OG is consistently to low...What can I do to fix it.

[All-Hail-IPA]

Hey everyone new brewer here, just finished my second batch last night. Both batches have gone very smoothley so far except that when I take my original gravity it has been about .004-.007 to low both times. Is this a big deal and if so what can I do to fix this problem in the future. Thanks a bunch!

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

It'll still be beer.

 

[unionrdr]

Check your hydrometer in like 60F water to see if it reads 1.000 for one. Also make sure you're thoroughly mix chilled wort & top off water. Not doing so can give a lower OG. I pour chilled wort through a dual layer fine mesh strainer to clean & aerate it going into the FV. Then pour cold spring water into it from a height to cool & aerate further. Then use my plastic paddle to stir roughly five minutes to mix well & aerate a little more. Doing this gives me accurate OG readings.

 

[All-Hail-IPA]

awesome, thanks!

 

[J187]

Yea, I suspect Union has it. I'm guessing you aren't mixing well. Luckily for partial boilers, two steps coincide with one another. When you are done cooling your boil, you need to 1. mix in water and mix well, and 2. Aerate the wort in preparation for yeast pitching. What I do when I partial boil is simply to sanitize both my fermenter and my bottling bucket. I then pour my wort from the kettle, through a large strainer, into my fermenter. I top off to exact volume, and then I pour back and fourth between the bottling bucket and fermenter several times.

 

[Ster]

I wouldn't worry. Depend on expected og.. assuming 1.050 for example, you are looking at 4.75% vs 5.25%. Really.. no big deal

 

[chawagi]

Well, you're only two batches in so it may be a bit early to call anything consistent at this point. You're still fine tuning your technique.

Biggest things I can think of at this point are:

1) If you're using a hydrometer, remember that it is calibrated at 60* F. Higher wort temps may give a lower S.G. indication and will need to be adjusted with a Hydrometer calculator.

2) Watch your mash and sparge water volumes. Make sure what is going into the boil kettle after the mash is the specific volume required to achieve the post-boil volume needed to obtain the desired O.G.

3) When mashing and sparging, don't be afraid to stir the crap out of your grains; don't just add water.

4) If you're confident in your pre-boil technique and can't find any flaws, you can always boil a few more minutes to concentrate the wort a bit further.

Finally, to reiterate what Gila said above, at the end of the day it will still be beer; just a beer with a slightly lower ABV.

Edit: Sorry. I see there was a slew of answers posted while I was typing mine. Disregard.

 

[Jon73]

I recall my early days of adding top-off water and being extremely frustrated that the gravity was off, until I realized that I wasn't mixing it well enough to get a good reading. All the more reason to upgrade to full boil. It'll make your life easier

 

[unionrdr]

You don't need a full boil to get a good reading or mix of wort & top off. Just do what's comfortable to you to get them mixed well. I pour the wort through a fine mesh strainer to clean it & aerate. Then pour top off from a height to get more aeration & mixing. Then stir roughly 5 minutes to mix better & aerate a little more. I've gotten good OG readings this way doing partial boil.

 

[All-Hail-IPA]

thanks so much guys, this is way more of a response than I was expecting and I appreciate all of the help. ill make sure to try out these tips next brew day, unfortunatley I can only ferment one batch at a time so it probably wont be for atleast another 2 weeks

 

[Whippy]

There are many programs, apps, formulas, etc. to calculate this, but here is a link to a calculator which will convert your measured specific gravity based of the temperature you are taking your reading from:
http://dd26943.com/davesdreaded/tools/convert.htm

....just be sure to measure temp when you take your gravity reading (if you don't feel like waiting for your sample to cool), plug the numbers in, and that's it.

 

[All-Hail-IPA]

thanks whippy, this website is the bomb...huge help in the future