Continued Gravity Problems

I continue to have problems discerning an accurate OG.

With tonight's beer, I took the reading and it was 1.049 (which included the correction for temperature). According to hopville's beer calculus, I should have gotten an OG closer to 1.061.

I have been doing partial mash extract brewing, but I did thoroughly stir the wort before taking the OG reading. I feel that this is one of the most basic parts of brewing, but something I never seem to get right.

So I guess I have a few questions:

1) Is there something I could have done that could have legitimately created a beer with an OG so radically different from the formula?

2) Could something be wrong with my hydrometer?

3) Is there a particular hydrometer style that is pretty foolproof that you might recommend?

Thanks, all!

IMO and this is mostly a guess, but based on some personal experience, I think that you may be off on your volume measurements or just as likely, your system losses. The first is simply mechanics and the second an accounting issue. Double and triple check that you have all that under control first, then proceed with the investigation.

Odds are that nothing is wrong with your hydrometer. Ir'a certainly possible, but not very probable. You can check your hydrometer in plain water and it should read 1.00. My advice would be to avoid leaping to conclusions when dealing with any aspect of brewing. Consider everything, for sure, but try not to be swayed by the first suspect to enter your head. The partial mash process is pretty straightforward and it's difficult to screw it up, so something else must be at the root of the problem.

The only thing I can possibly conceive is going wrong is that my sample isn't representative of the whole. Would I be better off siphoning the liquid from the bottom instead of stirring and drawing from the top?

1a) If it's AG or a partial mash, your crush and/or your mash temps can determine the fermentability of your wort, and that obviously could result in grav readings that are not what you want.

1b) 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"

2) Possibly, have you calibrated it in distilled water to see if it's right?

3) Nope, a hydrometer is a hydrometer is a hydrometer, if the wort isn't thoroughly mixed then all the hydrometers in the world won't read accurate.

I suppose I did only stir for about two minutes. I'll look forward to the next batch to try again.