Low OG/thick sediment

Hey all,
Just finished my very first brew. All went reasonably well, however, my OG seemed low. While cleaning out the pot etc, I was surprised to see a rather large amount of sediment at the bottom of the pot. Is this normal? The main issue I had during brew was the fact that I decided to do a full boil, which now seems to be a mistake given my electric stove burner (took some time to reach boil). I wonder if the two correlate. I estimate a 1/4" to 1/2" of sediment sitting on the bottom of the pot. I stirred frequently ...

Appreciate any thoughts ... Hoping for the best!

What you are discovering is all the hot break, cold break and hop debris, totally normal and has no bearing on your readings.

I'll assume this was an extract recipe. Most likely your OG is off because your full boil volume may have been off. In addition, if you did add top off water that could cause the lower threading as well.

Totally Normal. That sludge is hop matter, hot break, cold break (if you chilled in the pot) its official name is Trub. A full boil is the way to go... dont think you made a mistake there. No problem that it took you a long time to get the boil going, chilling as fast as you can is much more important than time to boil.

As for a low gravity, can you be more specific on your recipe and measurements?

The recipe was extract - Brewer's Best IPA. It calls for an OG of 1.061. Mine came out more like 1.041. My local brew shop instructed me to boil 6.5 gal of water to boil down to 5. I never made it ... Was still sitting at 6 gal at the end of the process. I only siphoned 5 gal into the fermentor. Might this effect it? Could be read error too ...

Thats your answer; six gallon instead of five. The boil off of 1.5 gal. consentrates the sugars in the wort, so you get a higher reading at (1.061) 5 gal. and lower at 6 gal. Try a partial boil next time with the electric stove. Boil 3gal. of water with the kit and top up the fermentor with 2 or more gal to get the 5 you need. Stir or shake to mix it well before taking an OG reading and pitch when the temp. is right. Cheers

Thanks for the responces. BOBrob, how might this effect my final ABV/taste?

MacClure9 said:

Thanks for the responces. BOBrob, how might this effect my final ABV/taste?

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It won't for the most part. Partial boils do affect hops utilization but I think most kits are formulated assuming partial boils.

Will definitely try something different the next time. What might I expect from this batch, however? - low ABV, thin, less taste? Greatly appreciate the comments, thanks!

The easiest solution to this is a $20-ish dollar turkey frier outside. It ends the worry about boil over cleanup too.

Ok. 26 hrs into fermentation and it is going crazy - spilling over air lock onto top of bucket. I don't have any blow off supplies. Should/can I do anything or hope that it doesn't blow!

MacClure9 said:

Ok. 26 hrs into fermentation and it is going crazy - spilling over air lock onto top of bucket. I don't have any blow off supplies. Should/can I do anything or hope that it doesn't blow!

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LMAO! Dude you need a blow off tube! If you are lucky the tube you got for bottling is the same diameter as the airlock gasket/plug, sanitize it and squeeze it in there and run the other end into a growler or jar with water/sanitizer.