thrasher141
Member
I have brewed about ten batches of beer in my life, all but the first being all grain. For a while I was worrying that I was getting low efficiency on my mash process, because my OG readings were always lower than expected, to the point where my mash efficiency would be 50 or 60% instead of an expected 75% or so. A brewer friend recently suggested that my readings might be low because I draw a sample from the top of the carboy before pitching the yeast.
Here's my normal process: cool wort from kettles (I have to use two or 3 b/c they aren't big enough) and pour each into the carboy. Draw a sample with my turkey baster, then pitch yeast.
It's been suggested that depending on how long you wait to take the sample, the high density wort will sink to the bottom and you are left pulling the lighter stuff off the top. Is this true? And does anybody know how much the resulting OG reading could be off by? Like could it read a 1.04 even though overall your wort is a 1.06? That would surprise me if it could be off by that much.
Here's my normal process: cool wort from kettles (I have to use two or 3 b/c they aren't big enough) and pour each into the carboy. Draw a sample with my turkey baster, then pitch yeast.
It's been suggested that depending on how long you wait to take the sample, the high density wort will sink to the bottom and you are left pulling the lighter stuff off the top. Is this true? And does anybody know how much the resulting OG reading could be off by? Like could it read a 1.04 even though overall your wort is a 1.06? That would surprise me if it could be off by that much.