Og

I just brewed a IPA and according to the recipe the og should be between 1.068-1.073. My og was 1.040 or so. Should I be concerned?

Thanks!

Joe

This an AG recipe I assume? That's a big undershoot but may well still taste great. Can you post the recipe/methods/etc? Would be nice to get to the bottom of it so you can make adjustments for next time.

Was it an extract kit? If so, it's really tough to miss the OG. It's just not mixed thoroughly. The fermentables are still there, but the layering of the water is throwing off your readings.

Concerned? Never. But you should certainly determine what caused the low gravity. Really need to know your process before any assumptions can be made.

Here are my ingredients.

4.0 lbs Alexanders Pale Malt Extract
4.0 lbs Light Dry Malt Extract
0.5 lbs Crushed Crystal Malt 40L
0.5 lbs Crushed Maris Otter malt
0.5 lbs Crushed Biscuit malt
1.0 oz Chinook Pellet Hops (60 min boil)
0.5 oz Cascade Pellet hops (30 min boil)
0.5 oz Cascade Pellet Hops (15 min boil)
1.0 oz Cascade Pellet Hops (5 min boil)
1.0 oz Centennial Pellet Hops (Dry)
1 Pkg Brewers Yeast
5.0 oz Priming Sugar

I steeped the grains for 45 minutes at 155 degrees and then brought it to a boil and started adding ingredients and hops at the intervals above. I’m kegging the beer so I added the priming suger to the boil as well. I know some say it’s not necessary but since I paid for it I use it. After the boil I cooled it rapidly with my wart chiller topped it off to five gallons and took the og which was around 1.040 and then pitched the yeast, covered and added airlock. The reicpe said the og should be around 1.070.

Something seems wrong.

As of this morning my airlock was not bubbling I brewed the beer Wednesday night and my basement where I’m storing the wart is around 63 degrees. There are a bunch of small air bubbles in the water which is in the airlock but it’s not bubbling.

Thanks for any input!

We get this question every day

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) 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...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

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 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

More than likely your true OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

That makes sense. Next time I will stir after topping off with water. What about the airlock not bubbling after a day and a half?

Airlock activity means only that the airlock is bubbling, not whether or not the beer is fermenting or not. It's a vent, a valve to release excess gas from the fermenter, and that gas could simply be from a change in temp or barometric pressure, or the cat nudging it, it's not a fermentation gauge. Take a hydrometer to know what the beer is really doing.

What should i be looking for from a hydrometer reading, something lower then my original reading of 1.040?

joesixpack said:

What should i be looking for from a hydrometer reading, something lower then my original reading of 1.040?

Click to expand...

There's no possible way that your OG was actually 1.040. I think the heavier wort "sunk" and you got a watered down sample from the top.

4 pounds of Alexander's and 4 pounds of DME alone (not including any fermentables from the grains) would give you an OG of at least 1.055 in a 5 gallon batch. The sugars are in there, even though you got a bad sample.

What kind of "brewer's yeast" did you use? If you got one of those small 5 gram packages (next time buy better yeast!) from Cooper's or Munton's, it might take a while for the yeast to reproduce and get going. If you open the pail, you'll start to see some activity probably like foaming on the top, chunks of yeast floating on top, a ring of dried "stuff" around the top of the beer, etc.

So i popped the top and there was everything you said would be going on, foaming on the top, chunks of yeast floating on top, a ring of dried "stuff" around the top of the beer, etc.

After further inspection of the airlock i found that the rubber seal was torn almost all the way off so i'm sure that is why there was no activity. I put some gorilla tape over the seal and cut the hole out and stuck the airlock back on.

It seems at this point i'll just have to wait a few weeks and see how things turn out.

Thanks for all your input!