Made a quad. Overshot gravity. Low on volume...so..halp?

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by atomeyes, Apr 17, 2015.

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  1. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    This is perplexing. i've looked over my recipe 10 times and can't find the gaffe.
    made a quad and greatly overshot the gravity. was aiming for 1.078 on a 70% efficient system (wanted to keep the efficiency low) and ended up with 1.105.

    my end volume also was low. probably closer to 4 gallons than 5 gallons.

    so...
    should i top up with water? how much water?
    or just leave it?

    and who can find my error (other than perhaps efficiency)
     
    #1 atomeyes, Apr 17, 2015
  2. Prospero

    Prospero Pooh-Bah (2,680) Jul 27, 2010 Colorado
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Top off with water, at 1.105 the alcohol (by my math possibly as high as 12.5%?) might come across as heat in a quad which isn't what you want. I'd add a gallon to make it 5

    Technically it looks like you need 1.38 gallons to make it 1.078
    http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

    You probably didn't make an error other than not sparging with enough water or not topping off your kettle to your calculated boil volume (or wrong evaporation rate, or didn't calculate for mash or kettle loss, or hop saturation, etc.)

    Gravity is directly related to volume. You could have extracted all the sugars properly, but just need to dilute it as your recipe was calculated on a different final volume than you achieved. (in essence, gravity is a sugar density reading, not a quantity of sugar reading)
     
    #2 Prospero, Apr 17, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2015
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  3. Brew_Betty

    Brew_Betty Initiate (0) Jan 5, 2015 Wisconsin

    1.078 won't make a quad. 1.105 will make a quad. Consider this a happy accident.

    You could add some water to get it into the 10-11% range or brew it as is.
     
    #3 Brew_Betty, Apr 17, 2015
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  4. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,552) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    Actually, with a 1.078 OG, if the yeast were to finish with a FG lower than 1.010 (not out of the question) he would be over the 9% ABV threshold which is the lower ABV for the style.

    @atomeyes I would try to get a more accurate volume measurement than "probably closer to 4 gallons than 5 gallons" and go from there. If you know you have exactly 4.25 gallons of wort in the fermentor, then you can add maybe 0.75 gallons of water (depends on the capacity of the fermentor and the size of krausen the yeast will put up). You will need to know exactly what your pre water addition and post water addition are to calculate the OG of the post water addition wort.
     
    #4 jbakajust1, Apr 17, 2015
  5. Brew_Betty

    Brew_Betty Initiate (0) Jan 5, 2015 Wisconsin

    Quad = go big or go home

    I'm going to need to see the recipe before I call it a Quad or something else.
     
    #5 Brew_Betty, Apr 17, 2015
  6. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    hey everyone,thanks for the advice.
    i had to leave for a family dinner, hence the lack of measurements. going to measure it in a bit. i added a large starter (1.5 litres) so the OG is going to be down probably closer to 1.100. will measure it first and then calculate.
    boiling 5 quarts of water and then chilling.

    still curious as to where my error happened. usually, my sparge volumes are bang on. i feel like it calculated for a 60 min vs 120 min boil regardless of my input
     
    #6 atomeyes, Apr 18, 2015
  7. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    so i'm at around 15.5 litres. going to add 3 litres and call it a night and/or take gravity
     
    #7 atomeyes, Apr 18, 2015
  8. AlCaponeJunior

    AlCaponeJunior Grand Pooh-Bah (3,452) May 21, 2010 Texas
    Society Pooh-Bah

    Rename it and pretend you intended to make a [whatever] the whole time. :rolling_eyes:
     
    #8 AlCaponeJunior, Apr 18, 2015
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  9. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    added water (3.5 litres) to approximately q.s. it up to 5 gallons. did a shake after. assuming it wasn't a 100 homogenous mix and stuff. took a sample and gravity was at 1.074. close enough to my target that i'm happy.
     
    #9 atomeyes, Apr 18, 2015
  10. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    and the recipe is approx:
    11 lbs pilsner
    1 lb carapils
    0.5 lb special b
    0.5 lb c10
    2 lbs d45

    1 oz hallertau at 20 min
    1.5 oz saaz at 60 min

    120 min boil.
    pitch with the chimay yeast
     
    #10 atomeyes, Apr 18, 2015
  11. bgjohnston

    bgjohnston Initiate (0) Jan 14, 2009 Connecticut

    I tend to over-boil on cool, dry days early in the brewing season. It's just the way it is when you are outdoors. The longer the boil, the more extreme the difference in final volume and OG.

    I would guess your process and your brewhouse efficiency were unchanged, and the volume difference is where your anomalous result came from. Maybe try watching your volume more closely during the boil on longer boils when it's cool and dry weather, and you should do great.
     
    #11 bgjohnston, Apr 18, 2015
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  12. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    What program are you using? Does it have a boil-off rate parameter, and what is it set at?
     
    #12 VikeMan, Apr 18, 2015
  13. sergeantstogie

    sergeantstogie Initiate (0) Nov 16, 2010 Washington

    This is what I was thinking as well. I had a really similar day when I brewed back in January. Cold and dry. My boil off rate was crazy high.
     
    #13 sergeantstogie, Apr 18, 2015
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  14. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    BeerShit (natch. still need to buy a computer to run your software).

    it was around 20 C yesterday.
    boil-wise, i always tend to err on the side of more vigorous rolling boil (as opposed to that gentle rolling boil...but not the insane-o boil).

    boil-off is 0.5 g/hr
    evap rate is 8.5%
     
    #14 atomeyes, Apr 18, 2015
  15. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    0.5 g/hr seems pretty low for most setups. Have you tried measuring your actual boiloff (with water for example)?
     
    #15 VikeMan, Apr 18, 2015
  16. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    i forget if that was inputted based on the Blichmann Boilmaker's specs or not. considering it was a 5 gallon batch in a 15 gallon set-up, i should perhaps increase the boiiloff #.
     
    #16 atomeyes, Apr 22, 2015
  17. atomeyes

    atomeyes Initiate (0) Jul 13, 2011 Canada (ON)

    and no. i haven't. logical to do, i guess, but my small brain's having a tough time wrapping its head around the logistics of measuring the water water if some doesn't have an industrial scale to just measure the kettle
     
    #17 atomeyes, Apr 22, 2015
  18. psnydez86

    psnydez86 Initiate (0) Jan 4, 2012 Pennsylvania

    Would boil rate change if you boiled 3 gallons water in a 7.5 gallon kettle versus 5 or 6 gallons of water in the same kettle?
     
    #18 psnydez86, Apr 22, 2015
  19. jbakajust1

    jbakajust1 Pooh-Bah (2,552) Aug 25, 2009 Oregon
    Pooh-Bah

    Have you calibrated the kettle at all?
     
    #19 jbakajust1, Apr 22, 2015
  20. CurtFromHershey

    CurtFromHershey Initiate (0) Oct 4, 2012 Minnesota

    There shouldn't be a significant difference if the same vigor of boil is achieved for both
     
    #20 CurtFromHershey, Apr 22, 2015
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