More Beer Pliny extract kit

[izumidai]

I recently brewed a More Beer Pliny kit and my OG came in at 1.080. My target was supposed to be 1.070 - 1.074. I fermented for 5 weeks and checked gravity throughout fermentation during dry hopping. FG got down to 1.018 and had held there for over a week. I figured this was probably all this beer was going to go because of the extra gravity points in the beginning and this kit also includes 8oz of maltodextrin. I bottled today, but now I am a little fearful that I just made two cases of hand grenades. This is the strongest beer that I have brewed to date and I have never bottled anything with a FG that high. Should I be worried or is it common for higher octane beers to finish that high and be ok in the bottle. I carbonated the 5 gallon batch with 4oz of priming sugar if that info is helpful.

Thanks!

[theobrew]

Especially with extract that's not too high of a FG. I wouldn't be worried about bottle bombs. Worst case you might have a little over carbonation. If that happens just swirl your beer in the glass some before you drink it.

[Ozwald]

What yeast was in the kit? You're right about 78% attenuated, so the yeast probably isn't going to do a whole lot more. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Pretty much all beers with a high OG are going to finish higher - you can check them against ADF (Apparent Degree of Fermentation) with some brewing software, or just searching "attenuation calc". You can also look up your yeast & see what kind of attenuation it normally gets.

For example, 001 is listed as a 73-80% attenuating yeast.

For 80%ADF, 1.060 will have an FG of 1.012. 1.080 will have an FG of 1.016. As far as the yeast is concerned they did the exact same amount of work.

You can change the fermentablilty with a number of different techniques in the brewhouse, but you're still going to be pretty close to the range listed by the yeast manufacturer. It'll become 2nd nature in time, but you can get a good idea of where you should end up by checking those. It's also a good way to figure out if you might have a stuck fermentation.