Am i good? Hydrometer reading.

This was a stout my brother and I wrote up but we never figured an OG for it . This reading is after 2 weeks in the primary. Tastes pretty good albeit flat.

That seems to be right - I have a stout that strated at 1.058 and after 12 days is at 1.020

Thanks! Also do I get the OG from the recipe I am brewing by taking a reading before I pitch it in the primary? This is my first hand written recipe for a chocolate brown ale. My house smells so good right now!

What did you have for fermentables? I had 7lbs of LME and 1 of DME and a pound of brown sugar for 5 imperial gallons (6 US gallons) = 1.058 OG w/ Nottingham yeast, so 1.020 after 12 days. I'm thinking you were similar.

in terms of recipe formulation, you pick your OG based off of style/experience and then brew to that selection.

you check your actual OG, like you said, after all fermentables have been added along with top off water prior to pitching. this gives you an idea of how you did putting the ingredients together (mashing in the case of all-grain brewers), a starting point for monitoring the work your yeast will do, and a way to estimate your abv.

@jmprdood
Yes, very similar ingredients.

@recuedogrr2010
Thanks for your input. It has been 6 years since I last brewed, but this is my 3rd batch in the past month and a half, and I am learning so much from this site.