What is causing my low OG?

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Relatively new to brewing and have been coming across a problem sometimes while extract brewing. I boil 2.5 gallons in a kit, and when I add enough water to get to 5 gallons, I get an OG lower than the recipe called for. My most recent example is an India Black Ale:

Original Gravity per recipe (5 gallons) 1.056-1.060
6.6 lb. LME
1 lb. DME
Calculated OG based on ingredients 1.053

With only 4.5 gallons of water total I had an OG of 1.30!

What is causing this? :confused: TIA

-Space
 
Thank you Revvy! And may I also say how great it is to get speedy responses from everyone and not be called stupid! I am going to like it here :)

-Space
 
Thank you Revvy! And may I also say how great it is to get speedy responses from everyone and not be called stupid! I am going to like it here :)

-Space

I'm sure will find something to call you stupid for at some point...it is the internets afterall. ;)

But this is one of the most common issues that brings folks to our site.

This and dropping the grommet into the fermenter. (We don't even call folks stupid for doing that, since one of the mod's on here's first post was about doing that...and now she'd slap us if we laughed.) :)
 
I think I mentioned in some post somewhere that I've had the best luck with "accurate" extract readings by stirring the crap out of it, THEN oxygenating the wort with my oxygen stone setup, THEN actually taking the reading.

I think injecting the o2 helps the mixing.
 
You really don't need to take a hydrometer reading for OG with extract brewing. If your volumes are correct, you are adding a fixed amount of sugar (extract) so it's virtually impossible to miss your OG. And honestly, if you let the beer sit for at least 3 weeks in primary, you don't really need to take a FG reading either. After that amount of time, it's done doing whatever it's going to do. And if it happens to break, don't buy another. Save your cash for a refractometer.
 
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