm going to rework it to 5 gallons. I've done a couple of small 1 and 2 gallon extract batches before and I never had this happen. The expected OG was 1.056 and when I took a reading after cooling it was 1.074!! I have never had such a discrepancy in a full boil batch before. I'm not worried about it... I threw about 30 oz of water got it down to 1.057, pitched and called it a brew day. But here is my question... I followed the recipe to the "T." What is the most likely reason:

#1 - More boil -off than expected? I probably netted less than the gallon and a half expected.

#2 - greater efficiency of the steeping grains? I usually use 25%. I bought the biscuit un-milled and crushed it myself with my usual rolling pin and baggy Hi-Tech set up. ;) I might have been a little too aggressive. :rolleyes:

#3 - What else??

Should I take any of this into account when stepping up to 5 gallons? Which most likely will do as a partial mash.
Thanks in advance for any insight! KK

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homeb...columbus-chinook-small-batch-semi-session-ipa
 
Yeah you probably boiled off extra, it's pretty common. Unless you measure pre-boil there is no real way to know if you just got crazy extraction from the grain or not. I end up with weirdly high batches on occasion.
 
Yeah, it's almost certainly a volume discrepancy. You can't really get that much out of steeping grains, no matter what. Even if you got almost 80% you wouldn't be at 1.074. The extract is predictable in terms of gravity so a small difference could be attributable to efficiency setting but only if your volumes are measured accurately. You obviously have to be sure you weighed the extract accurately, too.
What's your final volume at the proper gravity?
 
I would estimate about 1.6 Gallons. I'm using a two gallon fermenter with no volume marks, but it was about 1.3 in the kettle at flame out and I added 34 oz to the fermenter.
 
I would estimate about 1.6 Gallons. I'm using a two gallon fermenter with no volume marks, but it was about 1.3 in the kettle at flame out and I added 34 oz to the fermenter.
There you go...lower volume=higher gravity. I suspect that your actual efficiency is around 50% if your 1.3 gallon after-boil volume and/or 1.6 gallon fermenter volume is correct. You can tweak the numbers in the recipe editor and get exactly the gravity numbers you came up with.
 
Oh I missed the steeping grains part. Yeah you almost certainly overboiled. If you're doing a kit you don't need to do a whole hour.
 

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