OG question

[Speranza]

Doing a Brewerst Best Kit for an American Nut Brown. Did the whole boil great. Tried whirlpooling for the first time with debated results..... But my question is. My OG is off, the directions state 1.5ish and mine clocks in at 1.41.

How is this going to affect things?
Any idea how to lower/raise OGs for my future adventures?

I went ahead and pitched my yeast because I was starting to run late for work and wanted to get it in the closet :cross:

 

[Beerrific]

Where you doing a full boil? Or partial?

With partial boils, many people report lower OGs because they didn't mix the wort and the top-up water well. The heavier wort will sink and when you take a reading off the top it ends up being lower. It dosen't really matter where the sugar is, the yeast will find it.

If this isn't what happened with you, I still wouldn't worry. When doing extract kits, it is hard to miss the OG by too much.

Other things to check:
Did you adjust for temperature in you hydrometer reading?
Does your hydrometer reading correct?

 

[MikeRLynch]

I was just about to say, check your temp. If the wort wasn't cooled enough when you took your reading, it'll appear lower than it really is. We did that with our Wit, thinking it was 1.04 OG, but after the room started spinning from the third glass, we realized our error. Those readings are meant for 60 F, so if you know your temp when you measured gravity, you can use a chart to adjust.

mike

 

[Speranza]

It was a brew kit, partial boil

Beerrific, The Hydrometer seems to be reading correct, 1.00 in pure water

And both of you mentioned temperature, but according to the thermometer on the carboy and using online tools it doesn't change but by 0.02 which isn't much hehe.

I'm going to stick with Mixing error or Act of God =)