Taking OG reading from top of wort or bottom?

Hello all,

Pretty new to brewing I'm attempting to make a Munich dunkal. After doing the boil and adding malt and dextrose I took a hydrometer reading the wort was at about 60 degrees my reading was 1.040. I put my fermenter in my largering fridge and chilled it to 10.5 degrees took another hydrometer reading from the top of the wort and it was 1.046 than I took a reading from the bottom and it was 1.050. I decided averaging the last 2 readings 1.048. Is this the best way to get an OG reading to judge the final abv?

Thanks,
Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated

Are you doing full boils or topping off with water? Of you are topping off you are seeing normal stratification of the water & wort gravity will be closer to actual after shaking and stirring the top off.

The aeration of the wort, if it is vigorous, will mix the ingredients so the sample can be taken from the middle with the beer/wine thief. Doesn't always happen though. Sometimes it is more accurate to calculate the OG by the ingredients and the volume in the fermentor.

This is a pretty good calculator to use.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/extract-ogfg/

I boiled 12L and topped it up after I added to fermenter

jekeane said:

Are you doing full boils or topping off with water? Of you are topping off you are seeing normal stratification of the water & wort gravity will be closer to actual after shaking and stirring the top off.

Click to expand...

G'day
I did a 12L boil and topped up with cold water to 23L