An OG conundrum.

Guys,

Yesterday I brewed up what I intended to be a belgian triple. I used the following.

7 lbs of light gold DME
3.3 lbs of sparkling amber LME
1.5 lbs of Belgian dark candy

I used 2.25 gallons of water for my boil and I had a bit of a struggle mixing it all in. There were no clumps but there was a lot of foam and bubbles which I got rid of by boiling for about 15 minutes ( maybe 20) before doing my 60 minute boil with hop additions.

After the boil I aerated the wort by pouring it between my fermenter and kettle 9 times then added chilled water to get my volume up to z5 gallons.

I did not stir at all after adding the water to the wort and when I took my OG I was expecting somewhere around 1.080 instead it was only 1.068! I'm totally confused here. I added to smack packs of realist ale yeast and bubbling began within 4 hours.... I've actually never seen so much bubbling in an airlock but I'm still confused about the OG..... Who can help me understand this?

We get this question every day

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"

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

I would think the gravity should have been higher than 1.080 for a 5gal batch. Maybe you got a bad hydrometer. Maybe you had some air bubbles stuck to it when you took the reading.

Agree with Revvy, you say you topped off and didn't mix at all. The top off water is less dense and sits on top of the denser wort. If you pulled a sample from the top or just floated your hydrometer in the bucket the gravity will be low. Had you somehow been able to pull a sample from the bottom, it would have read high. The only way around this is to mix the crap out of it, or with an extract brew, hit all your volumes, add all your fermentables and trust the recipe.

Yeah, after reading Revvy's post -- he's right.

I did not stir at all after adding the water to the wort and when I took my OG I was expecting somewhere around 1.080 instead it was only 1.068!

Click to expand...

Revvy is right. It happens all the time. I don't know where you got your estimated OG but it should have been a lot higher with all the fermentables you have. More like 1.098

Actually when I used my ibrew software (ipad AP) it said I should be around 1.088. I'm glad you guys have encountered this bwhateefore because I was truly at a loss. Especially given the fact that the entire room where I have my primary smells like whatever fumes leak out of the airlock. I've never Brewed a beer that began fermentation so quickly and vigorously! Thanks for the help fellas!