What a goofy brew night!

[OkanaganMike]

So I decided to brew a Dunkleweizen last night after work so its ready for a local competition in January. Have my work's Christmas party this Saturday and figured I'm not going to be able to do it Sunday
Not the greatest decision as it was -6C with crazy winds blowing and had a bitch of a time keeping temp and waterlines from freezing.

10.88lb grain into 8.07gal water at 151. Dropped to 149F after mash in and wrapping kettle. Checked after 20mins and it was down to 148. Unwrapped, gave a good stir and re wrapped. After another 15 it was down to 142 so I gave her some heat back up to 152 (over shot by 2) and rewrapped for a total mash of 90min. Preboil amount was bang on at 7.35gal but gravity was 1.070! Conversion of like 144.4% How the heck can this be? I checked both hydrometer and refrac and they were within 2pts even with temp correction.

After the boil I was expecting something crazy for an OG but ended up getting 6.5gals @ 1.040. I missed my target by 7pts but was about a gallon over as it was supposed to be 5.5gals so that probably works out. Can only presume the cold and the wind buggered up my boil off rate and didn't want to extend boil though I think I should have to bring up the OG.

End of the night it kinda worked out and it bubbling away this morning but can't get my head around the 1.070 preboil gravity. Anyone have a thought on this? Could it have been the goofy mash temps? 5.5lbs of wheat?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

oh yes In the beginning I think I had every imaginable issue, I always brewed outside and with a fire or propane, the winds here get bad sometimes, thats why one year I started to brew in the garage with the door half up

 

[jeffpn]

thats why one year I started to brew in the garage with the door half up

Ever the optimist!

 

[Thurston Brewer]

I have no clue... but then that's true that's true about most things

 

[J A]

Seems like your pre boil gravity just wasn't right. Not possible to reduce volume and lose sugar. I never get an accurate pre-boil gravity reading and I've given up on trying. I just assume that the efficiency that I usually get will give me what I want and adjust and edit the recipe as needed when I get a good OG and volume reading from the post boil.

 

[Head First]

I have trouble getting a consistent preboil reading unless I stir the fool out of it before taking a sample.
Don't let OMB mess with ya, he brewed with the garage door half down.

 

[jeffpn]

Don't let OMB mess with ya, he brewed with the garage door half down.

I knew it. I just knew it!!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

lol electric garage doors will not stop going down, only up

 

[OkanaganMike]

Been thinking about this and the only thing I can think of that makes sense is the wort was not stirred up evenly so when I pulled a sample from the bottom, it grabbed a pocket of exceptionally sweet wort.

 

[J A]

I've stirred, waited until just boiling, cooled slowly, cooled quickly, carefully measured volumes...invariably the pre-boil that I measure is at least a few points higher than the resulting OG will allow for. I trust the post-boil reading to tell me what the beer will do and it seems to work out, but time and again, I just have to ignore the pre-boil reading because, for whatever reason, it just doesn't fit the calculations at all.

 

[Brew Cat]

I take a pre boil reading so I can adjust my boil or add water to get the gravity I want in my post boil. If I have to add water or DME I'd rather do it during the boil to get the full benefits from the boil

 

[GFHomebrew]

When taking my pre boil gravity samples I'll run the wort through the tap a couple of times dumping back in the top as I go. I think I'm getting an fair estimate of gravity. My 60min Boil usually gives me around 6 gravity points and 90min gives 10ish points. So I can use pre boil for estimated FG give take a few points. Also you can work back from your FG if you know your systems numbers and see if your pre boil was correct or not.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

since i fly sparge the top of the wort is water basically when done so I have a whirlpool in my boil pot which will mix the wort around, I just hit that for 5 or so then test