My OG is off.

[onionz]

The box says I should have an OG of 1.062. My actual OG is 1.055. I must have put in too much water. How will this affect my beer?

 

[Lefou]

You'll have a lighter, lower alcohol beer than you planned.
Not necessarily what you wanted, but less alcohol means you can drink more of of it. The hops may be more noticeable, too, because there's a tad less alcohol and dissolved sugar to offset the bittering.

 

[seatazzz]

Did you stir well after adding your top off water? Wort likes to stratify so your reading may be off.

 

[dttk0009]

When did you take the measurement?

Two big factors that impact gravity measurements are (as already mentioned) a sample from a not properly mixed wort and temperature. Reading the gravity of a hot/warm sample will give you a lower result than one at room temperature.

If your reading is accurate, it means that you might have added too much water and will have a beer with a lower ABV than expected, though at 1.055 I wouldn't be too worried.

 

[onionz]

More hops isn't so bad. I love hops.
I had poured into my carbo and given it a good shake. Then I let it sit for a little before pouring off a sample.
It was warmer than 68 deg. I estimated 80 deg and used a calc to get the reading of 1.055. The actual reading was 1.045.
It sounds like there won't be a huge difference in the finished beer.

 

[bfabry]

IMO 80 degrees is too hot to get a reliable measurement even with a calculated correction. If I take measurements at 80deg with my hydrometer I get all sorts of total nonsense.

EDIT: I was thinking in celsius, if you were talking fahrenheit it's probably about right.

 

[bajaedition]

I only trust measurements at 68 degrees F, conversions differ according to % of sugar, the posted conversions are not true to each brew.
Chemistry is fun, and one of the funnest parts of it is Significant numbers, in other words chemistry is accurate to the degree they want the answer to be.
so do we need a different conversion table for each brew? no we use the average they provide.

 

[kh54s10]

How much was the kit supposed to make? How much did you end up with? If you used all the ingredients and ended up with the right volume (which you should have measured) the OG will be correct. Top up water is often difficult to get mixed well. If you did add too much water your OG will be low. Your beer will just be a little weaker in flavor and also alcohol content.

 

[onionz]

I did pour it off the top. I guess i should get a beer thief.

 

[Pkrd]

The box says I should have an OG of 1.062. My actual OG is 1.055. I must have put in too much water. How will this affect my beer?

The worst cast scenario here is you have 10% more beer, and a 10% smaller hangover.
:rockin:

 

[onionz]

How much was the kit supposed to make? How much did you end up with? If you used all the ingredients and ended up with the right volume (which you should have measured) the OG will be correct. Top up water is often difficult to get mixed well. If you did add too much water your OG will be low. Your beer will just be a little weaker in flavor and also alcohol content.

Yes, I measured. Before sanitizing the carboy I took an empty gallon jug and filled it with water. I poured that in the carboy then marked with tape. I did that 5 times. After pouring the wort I filled the carboy to the last tape line. But forgot I left some wort in the bottom of the pot with all the hops gunk. Maybe that's where I went wrong. I was creating a starter with my yeast so I let the wort cool overnight and it was definitely heavier on the bottom. I'm not sure what you mean by measuring the volume. Am I supposed to measure the wort before pitching?

 

[Vammy]

Yes, I measured. Before sanitizing the carboy I took an empty gallon jug and filled it with water. I poured that in the carboy then marked with tape. I did that 5 times. After pouring the wort I filled the carboy to the last tape line. But forgot I left some wort in the bottom of the pot with all the hops gunk. Maybe that's where I went wrong. I was creating a starter with my yeast so I let the wort cool overnight and it was definitely heavier on the bottom. I'm not sure what you mean by measuring the volume. Am I supposed to measure the wort before pitching?

You did it right, and better than most. The kit should have told you how much volume (in gal or liters) you should have post-boil, and going into the fermenter. I mini-mash 5 gal recipes a lot on the stove top, so I don't do full volume boils; this means I have to use top up water in the fermenter to get my 5 gal just like you did.

Mix that as well as you can (I use buckets for fermenters for exactly this reason...easier to stir), take a gravity reading and pitch your yeast at the desired temperature.

You made a yeast starter, so chances are you're going to have a good fermentation. Follow the rest of the instructions on the kit, don't worry.

You made beer. Chances are it's going to be pretty good.

Cheers,

Vam

 

[onionz]

Thanks for the pep talk Vammy!

 

[kh54s10]

By measuring and marking your fermenter you ended up with the proper volume. So it all depends on how much you left in the kettle. I use a 5 gallon paint strainer bag to contain the hop debris. Then I dump all but the thickest gunk into the fermenter. I leave less than a pint behind. You can dump all that into the fermenter, it will compact on the bottom after fermentation finishes. Then you can siphon carefully all the beer above the trub.

If you didn't leave too much in the kettle your true OG is much closer to the recipe than what you measured.

You beer is likely to be good given no other problems.

Now get another one going... You will be surprised how fast a 5 gallon batch will disappear.

