i brewed up a G pils and the intended OG i was shooting for was 1.050-55 ended up with 1.060 when all was said and done, i opted not to dilute and just let her rip. i brewed the beer on 5/23/20, and had about a 36-40 hour lag, nothing out of the ordinary for a cold pitch, anyway my question is does missing a target OG even have a noticeable impact on the finished beer besides the ABV? Or is it just another thing in home brewing some of us fuss over when you really don’t need to? cheers
A small overshoot of 10 points like that may increase your ABV by nearly 1%, and could impact body of the finished beer by a very minimal amount. A larger increase of say 20 points will be more noticeable. But in general, for a small increase, I agree with you, don’t sweat it.
One other thing to keep in mind perhaps is that there may be a volume related reason for the higher gravity. If you intended to get 5 gallons but only ended up with like 4.25 gallons because your boiloff rate was unexpectedly high, this could give you a short fill in your keg and you could be missing out on several pints of beer. This might matter to some people in some cases. Others might not care and just let it ride. But volume is a direct impact.
Kinda depends on what your FG winds up being, if it’s 5 or 10 points higher than planned that’ll definitely chance mouthfeel and drinkability, if it’s ends lower then you’ll just get tipped over a little quicker ;).
Yeah, I agree with what was said. But I also think it really comes out to your goals. We aren’t production breweries so we can have variation. But if you’re trying to make an identical beer every time for competition or whatever your reason is, figure it out. Though, it’s nothing to worry about in most cases. It depends on the beer you’re making. The balance could be off but I feel in general, just another thing to worry about. When it’s higher, I don’t care. When it’s lower, I complain lol
Well said, and I agree. Well, other than it has to be a LOT lower before I complain. But I brew for styye brewing, not necessarily the beer. As long as I’m in the ballpark and the beer is drinkable I’m happy. I can look a55 gravity variations as interesting examples to solve.
I too agree. If you were shooting for 55 SG and came in at 60, that is only a 9% difference. You will be fine. I normally try to shoot for no more than 4% difference (usually try to stay within 2%), but hey, things happen. Post boil volume could be less, OG calculations could be off, mash efficiency could be off, or whatever. As Denny said, as long as it is drinkable, don’t sweat it.
If I mash in lower than expected, due to winter conditions, typically, I heat the mash with a HERMS recirculation and typically come in a few points higher than a mash that simply hits the expected temperature for the mash. But with the typical temperature (148-150F for lagers) mash, I find that I can bump it up a little with 3-4 stirrings during the mash. I discovered this when using the Anvil Foundry (they recommend that regimen). Anecdotal, for sure, but I make a lot of similar pilsner recipes and it has been data points from that.
Depending at what stage you’re in - your pre-boil wort is higher than expected - you could take out a litre or so and replace it with water, boil that litre and keep it as a krausener in the freezer? or anything
I think that the numbers we assign to a beer before we ever taste it has a big effect on our perceptions when we finally do taste it. Not a lot we can do to avoid this bias besides either not measuring stuff and/or by putting the beer into the taste buds of someone we trust for an honest opinion.
i tasted it ,carbed some up in a pet bottle with a carb cap it was good, still needs some conditioning but all in all its definitely not a dumper nor is it a comp winner but im happy, im getting closer everytime