Hello everyone, I am hoping I can get some advice to fix a problem I have. I have been brewing for about 5 years and ran into a problem tonight I've never encountered before. When I went to buy my ingredients tonight (extract brewing) they were out of the Amber Liquid Malt extract I needed. I was brewing a Irish Stout that called for 6 lbs of the LME plus 3 lbs of Dark DME The guy at the shop told me I could just substitute 6 lbs of an Amber DME for the liquid ...I didn't question him enough I guess. Long story short I SHOULD have had a original gravity around 1.087 but instead I have 1.15 I pitched my yeast and put a bucket airlock on so it won't blow a little one off the Carboy but I can't let this finish like this...it won't be drinkable Should I split it into two 5 gallon carboys and add more water once I'm sure the yeast is spread evenly? Maybe in a day or two? I don't want to split it now and have one Carboy with all the yeast. Any advice is helpful and if you just want to bust my chops...that's ok too. I deserve it
6 lbs of dry equals about 5 lbs of liquid malt extract if my calculations are correct, that would account for your high gravity.
I'm having trouble making your numbers work. What size batch was this? Using DME instead of LME would cause the gravity points to increase by about 22%, for that portion of the fermentables. So you should have a higher than expected gravity, but not that much higher. If I were going to do this, I'd do it right away. You could gently stir the yeast into suspension before splitting. But I'd probably just let it ride and see how it turns out. Nah, you learned your lesson...don't listen to the guy at the store, unless you have first hand knowledge that he knows his stuff. I will say though...if you've been brewing for 5 years it might be time to step away from using dark extracts. It's better to use light extracts (preferably dry) and get your color/flavors from steeping grains or partial mashes.
Welcome to the BA site, @WeBeBrewing, and to the Homebrewing forum. I definitely agree with this. The mistake that the store guy made is very basic saying that equal weights of LME and DME can be interchanged. He should know that they are not. I'll trust @Vikeman with the 22% figure that he cites, although I've always thought that, since DME usually comes in a 3# bag and LME usually comes in a 3.3# can, that the difference was a 10% offset when comparing equal weights. (I think I recall reading an 18% figure somewhere too.)
It varies a little from brand to brand, but here are some typical gravity Points per Pound per Gallon... LME: 36 PPG DME: 44 PPG 44/36 = 1.22
It was a 5 gallon batch Here is the original recipe 6lbs Amber liquid malt extract 3 lbs dark dry malt extract 8oz crystal 60L 1lb roast barley 8 oz flaked barley Hops 1oz nugget at boil Wyeast #1728 Scottish Ale yeast It is a recipe I had made at least 4 or 5 times successfully before this round.
There's no way using DME instead of LME for that recipe for 5 gallons could have resulted in an OG of 1.150. Did you top off to 5 gallons in the fermenter? And if so, did you mix the wort and water thoroughly?
So I brewed it 8/4/16 and the next night it was bubbling up and out of the hose and into the bucket of sanitizer that I was using as an airlock Before I split it into 2 carboys, I checked the gravity and it was already down to 1.068 I added 1.5 gallons of water to each Carboy and rechecked the gravity . One was 1.036 and one was 1.038 ... So a reduction of .030 to .032 The both were very active yesterday and are starting to slow down today. Wish I could just upload pictures and I would share a few from this trial and error Anyway, To make sure I still have at least some hop flavor I might dry hop in the secondary
I did top it off and shook vigorously before checking the readings. I have NEVER had one this far off before. I'm kind of at a loss
Unless you actually used more DME than you thought, or didn't mix well, or had a lot less than 5 gallons, 1.150 is impossible. Not just unlikely or unusual. Impossible.
Well if I had to guess I would say it's most likely that it wasn't mixed as well as I thought. Even if that's the case, it was still higher OG than I've had before based on the rapid and aggressive foaming after day 1 in the primary The only other thing it could be is if the 6lbs of Amber DME and 3 lbs of Dark DME were not weighed correctly. I really doubt they would be off by much though What formula would I use to estimate an original gravity based on using the DME instead of LME?
If you did not do a full boil, I would guess your batch was not mixed thoroughly when you did your gravity sample.
^Yep. This. Either way, you split your beer, and diluted it after lag phase, at high krausen. Hopefully nothing was contaminated during all this. Good luck, I would let these sit in the fermenter for a few weeks, and then let them bottle condition for a spell too.
