Trouble taking gravity readings

[StophJS]

I've got about 20 or so brews under my belt, but this is such a basic question I thought I'd post it here.

I'm continually having trouble getting accurate gravity readings with my brews. Today I did the Brewer's Best Belgian Trippel kit (fingers crossed that it doesn't suck), and was supposed to get an OG of 1.083-1.086 at 5 gallons. After some trial and error adding more top-off water, and grabbing a new sample with the wine thief, I believe at least that I'm still well over 1.1 and probably closer to 1.11.

Taking the readings is always a massive headache for me, and I know it should be basic stuff. What am I doing wrong?? Are my readings inflated because of the cold break and hop matter still in suspension? Is it the aeration from pouring into the fermenter? I don't get it.

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't understand what reading you're getting, but if this is an extract beer with a concentrated boil and top-off water, you're probably just not getting it mixed well in the fermenter before taking the sample. Or if it's all-grain, the top-off water you mentioned still might not be getting mixed in well.

 

[RM-MN]

I've got about 20 or so brews under my belt, but this is such a basic question I thought I'd post it here.

I'm continually having trouble getting accurate gravity readings with my brews. Today I did the Brewer's Best Belgian Trippel kit (fingers crossed that it doesn't suck), and was supposed to get an OG of 1.083-1.086 at 5 gallons. After some trial and error adding more top-off water, and grabbing a new sample with the wine thief, I believe at least that I'm still well over 1.0 and probably closer to 1.1.

Taking the readings is always a massive headache for me, and I know it should be basic stuff. What am I doing wrong?? Are my readings inflated because of the cold break and hop matter still in suspension? Is it the aeration from pouring into the fermenter? I don't get it.

If this is an extract kit, just go by what the numbers are in the instructions. With the correct amount of water you'll be right in there. The sugars are already in the malt extract so you don't have to worry about efficiency.

 

[adiochiro3]

What is the temperature of the wort? Hydrometers are temp-sensitive. Newer hydros are calibrated to measure accurately at 68F. Older ones are calibrated to 59F, I think. Make sure you know which yours is.

Mixing the wort REALLY well is also important, especially if you've added top-off water; otherwise, your wort can stratify and give you hinky readings.

 

[StophJS]

Sorry for the confusion. I just meant my read was over 1.1. Thanks for the input. I think there's probably a strong possibility it's a mixing issue, because I (stupidly) have never really mixed in my top off water very well. Now I've got maybe 5 1/4 gallons in the fermenter so hopefully I'm not too far under my desired gravity.

 

[duboman]

Sorry for the confusion. I just meant my read was over 1.1. Thanks for the input. I think there's probably a strong possibility it's a mixing issue, because I (stupidly) have never really mixed in my top off water very well. Now I've got maybe 5 1/4 gallons in the fermenter so hopefully I'm not too far under my desired gravity.

It's just a poor mix of water and wort, if your volume is correct the OG is what the recipe says it is so don't wort about, it just an off read and totally normal with extract/top off batches

Next time try and get a better mix when you top off but if you don't, don't lose sleep over it.