OG reading too low -possible causes?

Brewed a batch of Brewer's Best Continental Pilsner this morning. Lost about 2 gallons of water through the process (used 2 pots each starting with 2.5 gallons in each) I dumped the chilled wort into the fermenter as instructions stated and added enough water to get to the 5 gallon line, perhaps a tad more. There was still some wort in the pots after I dumped as I was supposed to leave the trub (I think that's the term for ugly junk) in the pot.

My OG with temp correction is 1.037 yet the instructions say the OG should be above 1.044. This seems considerable to me, but I'm not sure. The only reason I can think of is because some of the wort had to be left in the bottom of the pots with the trub and that I added water and brought it just over the 5 gallon mark. Would those small items cause the OG to be that much lower?

Thanks a bunch.

BTW, tasted the wort and I was surprised it already tasted like beer, although very bitter and full of sediment. Can't wait till month end so I can brink it.

You may have left those gravity points in the pots. What you're calling trub is actually called hot-break - trub is a by-product of fermentation. You don't need to worry about keeping it out of your brew until you start getting into some serious 'perfect' pilsener brewing. It's actually good for yeast, so next time leave it in.
By serious pilsener brewing, I mean, taking care of water chemistry, crash-cooling and proper oxygenation of wort, proper yeast pitching rates and strains, and lagering times and temperatures. If that's where you're at, then by all means, keep the hot-break (and cold-break for that matter) out of your brew, if not RDWAHAHB

Thanks for the info. In some recipes I had read you were supposed to add everything into the firmenting bucket, but with this one, it said don't dump the sediment in. I did manage to cool the two pots I had from 200 to 70* in less than 15 minutes in the sink thoughand also used distilled water. (even though I never checked the Ph or any of that) I just checked the firmentation bucket and the yeast is going full blast. The lid is bowed out and the airlock is bubbling like crazy.

That was a lot of fun and I hope it turns out good. Next beer will be a light Lager as it will take some time to drink this batch and all my storage areas are getting a lot cooler since it's winter here now.

You probably have nothing to worry about. Most likely the wort and the top off water were not mixed properly and the heavier stuff is on the bottom of the fermenter. This is of no worry though as the yeast will find the sugar and the act of fermentation will mix it up. I am assuming you are using extract, and it is very hard to miss your gravity when using extracts.

MikeInCtown said:

The lid is bowed out and the airlock is bubbling like crazy.

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The lid really shouldn't be significantly bowed, that's a sign that there's some significant pressure in the bucket, which isn't good - you don't want the top popping off. That can happen if the fermentation is vigorous enough to clog the airlock with krausen, which is why it's a good idea to use a blowoff tube instead of an airlock for the first few days until fermentation calms down.

cubbies said:

You probably have nothing to worry about. Most likely the wort and the top off water were not mixed properly and the heavier stuff is on the bottom of the fermenter.

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+1, this is one of the most common 'mistakes' made by first-time brewers. Doesn't have any effect on your beer, just freaks you out when your OG seems to be way off. Unless you make any big glaring mistakes (forgetting some extract, leaving a huge amount of wort in the kettle, or missing the target volume in the fermenter) there's really no way you can seriously miss your OG when extract brewing.

Thanks for the warning about the lid. I checked on it again and it's really going now. Blew out about half the water from the airlock. I'll keep checking it throughout the day to make sure everything is alright.

I also appreciate the comments that extract is hard to screw up. Even though I left the junk in the pot when I dumped the wort into the firmenter, there was sediment that got into the primary. When I stirred in the additional water, I didn't reach into the bottom and stir up all the sediment. So I see where that could have caused the OG to be lower. I also didn't reach bottom when stirring in the yeast. Since the instructions said to keep the sediment out of the primary, I didn't want to risk stirring it up. Lesson learned and I should have known that it would drop back out again in 15 minutes anyway.