Thinking I missed the OG, by a lot

I'm using the Beer Captured recipe for Victory's Hop Devil (Pg 102) and the book's recipe is:

8oz German Munich Malt
8oz German 65L dark crystal
8oz Cara-Munich
7.5# Extra light DME
6oz Malto Dextrin
2oz Centennial (60 min) 9.5% AA
1/2oz East Kent Goldings (15 min)
1/2oz Cascade (15 min)
1oz Cascade (3 min)
1/2oz Cascade (dry hops)
1 tsp Irish Moss
Wyeast 1056


The malts I got were close enough, but not exact. DME and malto dextrin were correct. The AA% of the hops I used were close enough to match the recipe.

My LHBS had WLP051 as all the Wyeast are special order.

So, I go through the process of the partial boil, chill the wort, and add water to hit the 5 1/8th gallons the recipe calls for. I don't remember if I checked the gravity before or after pitching the yeast starter, but it shouldn't make a huge difference. Gravity reading is 1.041 after temp correction. All my other brews have hit very close to the intended OG.

The book says 1.067-1.069 OG, 1.018-1.019 FG, 65 IBUs, SRM 16, and 6.3% ABV.

Beer Calculus, with the same ingredient lineup says: 1.078 OG, 1.019 FG, 9 SRM, 42.3 IBUs, 7.9% ABV.

I'm trying to figure out if my hydrometer is screwed up or what...I know I added two 3 lbs packages of DME plus 1 lbs 8 oz from another pack for a total of 7.5 lbs. The 3 different steeping grains were measured at the LHBS by the employee, and the malto dextrin was measured on a digital scale, so I have no idea where the gravity could possibly be wrong.

On top of that, after using the bottling bucket to add the water to top off to 5 1/8th gallons and siphoning into the carboy, the hose came out and I spilled some the wort and ended up with less than 5 gallons in the carboy.

I was pumped about this brew and I'm hoping it's not an effed up mess.

I don't think you can dissolve 7.5 lbs of DME and get less than 1.067 unless you make a lot more than 5 gal. So, you might have had a strange reading. Even if you just steeped the grains and didn't mash them, you can't possibly be at 1.041 unless the wort was 180 deg. or those 3lb packages were only 1lb packages.

That's what I was thinking. I'm wondering if something happened between the last time I brewed about 2 months ago and now because I just checked my hydrometer in tap water. 80* water and the hydrometer reads right at 1.000. But that temperature correction is only +0.003...meaning the correction on the reading I got makes it about 1.044. Still pretty impossible. I'm going to go pull the packages from the trash and look at the half bag I have left.

3x3 lbs packages and I used 2.5 of them. I guess I'll grab a new hydrometer the next time I'm out and compare them. I think I might have an old spare from a Craigslist buy.

one thing to realize is the it is hard to miss your OG in an extract batch, and in reality you more than likely DIDN'T.....It's just that it is USUALLY difficult for the original gravity to actually REFLECT this fact.

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"

If your target volume was correct, then it will be fine.

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

The other hydrometer reads 0.940. Weird.

Revvy, you're exactly right and I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. I pour the water in to the fermenter in a way that I thought would have mixed it alright and I didn't stir it at all. It had a nice froth on top, but obviously it didn't mix properly. I pitched the yeast and then siphoned it into the carboy. The end of the hose was just inside the next of the carboy so it splashed down in there and should be fine. I did a couple full boils prior to this one and just forgot to stir. All should be well.

jtkratzer said:

Revvy, you're exactly right and I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. .

Click to expand...

'cause I answer a dozen posts about this a day..... I understand what you all are thinking before you do...:fro:

Looks like everything is fine as I had a nice 2-3" thick krausen and vigorous activity in the carboy in less than 12 hours. The krausen is already starting to shrink a bit. Smells good and I'm looking forward to drinking my first IPA.