Accurate OG readings

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dropjaw83

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What's the best way to get an accurate OG reading. I've only been doing extracts for now. What I've been doing is putting is pumping a little of my final mix into the hydrometers holding case and read from there. The problem is that it seems to stick to the side of the tube and I'm not sure if this is a an accurate reading or not.

My other question is that I brewed a Dunkelweizen today and had a really high OG when I finished. It said I should be at about 1.052 or less. My reading I got was roughly 1.059. Any thoughts? Should I add more top off water? Or am I fine?
 
If its sticking to side, try spinning the hydrometer, might help a little. Make sure you are adjusting if the wort is above your calibration temp.

.059 isnt too high, might just end up with a slightly stronger beer, i wouldn't worry about it.
 
dropjaw83 said:
What's the best way to get an accurate OG reading. I've only been doing extracts for now. What I've been doing is putting is pumping a little of my final mix into the hydrometers holding case and read from there. The problem is that it seems to stick to the side of the tube and I'm not sure if this is a an accurate reading or not.

My other question is that I brewed a Dunkelweizen today and had a really high OG when I finished. It said I should be at about 1.052 or less. My reading I got was roughly 1.059. Any thoughts? Should I add more top off water? Or am I fine?
Click to expand...

Assuming an extract recipe the OG being high is probably due to a poor mix of top off water and wort. It is nearly impossible to get a thorough mix and most readings will either be high or low as a result.

It's pretty hard to not hit OG on extract recipes unless something was really screwed up in the process.
 
I had my hydrometer sticking to the side of my tube once and then realized the patio table I had it on wasn't level. I probably had a few too many homebrews that day...
 
Let any foam settle first, then tilt the hydro tube until it floats centered. It takes a little effort, but you can get it to work.

duboman said:
Assuming an extract recipe the OG being high is probably due to a poor mix of top off water and wort. It is nearly impossible to get a thorough mix and most readings will either be high or low as a result.
Click to expand...

+1

I had quite a hard time getting readings I was satisfied with when I used top off water, even after shaking and stirring pretty thoroughly.
 
duboman said:
Assuming an extract recipe the OG being high is probably due to a poor mix of top off water and wort. It is nearly impossible to get a thorough mix and most readings will either be high or low as a result.

It's pretty hard to not hit OG on extract recipes unless something was really screwed up in the process.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I did an extract with steeping grains and thought the OG was off, but it probably wasn't, end up at the called for FG in the recipe as well.

It's pretty hard to get it all mixed up in there and taking an accurate reading, as well as compensating for the temperature difference.

Most if not all of the fermentables are from the extract, so it's hard to miss it unless you added way too much water for some reason, or left some out.
 

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