Gravity Readings Don't Make Sense

[TarVolon]

Making a black IPA (or whatever we call them these days), shooting for an OG of 1.056. Took the preboil gravity (volume of about 6.4 gallons), chilled the sample in the fridge during the boil, got a reading of 1.043. That was a lot lower than I'd like--figured with a gallon of boiloff, it'd give me about 1.051. So after I took it off the boil, I decided to grab another gravity sample to be sure. The postboil gravity, with about 5.4 gallons of volume, is reading 1.046.

I'm pretty sure these readings are not consistent with each other. The first one is bad, but the second one is worse, and I think unrealistically worse. Am I missing something, or should I not trust one or both of these readings? Both definitely had a lot of protein floating around, but that's not supposed to affect the reading I don't think.

 

[BigFloyd]

Is this an AG or extract batch?

 

[TarVolon]

Ag

 

[TallDan]

was the wort stirred well before you took the pre-boil sample? If you got some of the first runnings you would expect them to be higher gravity.

 

[TarVolon]

was the wort stirred well before you took the pre-boil sample? If you got some of the first runnings you would expect them to be higher gravity.

Yeah, I stirred for a few minutes, and I do BIAB, so the water on the top was actually the sparge water.