Big Red ... too big ...

[fredman730]

Two weeks ago I brewed up an Irish Red recipe I've used a few times. Mashed at 156° for 75 minutes and boiled for 75 minutes. I expected an OG of around 1.049 but was surprised when it measured at 1.070. Also noted that the volume was low at only 4G. I pitched White Labs Irish Ale yeast at 64°. Krausen was only about 1" tall at highest. After two weeks, I transferred to secondary and was surprised to find the gravity was at 1.034. Target was 1.017.

Seems like I need to do some something. 1) Add a gallon of water. 2) Add more yeast to bring the gravity down. 3) Both. 4) Appeal to Ninkasi.

Looking at the recipe in BeerSmith, it looks like adding water will bring everything into line; FG, SRM, IBUs, ABV. Ex: Adding 1G water will drop ABV from 6.5% to 5.2%. The other three will see similar, and needed, corrections.

Am I on the right track? Thoughts?

 

[WoodlandBrew]

My guess would be that your hydrometer got knocked out of calibration. Here is a 3 minute YouTube video that explains what you need to do.

http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/brew-house-efficiency.html

 

[duboman]

Two weeks ago I brewed up an Irish Red recipe I've used a few times. Mashed at 156° for 75 minutes and boiled for 75 minutes. I expected an OG of around 1.049 but was surprised when it measured at 1.070. Also noted that the volume was low at only 4G. I pitched White Labs Irish Ale yeast at 64°. Krausen was only about 1" tall at highest. After two weeks, I transferred to secondary and was surprised to find the gravity was at 1.034. Target was 1.017.

Seems like I need to do some something. 1) Add a gallon of water. 2) Add more yeast to bring the gravity down. 3) Both. 4) Appeal to Ninkasi.

Looking at the recipe in BeerSmith, it looks like adding water will bring everything into line; FG, SRM, IBUs, ABV. Ex: Adding 1G water will drop ABV from 6.5% to 5.2%. The other three will see similar, and needed, corrections.

Am I on the right track? Thoughts?

Ideally, when you noted the higher gravity and lower volume you should have added the water then. Adding water now will change the FG because of dilution but may not mean the beer is done fermenting. The yeast should have still chewed through the sugars and attenuated.

When you were concerned at the higher gravity of 1.034, again, you should have not racked to secondary as now the beer is off the yeast. Ideally you should have tried to address a possible stuck fermentation at that time as well. Mashing at 156 will leave you a less fermentable wort and if your thermometer is not calibrated or you did not temperature correct your readings you may have mashed higher than thought creating more problems with attenuation of the yeast.

At this point I would try to pitch some additional yeast but be prepared that it may not do anything

Edit: If you want to add the water to raise the volume be sure to boil and cool before adding it.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Agreed that if it's not a hydrometer error it could be the thermometer.
see this blog post about thermometers:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/mash-temperature-and-thermometers.html