Starting Gravity Question

[mdd71699]

I started brewing in the Fall of '10 and have 7 brews under my belt as of yesterday but for the 1st time I missed my starting gravity and don't know what happened. I brewed a True Brew Red Ale extract kit and was supposed to have a SG of 1.052-1.054 but ended up at 1.040 instead. Any thoughts and what effect will this have on the finished product. BTW....just checked it and fermentation started with plenty of bubbling in the airlock. Any and all advise is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

need to know a bit more.... .AG or extract? full boil or partial? if it was an AG, i miss my OGs by a few points all the time. if it was a partial boil, using top up water, chances are the top up water wasn't mixed in all the way and you got a false low. with extract, if you followed the instructions, used all the extract and topped up to the right vol., it's near impossible to miss OG that much.

 

[BrewChem]

Nordeast is probly right... if you followed the recipie, hit your final volume, probly didn't have everything completely mixed. But, sounds like you're still making beer so RDWHAHB and make some room in your brew stores for this batch..!

 

[kh54s10]

I agree that you probably had an uneven mix and got a faulty reading.

The only things that would throw off an extract kit are missing ingredients, wrong quantities of ingredients, old ingredients or the wrong amount of top off water.

 

[mdd71699]

It was a partial boil and I added the remaining volume at the end and did get the correct final volume of 5 gallons. Thanks for the input all.

 

[TopherM]

Check out my post #4 about top off water here. You either added a bit too much water, or didn't mix very well, as everyone else stated. Extract has a set OG, so if you got it all in the fermenter, your OG reading would have been spot on.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/my-extract-og-reading-off-307092/

 

[Revvy]

You answer is here... Attention new brewers, yes your original gravity reading is wrong. Don't panic.

 

[mdd71699]

Thanks again! This site and everyone's advise and support is absolutely fantastic!

 

[gypsyhead]

Agree with all above, but did you forget anything? I've definitely finished brewing, cooling, and pitching yeast only to realize I forgot a bag of DME.