Midwest kits and undershooting my OG

The past two kits I have done from Midwest I have undershot the OG the first was a honey porter which came in about 1.046 instead of the 1.056 it called for, and I did a cream ale last night and it ended at 1.033 both samples were at 60 degrees, and both recipes were a partial lme. Am I over boiling these? I did a full 60 min boil.

Thanks

Not sure, but "mysteriously" I seem to miss all of my OG's when I use a Midwest kit as well. Funny, it doesn't seem to happen with other kit providers like AHBS and Williams. Maybe it is just the cynic in me, but just maybe there is a reason the Midwest kits are constantly cheaper than the other guys...

So, now I just add to my Midwest kits to reach my goal OG. For instance, I bought their standard Porter kit and added 16 oz, of my own honey and 1 lb. of Crystal 60. Even with the addition of the honey and grains, I came out with 1.046 OG - which is the OG they state their standard kit produces. Hmmmm.

In all seriousness, I really don't care how a kit is packaged for a company to meet their margins (after all, they must make money to stay in business) - I am more concerned about truth in advertising on what I am buying. After all - on a pre-measured, pre-packaged beer kit, you should pretty much hit dead on with all your OGs every time.

I also routinely miss O.G.'s as well with Midwest kits (although I get an efficiency of 75%). This never happens with Northern Brewer kits.

I have never missed an OG with Midwest kits, but nearly always do with Morebeer. But I have NEVER missed an OG by 10 points!

Also, if you are "over boiling" you will have a HIGHER OG... because you will drive off more water and retain a higher concentration of sugar.

Did you thoroughly mix in all the top off water with your partial boil volumn before you took the gravity reading? I've had my OG off from that. Have brewed several Midwest kits and I have not noticed any drastic gravity offs as you report.

I have brewed two Midwest kits, one extract, one partial mash. I did NOT follow their two-pot mashing method and instead used my 2 gallon cooler MLT. Got around 74% efficiency on the mash, and hit slightly over the OG (by 0.002). I did not adjust the kit, and I took the reading from the primary fermenter after topping up to exactly 5 gal, before pitching the yeast.

Hmm... I never thought there were any issues with efficiency on PM and all extract brewing. The specialty grains don't give off that much fermentable sugar, I thought the extract has all the sugar you need and it is a matter of getting into a liquid form from the gooey mess you start with.

My question is what does beersmith say? How much extract did they send you and what does beer smith say your OG should be when you plug the recipe in?

There seems to be a bit of confusion as to what type of Midwest kit you are using. Was this an extract, partial mash, or all-grain kit?

If it was an extract kit, you have to be adding too much top-up water. If you're using a carboy and expecting that the carboy holds a certain amount of water and adding top-up water to reflect this, you should probably measure it's actual capacity. Often times, they hold more water than their advertised size. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/actual-volume-5-gal-carboy-89216/

I've been part of the extract ale-of-the-month club for over 2 years, and have never had issues with the OG estimates. The stuff is pre-weighed and packaged by Briess.

he says both kits where a partial LME but he doesnt say how much wort was collected.....

I myself never had any probs with midwests kits until i went to AG with out my own crusher.............hit 3 in a row under 10

With any partial boil, you should hit your numbers every time. Just do a gravity reading before adding any top up water. Then only add enough water to bring the gravity down to your target. You may only end up with 4.5 gallons at the proper gravity but at least it should reflect the taste it is supposed to give.

Linc

That's a great ideal, I have been doing 1.5 to 2 gal wort batches. And then I top off to 5 gal ( I actually measure 5 gal on the carboy and fill to the line, so I should be close.

Both of those kits are extract and steeping grains only, right?

Yes. On the cream ale I added a little corn sugar to try to put the OG back up a little, but I did not take another reading( big dummy) .

I am in the opposite with Midwest kits. I have been getting higher OG with them and my only comparison is AHS kits which were right on point. I attributed my last batch's overage (from 1.048 to 1.058) due to me changing my technique (from what the kit instructions said).

What was different in your technique?

I use Midwest extract/grain kits most of the time, and almost always fall within the gravity range they list, start and finish. Sometimes it's short a point or two, the last was actually 2 points over the top of their range, but never 10 points off. I'd say you are either adding too much water, or not getting the wort mixed good enough, as others here have said.

Also, make sure you are getting *all* of the LME into your boil pot. You really need to add a bit of warm water to the jug, cap it, then shake it until all of the residual is dissolved off the walls and pour it into your kettle.

The Pol said:

I have never missed an OG with Midwest kits, but nearly always do with Morebeer. But I have NEVER missed an OG by 10 points!

Also, if you are "over boiling" you will have a HIGHER OG... because you will drive off more water and retain a higher concentration of sugar.

Click to expand...

+1 to this entire post. The Midwest bashing at the start of this thread is lame. They are a great company and are not trying to rip you off. I spent my entire first year of brewing, 25+ batches, mostly Midwest kits and never had any problems. A couple points off at the most. The MoreBeer kits I did usually had some ridiculously stated OGs that I rarely came close to hitting.

You might be topping up or finishing with too much volume. I'd check your technique first...

First of all I never was bashing the company, If you read the post thru I am asking for suggestions on why this may be happening as I was going by the directions completely. I mentioned midwest because that was the kit I was using.

Lighten Up!!

What's to lighten up about? I didn't say it was you. I was more referring to someone else's comment about "truth in advertising". But believe me, Midwest isn't out to get one over on homebrewers.

mklawz said:

+1 to this entire post. The Midwest bashing at the start of this thread is lame. They are a great company and are not trying to rip you off. I spent my entire first year of brewing, 25+ batches, mostly Midwest kits and never had any problems. A couple points off at the most. The MoreBeer kits I did usually had some ridiculously stated OGs that I rarely came close to hitting.

You might be topping up or finishing with too much volume. I'd check your technique first...

Click to expand...

+2, I have had trouble hitting my OGs in general but I justed tasted a Midwest Irish Red that was my second AG and it is the best beer I've brewed after 15 or so batches. I just started a Northern Brewer kit, otherwise it's been all Midwest or LHBS. Their customer services is phenomenal and other than the last order, the previous 5 or 6 arrived the next day via FedEx ground.