 

[onionz]

I have 3 5 gal carboys that were gifted to me. So i think i'll rack this one and start a nice hoppy IPA BIAB.

 

[kh54s10]

5 gallon carboys are too small for a 5 gallon batch of beer. You need some head space for the krausen. If your five gallon batches fill to just under the top curve of the carboy, it is actually a 6 or 6.5 gallon carboy and is what you should use for a 5 gallon batch.

Don't rack to secondary until you have had final gravity for two samples two days apart. Don't take a measurement until at least day 10.

Actually you don't need to do a secondary at all.... Leave in primary until done then package.

 

[StewMakesBrew]

Here's what will happen:

You'll finish fermenting your beer, you'll measure the FG.

Then you'll pour some of your warm and flat beer into a glass and taste it and even in that warm flat state, it will taste awesome and you'll be bursting with pride that you made that.

Then you'll bottle it, carefully adding priming sugar, observing good sanitation rules, etc. You'll age those bottles a couple of weeks at room temp to carbonate them, then you'll lovingly put a six pack in the fridge, cool it off and invite your buddies over. You'll pop one for each, pour them off into glasses, hold them up to the light, see the color and clarity, and then taste it. Your buddies will all say "dude, that's great stuff!" You'll be bursting with pride again. And it will be awesome.

And you made that.

That's what will happen because your gravity is off a few points.

 

[StewMakesBrew]

Now that I gave you the light version, here's the straight talk:

While you're learning, don't sweat the numbers. Concentrate on the basics - good sanitation, accurate timing on the boil, following the instructions. Every batch I have made in the 19 years I've been brewing have been a few points off one way or another against what was supposed to happen. Even now as an expert-level all-grain brewers, it's a rare thing to hit all the numbers exactly right. For example, just made a Scrimshaw clone that went into the keg over the weekend. My FG on it finished about .004 lower than what Beersmith said it would based on my recipe. Guess my yeast was hungrier? Who knows. All I know is it was so good warm and flat that I drank more than a pint of it while I was kegging it.

So, my little mantra that keeps me centered is that the Trappist Monks have been making beer for more than 1000 years. If I get obsessive about numbers, I just ask myself "what would the Trappist Monks do".

They'd not sweat it and they'd thank God they can make their own beer, that's what.

Go forth and brew, brother! Sweat not the numbers, just make the beer!

 

[onionz]

All great advice.
I have a 6.5 gal for primary fermentation. But have 3 5 gal i could use for secondary, freeing up my 6.5.

 

[Vammy]

Thanks for the pep talk Vammy!

No worries. You're doing just fine, and you're on your way to some good beer, I think.

You've also been given some truly great advice from kh54S10 and StewMakesBrew...and I'm going to toss one more thing out there:

Those 5 gal carboys are going to be a PITA even if you use them as a secondary to free up the 6.5. A 6.5 gal bucket with lid is $14 at my LHBS, and as easy as anything to ferment in. Buy a couple. I also have a 14.5 gal Cronical, but we almost always use buckets, unless we're going to chill a lager or something. Rarely use it, even on 10 gal AG batches.

To be sure, there's a hundred ways to brew beer, and you can certainly use those little carboys if you need/want to. It's just something else to think about

Brew on, brother.

Vam

 

[eric19312]

Now that I gave you the light version, here's the straight talk:

While you're learning, don't sweat the numbers. Concentrate on the basics - good sanitation, accurate timing on the boil, following the instructions. Every batch I have made in the 19 years I've been brewing have been a few points off one way or another against what was supposed to happen. Even now as an expert-level all-grain brewers, it's a rare thing to hit all the numbers exactly right. For example, just made a Scrimshaw clone that went into the keg over the weekend. My FG on it finished about .004 lower than what Beersmith said it would based on my recipe. Guess my yeast was hungrier? Who knows. All I know is it was so good warm and flat that I drank more than a pint of it while I was kegging it.

So, my little mantra that keeps me centered is that the Trappist Monks have been making beer for more than 1000 years. If I get obsessive about numbers, I just ask myself "what would the Trappist Monks do".

They'd not sweat it and they'd thank God they can make their own beer, that's what.

Go forth and brew, brother! Sweat not the numbers, just make the beer!

This is great advice. On other hand some of us love sweating the numbers and I generally do hit my target OG within about 2 points because I enjoy that game. Now I've never met Stu but putting his 19 years of brewing against my 4 I'd bet he makes some pretty awesome beer without sweating the numbers.

I think chasing the numbers with kit beers is probably a challenge. The kit manufacturer is designing the kit to make exactly 5 gallons of beer. Like others said any liquid left in the kettle contains sugar that you needed to hit the theoretical kit gravity.

