Brew day! Wonderful and scary....

[MrTux]

So, today was brew day. I'm doing a fat tire extract but also adding a secondary dry hop for a more hoppy flavor. Started with 3 gallons of water, got the fermentables and hops on, aroma hops were good, and the wort looked really clear. That being said, my OG for my recipe was supposed to be 1.054 but after adding my final water and riggerous agitation and a concentration on bringing that OG up, my Gravity was 1.040 and I may be cheating trying to "compensate" with temp adjustments. I did not use a whorl-flock tab as I'm trying to reduce the ingredients to the disaster that was my last brew.
First question: why is my gravity so low?
Second: what should I do to compensate?

Thanks in advance to you and the group.

 

[tflew]

Odds are it is perfectly fine. With extract as long as you mix the right amount of extract with the right amount of water you should be at or close to the OG. A lot of times what can happen is it was not fully mixed in when you took the sample and just got a spot at that had a lower OG.

What do you mean you were trying to 'Compensate' with temp adjustments. Did you boil it longer or are you planning on fermenting at a higher?

 

[MrTux]

Odds are it is perfectly fine. With extract as long as you mix the right amount of extract with the right amount of water you should be at or close to the OG. A lot of times what can happen is it was not fully mixed in when you took the sample and just got a spot at that had a lower OG.

What do you mean you were trying to 'Compensate' with temp adjustments. Did you boil it longer or are you planning on fermenting at a higher?

I was cheating on hitting the temp compensation higher than it should be. My hydrometer says to add .002 at 66.7 but my temp was 68. So I went with the higher reading.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I was cheating on hitting the temp compensation higher than it should be. My hydrometer says to add .002 at 66.7 but my temp was 68. So I went with the higher reading.

I've read this is the way to do it too. Ideally, you want to read your hydrometer sample at 60F, and there is a variation of about 0.002 per every 10 degrees higher..so if you read it at 70, you would add 0.002 to your OG reading.

So, today was brew day. I'm doing a fat tire extract but also adding a secondary dry hop for a more hoppy flavor.

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that dry hopping will add hop aroma, but not much, if any, flavor.

 

[hunter_le five]

Why is brew day "scary"? You're making beer, not summoning the prince of darkness.

Did you calibrate your hydrometer with RO water? How did you measure your top up water addition/final volume?

 

[Psylocide]

Why is brew day "scary"? You're making beer, not summoning the prince of darkness.

Hey... you do things your way, I'll do things my way.

 

[snacks]

Hey... you do things your way, I'll do things my way.

lol

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Why is brew day "scary"? You're making beer, not summoning the prince of darkness.

So all this time and money and duct tape I've wasted on virgins blood has been useless?

 

[Psylocide]

So all this time and money and duct tape I've wasted on virgins blood has been useless?

I find it keeps pretty well if you store it in a cool, dark place.

Just be aware of your sanitation practices, hate to lose it to an infection.