Yesterday I brewed up some midwest kits. I did their Irish Red Ale, and a Oatmeal stout which I added 1/2lb of chocolate malt to.
In my previous two brews I"ve not bothered with SG readings and everythings turned out fine, but since I'm trying to make this hobby a learning process I decided to check my SG's to see how i was compared to the what the recipe sheets said.
The Irish Red was a SG of 1.031 but the recipe says it shoudl be around 1.042-1.046
My Oatmeal stout was a 1.013 and the recipe says it should be a 1.042-1.046
What did I do wrong?
I brew in 5 gal batches, and lose anywhere from 1-2 gallons in the boiling process. I transfer the contents of the brewpot to my carboy through a counterflow, and get the wert down to about 85-90* and then fill my carboy with water to reach my desired 5 gallons.
I then siphoned out some of each beer into a test tube and took my hydrometer readings, and got the above numbers. Now...I understand how a hydrometer works, and that my final alcohol content is the SG-FG, but i'm a little worried that the irish stout SG was = to the FG!
I took multiple readings, spun the hydrometer in the tube, tried bouncing it...always remained the same. What can I do to fix it? Or maybe my hydrometer is just broken?
In my previous two brews I"ve not bothered with SG readings and everythings turned out fine, but since I'm trying to make this hobby a learning process I decided to check my SG's to see how i was compared to the what the recipe sheets said.
The Irish Red was a SG of 1.031 but the recipe says it shoudl be around 1.042-1.046
My Oatmeal stout was a 1.013 and the recipe says it should be a 1.042-1.046
What did I do wrong?
I brew in 5 gal batches, and lose anywhere from 1-2 gallons in the boiling process. I transfer the contents of the brewpot to my carboy through a counterflow, and get the wert down to about 85-90* and then fill my carboy with water to reach my desired 5 gallons.
I then siphoned out some of each beer into a test tube and took my hydrometer readings, and got the above numbers. Now...I understand how a hydrometer works, and that my final alcohol content is the SG-FG, but i'm a little worried that the irish stout SG was = to the FG!
I took multiple readings, spun the hydrometer in the tube, tried bouncing it...always remained the same. What can I do to fix it? Or maybe my hydrometer is just broken?