3 different brews, all are 1.070 OG

[rlodermeier]

Can this be real? I did 2 IPA's with majority 2-Row but completely different hop profiles. All additions grains were completely different. The third was a Scotch boiled for 90 and obviously completely different everything than the 2 IPA's. each OG I got was 1.070 just about on the nose. I use Beer Smith and at at 70% efficiency I should have been around 1.085-1.090. I obviously did not get close

My question is I am starting to think my hydrometer is playing tricks on me or I am taking the sample wrong. I means, I guess I could be so consistently non-efficient; but, even my mash in and sparging processes I altered each time. Below are my 3 different processes:

IPA 1: 75 min mash in, started with 6.2 gallons water, cold sparked with hose. I know, stupid. Then just grained it all out

IPA 2: 75 min mash in, 3x 1 gallon recirculation, gentle drain and spared with 170F water all at once.

Scotch: 75 min mash in, 3x 1/2 gallon recirculation, gentle drain and sparged 5x with .8 gallons water while draining

I just seems hard to believe each beer with the alterations of methods would yield the exact same result. Any thoughts folks?

 

[abrix]

Two questions: What is your efficiency for beers with lower OGs? Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

We normally get ~80% efficiency on 1.040 to 1.060 beers, but for 1.080 all-malt beers, it drops to ~60%.

 

[rlodermeier]

All I have done is higher OG since that is what I like. I have been at 63% for all my brews. I have not calibrated it. I floated it in a tube of Dsani bottled water and it read .900. It it helps, the first batch I added 1 Lb of Malt Exract after boil to get it up it a bit. I just sampled and I think it tastes very high on alcohol. Either that or the hops I used for flavoring I do not like at all (2.5 oz Summit for bitter, .5 oz Amirillo and .5 of Columbia for flavor). Stuff has a Night Train kick to it. Also, in 1 week my brew already dropped to 1.015. I was flicking shocked. I am going to do a sample for gravity in a little bit to see if it dropped even more (perhaps too low), after I racked into secondary and dry hopped it.

 

[rlodermeier]

Just did a final gravity. Beer is at 1.012. Tat is much lower than I hoped for.