Hitting Your OG (Part 3 of 3: Over) 

IMG_1912Most of the time, when we miss our target original gravity (OG), we are low. However, it can happen that your extract efficiency is higher than you expect and your OG ends up being higher than you planned for. The most frequent causes of this adjusting your grain mill to a smaller gap, using a new base malt, or just learning the ropes and starting to get the hang of things. As with coming in low, you have a couple options.

The first option, of course, is to just accept the higher OG and brew a stronger beer than you intended. If you were brewing a hoppy beer, you might want to adjust the hop amounts up slightly to take the lowered hop utilization into account. However, unless you’re way over your target OG, you can probably just add your hops as planned and be fine.

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Handy Homebrew Equation

Screen Shot 2015-02-20 at 2.05.32 PMThese days, most homebrewers rely on recipe formulation software to help them calculate the relevant numbers (expected OG, IBU, SRM, etc.) for most brewing situations. There is, however, a simple equation that frequently comes in handy that may or may not be included with your brewing software. And in either case, it’s so simple and handy that you should just memorize it.  [Read more…]