low specific gravity

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themashedone

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my name is steve and i just boiled up my first batch of beer a hefweizen with some fresh ginger root. this was an extract brew with the directions followed. except for the ginger. i dumped my wort into the glass carboy toped it off and took a hydrometer reading i got 1.020. which worries me. im wondering if this reading is like this because i didnt airate the un yeasted beer. the sample was drawn directly off the top due to not being able to get any deeper to get sample. if i still get low readings can i throw some dme in to boost.

Please help
themashedone
 
Welcome, in the future post questions like this in the beginner's section. This area is where people announce contests and stuff. :mug:

Relax, this is one of the most common ist timer posts on here, and the answer is the same.

One thing to realize is the it is hard to miss your OG in an extract batch, and in reality you more than likely DIDN'T.....It's just that it is USUALLY difficult for the original gravity to actually REFLECT this fact.

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

If your target volume was correct, then it will be fine.

More than likely your true OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

This is one of the most common newb first time posting topics on here. It happens to everybody.

Your beer is fine, and you don't need to mess with it, or try to fix it
 
thanks alot im pretty sure i got the right amount of water i picked up five gallons bottled water. however i did not take in the boil off effect so next time i will guage a line on the fermentation tank to be more precise. once again thanks
 
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