OG Way Off....help?

I just brewed a pumpkin ale and i was supposed to get an OG of 1.060 and I got 1.040 is that bad? where did i go wrong?

Extract, Partial, or All Grain?

Partial. I steeped about a pound of grain for half hour

My guess is that you actually got 1.060, but you measured 1.040 due to inadequate mixing of the top off water.
1 lb grain could contribute about 5 points to a 5 gallon batch, not the 20 points that you think you are off.

-a.

Deathblooms8788 said:

I just brewed a pumpkin ale and i was supposed to get an OG of 1.060 and I got 1.040 is that bad? where did i go wrong?

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How do you expect anyone to give an intelligent answer when you provide absolutely zero details on your process?

g-star said:

How do you expect anyone to give an intelligent answer when you provide absolutely zero details on your process?

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fair enough. Here is my recipe except i didn't use the white sugar. I steeped grain for 30 mins, boiled for 1 hr, cooled wort to just under 80 F and then added wort and then cold water to fermentation bucket. The OG was 1.040 but maybe it's because a lot of the wort was on the bottom and the fresh water was on top.


Grain: 0.5 lb American 20L Crystal
0.5 lb Dark German Munich
Extract: 7lbs Golden LME
Hops: 1oz German Tettnanger
Yeast: Wyeast 1056
Pumpkin: 4-5 lbs (a medium sized pumpkin) baked and pureed
Sugar: 1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
Vanilla: 1 tsp vanilla extract
Spice Mix (you will use 1 tbs of this):
2 tsp ground Cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
0.5 tsp ground cloves
0.5 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp all spice
Half Whirlfoc tablet or equal Iris Moss

Its possible that you didn't mix the top off water well enough with the dense wort, but unlikely. With most of your fermentables coming from extract, I would guess that you're not measuring the final diluted volume correctly (over-shot it) or perhaps your hydrometer is way off, but that is also a less likely scenario.

i think its because i didn't mix the top off water well enough. the more i stirred it the better the reading was

ajf said:

My guess is that you actually got 1.060, but you measured 1.040 due to inadequate mixing of the top off water.
1 lb grain could contribute about 5 points to a 5 gallon batch, not the 20 points that you think you are off.

-a.

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i just took the FG today and it was 1.014 and it was supposed to be 1.018 so pretty close. so should i assume i had a 1.060 and just read it wrong because of the water i added?

Deathblooms8788 said:

i just took the FG today and it was 1.014 and it was supposed to be 1.018 so pretty close. so should i assume i had a 1.060 and just read it wrong because of the water i added?

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If you're sure you had 5 gallons going in, then yes