Specific Gravity???

I just brewed my 2nd overall homebrew. My 1st was AHS Brown Porter and both the OG and FG came in exactly what the kit called for. I just brewed a AHS Blue Moon clone and the SG was at 1.050 instead of the 1.053 that the kit called for. Am I going to be ok?

yeah, it will be fine, just a few points, could be because the temp of the wort when you checked it. if it was above 60 degrees F, then you need to add some points depending on the temp.

You mean you didn't hit the OG exactly on the button? Toss it.

I kid, I kid... no biggie at all.

Hey, piggybacking on Dawg's thread... I've brewed two batches now, and both times my OG has been low, and my FG has been a bit high. I think I need a more vigorous boil for the OG (working to date on a terrible electric stovetop), but would this be affecting my FG as well? I've fermented for 13 days in the primary, so it should have had plenty of time. This time it was a wheat beer, and fermented at 64 F, spot on what the recipe called for.

Stumped as to why my gravity is always off.

Thanks!

Brewskiletta said:

Hey, piggybacking on Dawg's thread... I've brewed two batches now, and both times my OG has been low, and my FG has been a bit high. I think I need a more vigorous boil for the OG (working to date on a terrible electric stovetop), but would this be affecting my FG as well? I've fermented for 13 days in the primary, so it should have had plenty of time. This time it was a wheat beer, and fermented at 64 F, spot on what the recipe called for.

Stumped as to why my gravity is always off.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

assuming that you're an extract brewer, the og would only be low if you used more water than the recipe specified. as for the final gravity, that is the bane of extract brewers, it's fairly common to finish high.

how do the beers taste? too sweet?

if they taste good, don't worry about a few extra points, if they are too sweet, consider your yeast choices/ferm temps.

If you only do a partial boil and add top-off water, it is very hard to get the top off water mixed perfectly into the wort . This can sometimes give you some odd OG readings. It doesn't matter, as the active fermentation phase will get things mixed up just fine and dandy.

If you are brewing with extract and steeping grains from a recipe kit, consider not doing an OG at all. You are using a known volume of extract, so all-grain mash efficiency is not a factor here. Your OG will be close enough to what is stated on the recipe to not make any pratical difference.

I am an extract with grains brewer, and haven't taken an OG in over two years. This saves a step when brewing along with the possibility of infecting your wort.

Pez

Thanks guys. You guessed it - I am an extract brewer (for now). My first batch tasted pretty good. I'm not especially worried, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I've got the "have a homebrew" part down. Now I need to relax and not worry.