OG ended higher than expected.

[MHoffSilver]

Hi,

I just finished my first BIAB all grain brew.
Things went quite by the plan, but one "issue" emerged when I was waiting for the hot break.
I was using a new boiler and I did expect a clearer foam forming at the hot break which resulted in a longer boil (10-15 mins.) before I added the bitter hops.
The hopping schedule went according to the plan (totaling to 60 minutes).
When I took the OG sample I ended up with a value of 1035 - while the expected OG was 1029 (in BS).
My question now is if the 10-15 minute longer boil is the cause for the higher OG or may the reason be some other factors (eg. malt grinding too fine)?

Will a longer boil have any influence on the overall taste of the beer?

/Morten

 

[Simonh82]

Boiling for longer than planned will concentrate the wort and increase the OG. 1.035 is still a pretty modest beer and 1.029 would be pretty much dish water (2.5% ish).

If you find yourself in a similar situation in the future you can always top up with cooled booked water to get to your planned OG, but I think you did yourself a favour on this one.

What's the recipe BTW?

 

[simon12]

Beersmith takes into account many things in your equipment profile and works out the OG based on the efficiency %. If you get less volume and higher OG then it will be because of the extra liquid boiled off, if you got the correct amount of beer in the fermenter then it is the efficiency that needs adjusting, this assumes the dead space is set correctly in the equipment profile. But like Simonh82 said a longer boil will leave you less beer at a higher gravity.

 

[geetee]

Boiling for longer than planned will concentrate the wort and increase the OG. 1.035 is still a pretty modest beer and 1.029 would be pretty much dish water (2.5% ish).

If you find yourself in a similar situation in the future you can always top up with cooled booked water to get to your planned OG, but I think you did yourself a favour on this one.

What's the recipe BTW?

Agree with Simonh82 about topping up but also this is a very low expected OG. Assuming you ferment down to 1009 this would still only give you a 2.6%ish ale, is that what you wanted?

 

[MHoffSilver]

Thanks for your replies :)

I was actually aiming for a low ABV session type which should end up in the 2.5% area - with the new OG it ends as approx 3.5% given that it ferments down to 1009. Still a Session Ale. :)

I scaled the 25 boil vol from the original recipe down to match the gear profile I have here in the house.

Target Fermenting Vol: 12 l. (Botteling Vol: 10 l. - I know ... but I aparently have a FV loss of 2 l ... last time I measured it)
Grail Bill
0.85 kg Pale Malt - 5.9 EBC (48.6%)
0.60 kg Wheat - 3.9 EBC (34.3%)
0.3 kg CaraRed - 40 EBC (17.1%)
Hops
13 g. Ahtanum (60 min)
13 g. Tettnang (1 min)
25 g. Amarillo (1 min)
24 g. Amarillo (Dry)
12 g. Tettnang (Dry)
Yeast
WLP002

I think that I still managed to get something usefull into the fermenter because the airlock is bubbling nicely, and the smell from it is very nice.

 

[geetee]

I think 3.5% as it will be is a fine session ale and would happily drink a few but not sure I would set out to make a 2.5% ale however that's just me. Still if you are happy with it then all the better

As George Formby used to say " turned out nice again!"