Original Gravity Question

Hello all......any help or advice is appreciated on this one: I made an all grain chocolate milk stout yesterday. After boil and coil down (before yeast pitch) , i put the wort in the fermentation bucket and took a sample to measure the OG. Target on recipe sheet was 1.049. My measurements gave me a 1.064. Any thoughts on what happened here?

Thanks !!!!!!

Is it possible that  you read the PREBOIL gravity and then are comparing that to the POST boil reading? Than sounds reasonable.

But if not, and assuming that:

• your scale is reading right (ie; 10lbs is really 10lbs) -
• and that your hydrometer is good (if you have another it is worth a comparison) and you have compensated for temp -
  

All I could offer is that you boiled off more than expected ..... giving you the increase in OG.

Check all your numbers in BEERSMITH,
Let us know what you come up with!

There are lots of things that could cause this, but first, we need more detail.  Could you post your recipe for us to look at?

What was your:
Pre-boil gravity?
Pre-boil volume?
Post- boil volume?

I only measured the SG after boil and prior to yeast pitch. It seems that I should be looking at pre-boil numbers possibly for the OG. Anyway: The recipie is:

8 lbs rahr pale ale malt
0.75 lbs fawcett pale choco. malt
0.25 lbs english extra darkk crystal
0.75 lbs weyerman carafe III
0.75 oz cluster hops - boil 60 mins
1 lb lactose - boil 60 mins
.5 oz cluster (30 mins)
4 oz cocoa nibs at secondary
wyeast yeast #1332
Sacch rest at 152 F - 60 mins
Mashout - 170F 10 mins

Thanks again and excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb A.. question LOL!!!

I did almost the exact same thing on last batch.  I have been focusing on the water volumes, and lautering very slowly and efficiency has gone way up on the last several batches.  Then I boiled more aggressively and that boiled off more water.  The recipe predicted 1.050 and I hit 1.064.

I think the pre-boil estimate was around 1.042 and I was at 1.052 or so at pre-boil, so unexpected gains can come from numerous places.  BSmith is only as smart as what we enter as the expected results. 

So now that I've seen higher EE% a couple times and know it's repeatable, I need to adjust my EE% that I tell BSmith so I use less grains next time, and I need to watch my boil vigor, or tell BSmith that I'm going to boil it harder every time.

Do you measure your post boil volume, or just pour it into the fermenting vessel?

I always pour my chilled wort from the boil pot into a marked bucket, and then into the carboy. This ensures for good aeration while also giving me a chance to add some water if it doesn't measure up in the bucket. 

I've had brews where I expected 1.040 and got 1.060 because I anticipated 5.5 gallons and after the boil had a gallon less than that.  Since then I do pre-pitch volume adjustments as necessary. In my case I'm on a well, so I don't worry about the water. If you're in the city you might want to have some bottled water handy for the top-off.

+1, get anal about your volumes.  What I did was take an empty one gallon jug and quart measuring cup to measure volumes on a carboy.  I started at 4 gallons and then did 1/4 gallon increments up to 6 gallons.  At each volume measure with a tape measure and log it on a piece of paper.  I'm anal about volume of mash and sparge water too.

Mark

I'm usually quite anal about my measurements, and I found out the hard way that it pays. I had asked about my gravity on a Bock, and realized that I was very loose with my water in my mash and sparge.
Just did a Belgian Blond and this time I watched it a lot closer and my gravities are within .002 of what they should be and it's sittin here bubblin' away as we speak. Lesson learned, I'll not 'guess' on my water as I'm in the middle of a brew.