redawg77
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- Jul 17, 2008
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I'm on my 10th or so batch of beer. I'm still working my way up, adding equipment as I go... I'll be doing all grain this time next year, but for now I'm still trying to improve my methods with extract.
I haven't been the best about checking my gravities, but made it a point to check OG and FG before my most recent brewday. Much to my dismay, I missed my kit-predicted OG of 1.049-1.051... my reading was 1.040. The question is... what factors could have lead to this big of a miss? This kit (ture brew american wheat) came with 2 cans of liquid malt extract and 1 oz. of hops (30 min boil, no steeping grains)... hard to screw that up. I scraped every last bit out w/ a spoon. I had zero burnt extract on the bottom of the pot - It was all dissolved into the wort while off the burner. I followed the kit instructions to a T. I took the OG sample after shaking the better bottle to aerate, but before pitching (of course). I originally suspected the hydrometer to be faulty, but I tested it in water and came close enough to 1.000 to bust that hypothesis.
I'm just puzzled as to how one can miss OG with extract kits, assuming they don't leave out any additions, and use measure everything properly (5 gallons total). Old extract? I will say that this was a boxed kit from my local brewshop, which doesn't do a whole lot of business. So it's likely it'd been there a while.
Any input appreciated. I'm not too worried about it, as I'm sure I'll end up with some tasty beer... was just curious.
I haven't been the best about checking my gravities, but made it a point to check OG and FG before my most recent brewday. Much to my dismay, I missed my kit-predicted OG of 1.049-1.051... my reading was 1.040. The question is... what factors could have lead to this big of a miss? This kit (ture brew american wheat) came with 2 cans of liquid malt extract and 1 oz. of hops (30 min boil, no steeping grains)... hard to screw that up. I scraped every last bit out w/ a spoon. I had zero burnt extract on the bottom of the pot - It was all dissolved into the wort while off the burner. I followed the kit instructions to a T. I took the OG sample after shaking the better bottle to aerate, but before pitching (of course). I originally suspected the hydrometer to be faulty, but I tested it in water and came close enough to 1.000 to bust that hypothesis.
I'm just puzzled as to how one can miss OG with extract kits, assuming they don't leave out any additions, and use measure everything properly (5 gallons total). Old extract? I will say that this was a boxed kit from my local brewshop, which doesn't do a whole lot of business. So it's likely it'd been there a while.
Any input appreciated. I'm not too worried about it, as I'm sure I'll end up with some tasty beer... was just curious.