Unexpected Low SG and Wrong Color

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Austin_

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Last night I tried my hand at making my first non-kit recipe. It's as follows:

3/4 lb Crystal 40L (steeped 30 min @ 165)
1/4 lb Crystal 20L (steeped 30 min @ 165)
3 lbs Amber LME (boiled for 60 min)
3.5 lbs Pale LME (added last 15 min)
1. oz Nugget (boiled for 60 min)
1. oz Glacier (boiled for 10 min)
White Labs 060 American Ale

The brew session went fine. The color came out more like a pale ale, but I'm guessing that next time I should use some darker speacialty grains. The big problem came when it was time to take the gravity reading at the end of the night. It came in at 1.032. I thought "well this can't be right." The hydrometer didn't have any bubbles on it and it was at 65 degrees when the reading was taken. Just to be sure I shook the carboy up and took another sample and I had the same hydro reading. My question is what are some of the explanations that could explain why the SG is actually that low or my hydrometer is off?

Either way I went ahead and poured in my starter. By the time I left for work this morning it was bubbling away nicely. Hopefully I won't end up with a 2-3% abv beer.
 
Something was off with either your water amount(you added too much) or your hyddrometer. Even without the grains and just factoring in your LME your sg with 5gallons should of been 1.044. CHeck your hydrometer in 60d water but I am willing to bet that the problem was actually with the amount of water that you added.
 
Looks like you'll have a decent lawnmower beer you can drink all day long!!! Arneba came up with the only other possible explanations I can think of.
 
Weird. By rights, your OG should be between 1046 and 1052, depending on the LME chosen. You're *sure* you stirred the **** out of the wort in the primary? That's the only thing I can think of.

Cheers,

Bob
 
Omg I made a post and I was correct. I feel honored. Maybe I am moving out of nOObishnes with my 1000th post.

Could also be that you didnt still the lme in all the way. not sure.


(a tear just came to my eye)
 
Omg I made a post and I was correct. I feel honored. Maybe I am moving out of nOObishnes with my 1000th post.

Could also be that you didnt still the lme in all the way. not sure.


(a tear just came to my eye)

No, I was just trying to make you feel good. I sent a PM to the OP telling hime what really went wrong.:D
















(just kidding)
 
Is it possible that you forgot the amber malt? that would accout for both the OG and the color.
Using the recipator http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator, I get an OG of 1.051 and a color of 20 hcu. Without the amber malt I get 1.029 and 11 HCU

If you're sure that you put the amber malt in, I'd guess that your hydrometer could be miscalibrated. You can check it by putting in a glass of plain water and seeing if it measures 1.000 (either way I'd recomend throwing it away and not replacing it, but that's just my opinion)
 
I boiled 3 gallon and then added 3 gallons to the fermentor. I figured the extra gallon would help offset the loss from boiling. Oh well, like McKBrew said, I'll atleast have a nice beer for the hot weather down here.
 
I boiled 3 gallon and then added 3 gallons to the fermentor. I figured the extra gallon would help offset the loss from boiling. Oh well, like McKBrew said, I'll atleast have a nice beer for the hot weather down here.

Well the extra gallon could certainly have something to do with it! Think about it this way, you added 20% more water than what your recipe called for even though it seems like "only a gallon". While it is true you lose some volume due to evaporation, you don't lose that much. What I do is boil 3 gallons, then top up until I have 5 in the fermenter.
 
How much water does one usually lose in the boil? I figured I'd lose 3/4 a gallon during my boil.
 
It varies with the intensity of the boil and the atmospheric conditions present around the boil. But unless you've got a brew kettle capable of boiling more than 5 gallons, I'd say you're approaching the question backwards. Just boil as much as you can, then top it off to 5 gallons in the fermenter.
 
It really depends. Boil off rates are affected by temperature, time, etc... The ony way to know for sure is to find a way to measure your pre and post boil volumes. I bought a wooden dowel rod from Home Depot, and poured a gallon at at time in my boil kettle and marked it. Then I permanently etched the markings into the stick using my soldering iron as a woodburner.
 
I have 5 gallons marked on the outside of my carboy with a sharpie that I fill up to. That may be your best bet in making the right amount.
 
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