im not sure what the deal is. i dont mind a stronger beer, but i am constantly going above projected the abv. even on recipes i have not created. any ideas? i followed the brew instructions to the t on others recipes also. any help would be great was trying to make my wife a mellow 5% light lime beer and it ended up 8% lol. all grain by the way. i have my recipes if that would help.
problems hitting abv target, constantly above projected abv!?
- Thread starter Crashlaz
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You must be getting good mash eff or boilng off a lot of water.
You could cut back on your base malt in recipie.
You could cut back on your base malt in recipie.
ancientmariner52
Well-Known Member
Are you certain your hydrometer and/or refractometer are reading correctly. That seems to be a very common issue when gravity readings don't match recipe predictions.
You are off by over 50% maybe post your recipe, starting and ending gravities and outline your process of a beer that missed the predicted ABV.
this is the one i just brewed. these are the specs given.
Original Gravity:
1.050
Final Gravity:
1.011
ABV (standard):
5.08%
IBU (tinseth):
14.39
SRM (morey):
6.24
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
3.5 lb Flaked Corn 40 0.5 21.2%
2 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 10L 35 10 12.1%
10 lb American - Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 60.6%
1 lb Corn Sugar - Dextrose 46 0.5 6.1%
16.5 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh pellet 3.75 Boil 60 min 14.39
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
4.8 gal Fly Sparge 157 F 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb
Other Ingredients
Amount Name Type Use Time
12 ml lime flavoring Flavor
Yeast
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001
here is my OG and FG 1.067 and 1.006
I will check my hydrometer and refrac but i used two different hydrometers to check and the refrac, all the same result.
Original Gravity:
1.050
Final Gravity:
1.011
ABV (standard):
5.08%
IBU (tinseth):
14.39
SRM (morey):
6.24
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
3.5 lb Flaked Corn 40 0.5 21.2%
2 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 10L 35 10 12.1%
10 lb American - Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 60.6%
1 lb Corn Sugar - Dextrose 46 0.5 6.1%
16.5 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Hallertau Mittelfruh pellet 3.75 Boil 60 min 14.39
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
4.8 gal Fly Sparge 157 F 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.25 qt/lb
Other Ingredients
Amount Name Type Use Time
12 ml lime flavoring Flavor
Yeast
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001
here is my OG and FG 1.067 and 1.006
I will check my hydrometer and refrac but i used two different hydrometers to check and the refrac, all the same result.
Plugged your recipe into beersmith. 5g batch size? I would say your efficiency is probably higher than calculated somehow. Maybe more boil or volumes losses are not correct. What calculator are you using?
d3track
Are you sure about that?
That amount of fermentables would be way over 1.050 on just about any system. Are you sure those are the right amounts?
Flaked corn will pretty much ferment all the way out and so will the sugar so you have 25% highly fermentable grain in your grain bill.
I did not plug in your recipe, but I know from past experience 10lb of grains at 70% brew house efficiency will give about 1050. You need to check your recipe program and plug in the correct information.
edit: thought I was getting 75% BHE but it was 70%
I did not plug in your recipe, but I know from past experience 10lb of grains at 70% brew house efficiency will give about 1050. You need to check your recipe program and plug in the correct information.
edit: thought I was getting 75% BHE but it was 70%
Last edited:
For a 5 gal batch (given your 1.25 qt/lb mash and 5 gal sparge, that makes sense), yes, that's a lot of grain. With a 16 lb grain bill, I can get near 1.050 with an 11 gal batch.
That said, if your beers are routinely overattenuating, I'd look closely at your thermometer, *AT MASH RANGE*. Just because a thermometer is accurate at boiling and accurate at freezing doesn't mean it's accurate in mash range, and most cheap thermometers have a very wide tolerance, meaning you don't know if your 152F reading is 150F or 154F, which is absolutely wide enough to cause a difference. Invest in a good, high quality, ACCURATE thermometer.
That said, if your beers are routinely overattenuating, I'd look closely at your thermometer, *AT MASH RANGE*. Just because a thermometer is accurate at boiling and accurate at freezing doesn't mean it's accurate in mash range, and most cheap thermometers have a very wide tolerance, meaning you don't know if your 152F reading is 150F or 154F, which is absolutely wide enough to cause a difference. Invest in a good, high quality, ACCURATE thermometer.
