1.084??? Is this possible?

First time brewer

Here's the recipe

1lb crystal 110 steeped 20 minutes
3.5 kg LME half added at 60 min half added at 5 minutes
1 oz northern brewer at 60 minutes
1 oz cascade at 20 mniutes
1/2 oz hallertauer at 10 minutes
whirfloc tablet at 10 minutes
1/2 oz cascade at 5 minutes

never used a hydrometer but with direction from a friend who is a homebrewer took a sample with the thief and came up with 1.084. Is something wrong with the hydrometer or did i use too much LME. I thought the math was correct

How much water did you brew with. What was the wort temp when the sample was measured?

only way it should be at 1.084 is if it is a 3.5 gallon batch. did you temperature correct?

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE using extract and then topping off with water (and that includes partial mashes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

it doesn't matter what your reading was.....the "real reading" in an extract batch is what it said it would be in the recipe or beersmith....Whether or not you mixed it up enough before you took the reading it mixed itself up fine during fermentation.

So unless you had a final volume a gallon or so higher than 5 gallons....you recipe will be fine and at the OG it was supposed to be,

I bet your OG is EXACTLY what it is supposed to be.

brewed with 2.5 gallons. hydrometer taken with wort at about 76 degrees. yes i topped up with about 2.5- 3 gallons water right before i took the reading. I then pitched 5 grams of safale s-04 and areated for a coupler of minutes.

So revvy...you say everything should be fine? can i get an accurate reading at some point?

exbrit said:

brewed with 2.5 gallons. hydrometer taken with wort at about 76 degrees. yes i topped up with about 2.5- 3 gallons water right before i took the reading. I then pitched 5 grams of safale s-04 and areated for a coupler of minutes.

So revvy...you say everything should be fine? can i get an accurate reading at some point?

Click to expand...

no you have to trust the calculation of the recipe...trust me this happens ALL THE TIME WITH EXTRACT BREWERS AND BREWS...

But you WILL get an accurate final gravity...the wort and water automatically mix themselves during fermentation, but since fermentation has begun, the numbers will already be below the origianl gravity range.

exbrit said:

brewed with 2.5 gallons. hydrometer taken with wort at about 76 degrees. yes i topped up with about 2.5- 3 gallons water right before i took the reading. I then pitched 5 grams of safale s-04 and areated for a coupler of minutes.

So revvy...you say everything should be fine? can i get an accurate reading at some point?

Click to expand...

the problem is that when you used the thief, you drew from the bottom, where the majority of the extract was, and not enough water had gotten yet. since the yeast has been pitched, a reading is pretty much out of the question now (for OG anyway).

However, with extract, it is pretty much impossible to not get at least close to the Expected OG as long as you use the right amount of extract and the right amount of water.


EDIT: Damnit, Revvy, let someone else help people sometime! You're always popping in and taking care of everyone, selfish bastard!

thanks for the help guys.

so revvy and berserker..

are you saying i should have mixed the fermenter up for a few minutes once i added the 2.5 gallons of water..

if i do this next time then take the hydrometer reading ami good to go?

thanks for the help guys?

if you want an accurate OG reading, then yes you need to REALLY mix up the wort before you take a sample. this will end up helping you anyway, as it will aerate the hell out of your wort which will make your yeast very happy. like Revvy said, 5 minutes of stirring would help a lot.

exbrit said:

thanks for the help guys.

so revvy and berserker..

are you saying i should have mixed the fermenter up for a few minutes once i added the 2.5 gallons of water..

if i do this next time then take the hydrometer reading ami good to go?

thanks for the help guys?

Click to expand...

I treally takes a hellova lot of "elbow grease" to get it to mix together with extract batches...and it is really not necessary, because it WILL mix during fermentation, it is just that it plays havoc on the OG reading...BUT as I have said as long as your final volume is exactly what the recipe calls for (meaning you topped off to 5 gallons if that is what the recipe tells you to do.) Your original gravity that the recipe says it should be is correct

With extract or extract with steeping grains, you are not converting any starches into fermentables yourself...the maltser who made the extract did that already, so there is NO room for error....later when you get nto partial mashes and/or all grain you will not be mixing water usually with a thicker wort...what goes into your brew kettle you converted yourself and various things like time, temperature, water chemistry, and crush of your grains will affect the gravity, and give you a range of potential graivities...ANd you will be boiling down from a higher amount of liquid to 5 gallons but that's for later.

Right now the only way you can affect the gravity from what the recipe calls for is by the volume of wort you put into the fermentor.

revvy and beserker..thanks so much guys

one final question. since im not realy sure what the recipe says the OG will be (i had to improvise on a recipe for an ESB for my first batch) when should i take hydrometer readings and is there any way to figure out the ABV? The recipe using the LME and grains said around 5.5 percent. All i really changed was the hop additions.

I plan on leaving in primary for a few weeks before bottle conditioning.
Once again, thanks for the help when i am as experienced as you guys i hope i can share that knowledge with dumb noobs such as myself

Well a lot of us have bought brewing software like beersmith which we use...

But I higly recommedn the free one that I got started with. Beer Calculus . homebrew recipe calculator

Just imput all the ingredients and it will tell you what the gravity, color (srms_ and level of bitterness (ibus) will be.