Low start gravity

I made a Gluten Free Pale Ale last night. It has 6lb sorghum syrup, 1lb Sucanat sugar full boil (2 1/2 gallon water). Then 2 1/2oz of cascade pellet hops spaced out in the boil. I also added 1/2tsp irish moss in the last 10 min. The starting gravity was 1.040, supposed to be 1.050, is that bad? 1st time trying Gluten Free.
Steve

It's been said many times, many ways. When brewing an extract, you must stir thouroughly, and then some, prior to taking a gravity reading. If you follow the directions, you can't have a gravity lower than expected. As opposed to an all grain brew where the equipment and process can effect the expected gravity.

I think you're fine. Press on.

If it was a full boil you dont need to stir sinse there is no added water and the boil will blend it just fine
What temperature was the gravety checked at? (this will also affect the reading)

And a 1.040 worth is not too bad for a session beer

arhomebrew1 said:

I made a Gluten Free Pale Ale last night. It has 6lb sorghum syrup, 1lb Sucanat sugar full boil (2 1/2 gallon water). Then 2 1/2oz of cascade pellet hops spaced out in the boil. I also added 1/2tsp irish moss in the last 10 min. The starting gravity was 1.040, supposed to be 1.050, is that bad? 1st time trying Gluten Free.
Steve

Click to expand...

I'm confused, you say you did a full boil, but then say 2.5 gallons of water.

Did you actually 6 lbs of sorghum into a 2.5 gallon batch?

I'm going to assume you meant something else (otherwise your OG should have been like 1.1, which would be huge).

Beyond that, when you are using extract, there are a couple reasons you wouldn't hit your target OG:
1) The target OG you calculated was incorrect (math error, incorrect amounts of extracts, etc) for the ingredients intended
2) You didn't use the ingredients intended (you measured your extract wrong and only used 5 lbs, or you added extra water and ended up with 6 gallons in the fermenter)

Since the target OG you listed matches up closely with what I got from an online calculator, I'm guessing that isn't the issue. Number 2 seems possible.

However, there are also several ways you can hit your target OG, but get a different reading:

1) Inadequate mixing of wort with top-off water, as someone already mentioned
2) Inaccurate reading. There are plenty of things that could throw off your hydrometer reading. An inaccurate hydrometer, bubbles, chunks of stuff floating in the sample...hydrometer sticking to the side of the test jar...just plain reading it wrong...incorrect temperature correction...

Sorry about all the confusion. I don't have a big enough pot to boil 5 gallons of water. I should have said I boiled 2 1/2 gallons for an hour, then added water to the fermenter to bring it to 5 gallons. The temp was around 70 degrees F. This is the same as I have used numerus times with other beers. Non Gluten Free. I will let you know how it turns out in 5 or 6 weeks. Thanks for the replies.