When I design all grain I work backwards from volume. If want 10 gallons in my kegs, I better get 11 gallons out of my kettle into my fermentor. Need 11 gallons in my fermentor? Better finish boil with 12-12.5 gallons in the kettle (depending on hop schedule). Every step along the way I cheat a bit to make sure I end up with 2 full kegs. This costs me maybe $5 in extra ingredients in a 10 gallon batch. No big deal. But if I was selling 100s or 1000s of kits a couple bucks of extra ingredients in every kit would matter.

 

[StewMakesBrew]

Great advice from Eric above.

Here's a bit more advice for the original poster - you're going to have a goof EVERY SINGLE TIME you brew. My beer journal (and there's advice right there - JOURNAL your beer - write down the recipes, write down notes, go back and add tasting notes, etc. etc.) has well more than 100 batches logged in it, and in every single batch, a little something went wrong. Sometimes it's minor - missed a hop addition by 5 minutes. Sometimes it's major - the goddamned propane tank iced up and stopped working, had to "pause" the boil, get a new tank and keep going. Sometimes it's REALLY major - one of my last batches my f'ing immersion chiller popped it's output hose and sprayed 190 degree water in my face (didn't hurt the beer but I sure took one for my art there).

The lesson here - it's gonna happen and your best bet is just roll over it and keep on brewing. Other than sanitation screwups (which I've had a few over the years) there's very little you can do to make homebrew undrinkable. The trick is (and what I hope was the lesson about don't sweat the numbers) just enjoy the pure fun of making beer.

And do the things you love to do - obviously Eric above here enjoys sweating the numbers and that's cool - I'm all for whatever rocks your socks. I go on and off about sweating my numbers - I think about it far more on the brew day side - now that i'm running all-grain I worry a lot about mash temps (although I have yet to be able to tell the difference between if I was at 150 or 154 - I guess the only way to tell that is make the same beer multiple times and taste the batches), I do work like Eric does (although I let Beersmith do the work for me) and I know that my Mashtun wastes about .4 gallon, my brew kettle and trub wastes 3/4 of a gallon and a quart is usually left in the fermenter, plus grain absorption, plus boil off losses, etc. means that if I want 5.5 gallons into the fermenter and 5.25 gallons into the keg, my pre-boil volume better be 7.5 gallons which means I need about 9 gallons of total water to process through the mash, etc.

See how crazy it can make you?

Another suggestion - try different kits from different places - your local HBS, different online sources (back in my kit days, I bought most of them from Williamsbrewing.com and their kits are still pretty awesome), and then when you've done a few, start formulating your own batches from "loose ingredients" bought at your HBS or online. From there, you'll eventually graduate to all-grain and then the fun really begins.

I mentor several guys in the hobby - one has graduated to all grain recently, the other three are still in the kit and "loose ingredients" stage of the hobby. All love it. And all were overly focused on the numbers and freaking out until I told them to relax and don't sweat it - certainly measure, but unless things are way the hell off, just document in your beer journal and move on.

So right now, follow the ingredient kit instructions well, and enjoy the pure joy of drinking your own suds. It is a fantastic hobby.

Good luck and feel free to PM me anytime for advice.

 

[onionz]

Awesome news. I had saved some wort in the fridge. I bought a cylinder today and put the wort in it. Once it was room temp I measured it again and it weighed in at 1.06! I was almost spot on! This batch is getting better by the minute.

 

[StewMakesBrew]

Good stuff, man! Question is, did you taste it?

Another helpful hint - taste everything (except maybe hop pellets and liquid yeast - those taste nasty, trust me, I did it). Starting the brew day - taste the grain you're mashing or steeping, taste taste your extract powder or syrup, taste the wort pre and post boil (that's an interesting education by the way), taste the beer anytime you pull a gravity reading, taste at bottling, taste test bottles weekly during the conditioning process, etc.

You'll really learn how beer progresses in this way and what ingredients do what to the beer flavor.

 

[onionz]

Im gonna start doing that, great idea.

 

[RM-MN]

Good stuff, man! Question is, did you taste it?

Another helpful hint - taste everything (except maybe hop pellets and liquid yeast - those taste nasty, trust me, I did it). Starting the brew day - taste the grain you're mashing or steeping, taste taste your extract powder or syrup, taste the wort pre and post boil (that's an interesting education by the way), taste the beer anytime you pull a gravity reading, taste at bottling, taste test bottles weekly during the conditioning process, etc.

You'll really learn how beer progresses in this way and what ingredients do what to the beer flavor.

Smell the hop pellets. You'll be amazed at how different the various hop aromas are. :rockin:

 

[shoengine]

Good stuff, man! Question is, did you taste it?

Another helpful hint - taste everything (except maybe hop pellets and liquid yeast - those taste nasty, trust me, I did it). Starting the brew day - taste the grain you're mashing or steeping, taste taste your extract powder or syrup, taste the wort pre and post boil (that's an interesting education by the way), taste the beer anytime you pull a gravity reading, taste at bottling, taste test bottles weekly during the conditioning process, etc.

You'll really learn how beer progresses in this way and what ingredients do what to the beer flavor.

I think this is important. I taste and smell everything that could be considered an input or an output, except for trub.