Gravity reading is off

Saturday I brewed Northern Brewer's Petite Saison d'ETE. The ingredients and brief recipe is as follows:

.5lb Belgian Caravienne (Steep in bag to 170 degrees)

3.15lb Pilsen Malt Syrup
1lb Pilsen Dry Malt Extract
1lb Wheat Dry Malt Extract

1oz Kent Goldings (60min)
.25oz Styrian Goldings (10min)
.25oz Saaz (10min)
.75oz Styrian Goldings (2min)
.75oz Saaz (2min)

The recipe said OG should be 1.041, however when I measured I got about 1.052.

I'm wondering how my gravity could be off with an extract kit? My volume is 5Gal and I used all the ingredients... Any thoughts?

Most of the time if your gravity reading is off in an extract kit you didn't fully combine your wort and top off water. I would assume you initial gravity is exactly what the recipe says it is and go from there. The only time I got a correct OG reading in my extract brewing (Only 6 batches so far, NOT AN EXPERT) was when making Graff and adding 1 gallon of liquid at a time and mixing aggressively mixing for two minutes between each addition. It was a lot of work.

I've said it a zillion times if I've said it once - it is dang near impossible to get an accurate gravity reading when using top off water. Of course, it depends on how much top off water you've used, but for the normal partial boil scenario it is extremely difficult to get an accurate gravity reading after you've mixed in the top off water.

So, the best solution, IMO, is to take the gravity reading before you add the top off water. If you know the volume and the gravity reading before adding top off water, it is only a matter of simple arithmetic to figure out what your gravity will be after adding the top off water.

But, the OP didn't say whether or not he was doing a partial boil. If he did a full boil, this doesn't apply.

I can understand that... however I put 2 gallons into the carboy, poured in the wort, and then filled with water to 5 gallons. I then proceeded to really shake the hell out of everything, and to be honest, I'm 6'8" and 350 plus and I really went to town with some old-school-brute force aeraton, so I'm confident everything was mixed thuroughly.

Maybe not though...

Your gravity could be off because you didn't top off with enough water or you extracted more sugar from specialty grains than whoever did the recipe... also dry malt extract will vary a bit on how many ppg it will add to your beer... it's just the nature of ingredients...

The temperature at which you take your gravity reading will also change it...

You don't need to worry... you'll brew good beer...

BeerJorge said:

Your gravity could be off because you didn't top off with enough water or you extracted more sugar from specialty grains than whoever did the recipe...

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This is my suspicion... I had SWMBO crush the grain with a rolling pin while I was sanitizing and what not... I told her to be gentle and not turn it into flour, just give everything a good crack... Maybe she got a bit excited.

Whatever you did to that .5# of grain isn't your problem.

Check your hydrometer in h2o at 60 degrees.

How sure are you in your measurement of 5 gallons?

You should be fine... if anything you may get a bit cloudy beer, but if you did a good boil, then that should clear up with time...

If the grains were overcrushed you may get astringent flavors, but 1/2 Lb is not a big quantity so I doubt you'll get any... just have to wait and see...

Let us know how it turns out...

BendBrewer said:

How sure are you in your measurement of 5 gallons?

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I'm pretty sure... I marked 5g on the carboy when I first got it... cant be off more than an ounce or 2.

... I'm not real concerned, I just would think with a set group of ingredients and correct final volume I would hit my gravity spot on... I did with my previous batch from NB.

BigJefe said:

I can understand that... however I put 2 gallons into the carboy, poured in the wort, and then filled with water to 5 gallons. I then proceeded to really shake the hell out of everything, and to be honest, I'm 6'8" and 350 plus and I really went to town with some old-school-brute force aeraton, so I'm confident everything was mixed thuroughly.

Maybe not though...

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Shaking is a great way to aerate the wort, but it doesn't work so well for mixing. You really need to stir the wort for a few minutes to get an homogeneous mixture, but the yeasts will do that for you over the next week or so.

-a.

Thanks to everyone who gave input...

Sampled this the other evening while bottling...

also added some blueberry extract...

It tasted pretty crappy out of the bottling bucket, although it was about 76 degrees and not carbonated... I chilled a sample and had a taste about 30 mins later and it was pretty good... Hopefully in a couple weeks this stuff is delicious!