Original Gravity Question

When I finish making my wort sometimes there are a large number of suspended particles whether it be from hops/grains/ect. Does this skew the original gravity?

For example I just brewed what was supposed to be a http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewi...h-kits/carmelite-triple-grain-tripel-kit.html kit. I was retarded and did one of my first brews drunk (lesson learned and never again). It went alright (possibly some burning involved but I hope not). When all was said and done I took both a hydrometer reading and a Brix reading. The hydrometer read 1.100 while the Brix read ~18. The brew seemed extremely cloudy so it was hard to tell if it would even skew the results, thoughts?

My refractometer was just tested with distilled water a few weeks ago and it read A-Okay

Maybe. Your numbers don't check out. As a simple test, you can take your brix multiplied by 4 to get a rough estimate for your OG. In this case 18*4=1.072. Something(s) is off.

A few things I'd check....

-What was your water temp in the hydro jar?
-What does your hydro read with plain water at 60 F?
-I usually take a few refract readings because I never seem to get the same reading three times in a row.
-What volume did you wind up with? What volume were you suppose to get?
-You may have got amazing wonderful extraction (doubtful), added extra sugar drunkenly, didn't dilute, etc.

I forgot to mention I added some extra sugar(ish) to kick it up an extra 1% using http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_21_73_404&products_id=10137 .

I will definitely test my hydro and take more Brix readings in the future as I never thought about that.
I did dilute correctly up to the 5 gallon mark however I didn't take a temperature reading of the hydro water which I never thought to do (only thought about taking temp of wort which I don't tend to do due to risk of infection.

I appreciate the response and will take heed in the future

Your best bet is not to worry about it. The beer may be good or bad. Your notes may be off but who cares. If the beer turns out good, you'll have a harder time reproducing it but it's not the end of the world. If it sucks, who cares?

Ya that is off a lot something is up. Is your refractometer ATC. It may be that or the temp of hydrometer test. But it usually isn't that big of a difference unless your temp is pretty hot. The suspended trub will change your reading a little but shouldn't be probably more than 5. When I test with my hydrometer I usually take a larger sample and put it in the fridge to try to settle everything and bring out and test then.

One thing to keep in mind with the particles that are suspended in your beer.... if they were much lighter than the beer, they'd be floating. If they were much heavier than the beer, they'd sink quickly to the bottom. Pretty much by definition, anything that stays suspended in a low viscosity fluid like wort for more than a minute is probably a very similar density to the wort, and therefore not likely to influence your gravity reading much.

a gravity reading is based on what is dissolved in the liquid, not suspended. floaties won't change it