i was using brewers friend site with their calculators. i did not add the extra sugar. it is a 5 gallon batch size. i was using a digital thermometer for mashing, nothing fancy. i will look into a better one. any suggestion on brand/type? i am mashing in a fermentors favorite 10 gallon cooler type mash tun. here is another recipe i made twice and both times above abv. i ended up with 7.4%
1.055
OG
1.014
FG
5.4%
ABV
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable Maltster Use PPG Color
6.0 lb
Pale 2-Row (US) Any Mash 37 1 °L
5.5 lb
White Wheat (US) Any Mash 40 2 °L
0.75 lb
Unmalted Wheat (BE) Any Mash 36 2 °L
Hops
Amount Hop Time Use Form AA
0.7 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrüh (DE) 60 min Boil Pellet 4.2%
Yeasts
Name Lab/Product Attenuation
East Coast Ale Yeast White Labs WLP008 75.0%
Extras
Amount Name Time Use
0.5 oz Tamarind 15.0 min Boil
1.0 each Vanilla Beans 3.0 days Secondary
0.5 oz Hibiscus 0.0 min Boil
0.1 oz Grains of Paradise 5.0 min Boil
1.5 oz Plum, Dried 15.0 min Boil
0.25 oz Star Anise 30.0 min Boil
1.0 oz Rose Hips 60.0 min Boil
5.0 each Lemon Zest 0.0 min Boil
3.0 each Orange Zest 0.0 min Boil
0.5 oz Coriander Seed 15.0 min Boil
Stats
Batch & Boil
1.055
OG
1.014
FG
5.4%
ABV
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable Maltster Use PPG Color
6.0 lb
Pale 2-Row (US) Any Mash 37 1 °L
5.5 lb
White Wheat (US) Any Mash 40 2 °L
0.75 lb
Unmalted Wheat (BE) Any Mash 36 2 °L
Hops
Amount Hop Time Use Form AA
0.7 oz Hallertauer Mittelfrüh (DE) 60 min Boil Pellet 4.2%
Yeasts
Name Lab/Product Attenuation
East Coast Ale Yeast White Labs WLP008 75.0%
Extras
Amount Name Time Use
0.5 oz Tamarind 15.0 min Boil
1.0 each Vanilla Beans 3.0 days Secondary
0.5 oz Hibiscus 0.0 min Boil
0.1 oz Grains of Paradise 5.0 min Boil
1.5 oz Plum, Dried 15.0 min Boil
0.25 oz Star Anise 30.0 min Boil
1.0 oz Rose Hips 60.0 min Boil
5.0 each Lemon Zest 0.0 min Boil
3.0 each Orange Zest 0.0 min Boil
0.5 oz Coriander Seed 15.0 min Boil
Stats
Batch & Boil
- Batch Size5.5 gal
- Boil Time60 min
beerlover77
Well-Known Member
This recipe is based on a mash efficiency of 65% (really low) and if you are fly sparging with that setup and grinding your barley really well you will achieve 75-80% efficiency. I set my recipes at 82% and hit them pretty well.
My suggestion is to scale the grain in the recipe down proportionally. You can play with the hop addition in the recipe builder to achieve the same IBU's too.
As far as fermentablity goes, make sure you have excellent thermometers and realize that if you add sugar or mash too low (145-150f) your FG will drop lower
BTW I use Brewtarget (it's free) for a recipe builder and love it!
My suggestion is to scale the grain in the recipe down proportionally. You can play with the hop addition in the recipe builder to achieve the same IBU's too.
As far as fermentablity goes, make sure you have excellent thermometers and realize that if you add sugar or mash too low (145-150f) your FG will drop lower
BTW I use Brewtarget (it's free) for a recipe builder and love it!
d3track
Are you sure about that?
What was your OG/FG from that? Looking like your efficiency is more in the 70-75-80% range...
chickypad
lupulin shift victim
In addition to adjusting your efficiency make sure you are measuring your volumes accurately. You have it set for 5.5 gal batch size, make sure that's what you're really ending up with post chill. Calculators are only as good as the info you put in.
The first recipe with 16lb of grains looks like sometime the efficiency is low, maybe channeling or incomplete conversion. Once I started calculating my first running gravity and measured for complete conversion my efficiency stabilized.
Remos112
Well-Known Member
Another thing that might be helpful is using a mash efficency calculator next time.
Write on a paper the exact amounts of grain you used.
After mashing take a gravity sample and let it cool to you hydrometers calibration temp en then punch those numbers in here.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/
You can then use giving efficiency to finetune your recipes.
Write on a paper the exact amounts of grain you used.
After mashing take a gravity sample and let it cool to you hydrometers calibration temp en then punch those numbers in here.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/
You can then use giving efficiency to finetune your recipes.
beerlover77
Well-Known Member
This is the simple one I use. Takes a reading in seconds
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MCWS5C9/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Last edited by a moderator:
before I had a RIMS setup I used one of these
https://www.morebeer.com/products/12-inch-glass-thermometer.html?site_id=5
Personally any reasonably priced one should do, just try to be consistent in how you measure and keeps notes. For me I can't tell the difference in body for mash temps between 150 and 156 even though some program say so. Temp seem to effect the speed of conversion more than anything in that range for me. When I drop down to 144-146 I do see a lighter body drier beer and I need to get up to 160 to get a full body beer. Your system may work differently, that is why it is important to keep notes and adjust to what works best for your system. Too much body drop a few degrees, too dry go up a few degrees next time, over time you will dial things in.
well i put my recipes into brewtarget and used a higher efficiency rate and found that they come out really close to the abv's i am seeing in my finished product. looks like i will be using around 75% efficiency rate will dial in closer as i go but seems to work. thanks for all the help Ya'll.
Fwiw with a relatively thick mash, proper temp/ph management, and a continuous sparge (ie fly sparge), it's not hard to hit 90% efficiency even on very rudimentary homebrew equipment (cooler w/ false bottom and two kettles, nothing plugged in, all gravity w/ no pumps, etc).
Also make sure your recipes are designed accordingly, especially if not your recipe. People handle them different ways. For some, a 5 gallon batch is 5 gals post boil. For some, that's 6 gals post boil to account for kettle loss and fermenter loss such that you get 5 gals packaged. I operate as the latter. But it can make a significant gravity difference if the math isn't configured correctly relative to how you operate.
Also make sure your recipes are designed accordingly, especially if not your recipe. People handle them different ways. For some, a 5 gallon batch is 5 gals post boil. For some, that's 6 gals post boil to account for kettle loss and fermenter loss such that you get 5 gals packaged. I operate as the latter. But it can make a significant gravity difference if the math isn't configured correctly relative to how you operate.
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