I probably should have asked this earlier

[slow6i]

I have a variation of Cascade Log Jam Pale Ale sitting in the fermenter right now. Its about to go into a secondary for 5 days, with a dry hop addition and then bottled and conditioned for around 2 weeks.

Now, Beersmith reports that my est OG should have been 1.059. I measured 1.034 going into the fermenter, and im wondering why that is.

I followed times exactly as well as volumes, and my steep temps were the most consistent ive ever had. (within 4 degrees starting at 145F)

I know its only an estimated 1.059, but im wondering what would have contributed to such a massive (seemingly to me) drop in OG.

Recipe is below in text and in beersmith format (v2) if you more advanced BS users care to inspect it. (Its stored at rapidShare, so if you have a problem with that site, dont click the link.)

CascadeLogJam.bsmx

Recipe

Steep 30 mins In 2.5 gallons. Wash grains with .5 gal boiled water.
1# CaraPils
1# Crystal Malt 40L

Remove grains
0 Min - Add:
3# Amber Dry Extract
3.3# Amber Liquid Extract
3/4# Corn Sugar (Dextrose)

10 Min - Add:
1oz Centennial Pellets

50 Min - Add 2oz Cascade Pellets

1 Hr - End Boil; Cool.

Cooled to 70F. Added 1 vial White Labs WLP041

Top up to 5 gal.

Primary Ferment 14 days.

Dry Hop 1 oz Fuggles Whole Leaf Hops
Dry Hop 1 oz Cascade Whole Leaf Hops

Secondary Ferment 5 days.

What do you more experienced brewers think? It tastes great right now from my sampling, but im just curious about the OG / FG difference.

Thanks
Ben

edit: Added water info. I cant believe I forgot that.

 

[res291que]

How much water did you use? If you added an extra half gallon it could defiantly impact OG. Your gravity for this recipe mainly comes from the DME.

 

[Krazykripple]

did you do a partial boil? with extract it can be difficult to get wort mixed well with water, which causes bad SG readings

 

[res291que]

Sorry also the LME and sugar the grains will ad some flavor and body and some fermentables but not much.

 

[CidCitrus]

If you topped off with water after the boil, like you would in a partial boil recipe, you likely just had poor mixture of the wort and got a false reading.

If not, it seems to me like your process was fine and someone more experienced should chime in.

 

[billl]

With extract, the only way to truly miss your OG like that is if you put in a different amount of water. Otherwise, there was a problem with the measurement.

Light stuff rises and heavy stuff sinks. If you took a sample from the top and it wasn't mixed well, you got a bunch of light stuff that didn't accurately reflect the whole batch. Don't worry.

 

[homebrewdad]

If you topped off with water after the boil, like you would in a partial boil recipe, you likely just had poor mixture of the wort and got a false reading.

If not, it seems to me like your process was fine and someone more experienced should chime in.

This is the answer. Your gravity is set by the amount of extract you used. If you used the right amount of extract and topped off to the right volume, just use the recipe's OG, not your measurement - all that has happened is that you haven't fully mixed everything (which is extremely difficult to do). Good news is that the yeast will do this for you during fermentation.

Relax.

 

[slow6i]

Thank you for the responses. I'm not really worried about it. I was just curious why the gravity readings would be so far off. More for a learning experience than anything.

This is the answer. Your gravity is set by the amount of extract you used. If you used the right amount of extract and topped off to the right volume, just use the recipe's OG, not your measurement - all that has happened is that you haven't fully mixed everything (which is extremely difficult to do). Good news is that the yeast will do this for you during fermentation.

Are you saying to use the original recipe's OG in Beersmith? Or just use the recipe's OG for my notes? Though now, they are the same thing.
I thing im going to buy a thief for the next batch so I can take a full sample (from bottom of fermenter to the top of the wort line.)

 

[helibrewer]

You cancalculate the OG based on your fermentables.

CaraPils (1.033) = Steeping, not significant
Caramel (1.035) = Steeping, not significant
DME (1.045) = 45 pts X 3# = 135
LME (1.035) = 35 pts X 3.3# = 115.5
Corn sugar (1.045) = 45 pts X .75# = 33.75

TOTAL pts = 284.25 pts
Divide this by your batch size for the OG. So for 5 gallons 56.85 or 1.057. The .002 difference from BeerSmith accounts for a little contribution from the steeping done in the software.