New Brewer, Noob Mistake and Question about Cold Break and OG

OK, only mildly embarrassed.

Made my 4th batch today (partial mash - 3 gallon stockpot stovetop partial volume boil setup) and thought I'd give whirlpooling a try while the boil kettle was cooling in the ice bath. I stir it anyway, so why not let it do double work for me, right?

Start racking off the cooled wort, and it's *really* thick, almost gummy. After I've racked off maybe a gallon, I say, "This is taking too long," and decide to just pour it into the fermentation bucket. Wasn't getting any aeration with racking it anyway.

Pour off about half of what's left, and *then* I remember to use a strainer. I'll do a secondary and it'll clear up more or less, no big.

What I'm wondering is, I took an OG sample, and it said 1.040, which seems ridiculous, because the target is 1.064, and I can't think of how I'd be that far off. There was a *lot* of cold break material floating around in the sample vial. Is that throwing off my reading?

Thanks.

Your wort was most likely not mixed thoroughly with the top off water.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/at...inal-gravity-reading-wrong-dont-panic-289735/

Awesome, thanks for the reassurance and link. Makes perfect sense to me. I didn't stir at all between topping off and measuring OG, but shook mightily after I pitched. Should end up just fine. I was confident that it would make for a nice drinking beer, but now I'm more confident that it'll make something like the stout I was looking for.

breckenridge said:

Awesome, thanks for the reassurance and link. Makes perfect sense to me. I didn't stir at all between topping off and measuring OG, but shook mightily after I pitched. Should end up just fine. I was confident that it would make for a nice drinking beer, but now I'm more confident that it'll make something like the stout I was looking for.

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Yup! RDWAHAHB!