am i reading my hydrometer wrong ? crazy OG

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yeasty

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i just brewed AHS gold seal amber ale. its a simple kit with 36oz DME and 5lbs LME and 1/2lb 90L grain. my OG should read 1.042 and i got 0.070 ! the only thing i think i did wrong was i took my sample from the top of the kettle after using my wort chiller ??? i ended up with 5gal not 5.25 but that should go the other way ?
 
i just brewed AHS gold seal amber ale. its a simple kit with 36oz DME and 5lbs LME and 1/2lb 90L grain. my OG should read 1.042 and i got 0.007 ! the only thing i think i did wrong was i took my sample from the top of the kettle after using my wort chiller ??? i ended up with 5gal not 5.25 but that should go the other way ?

It shouldn't make a difference if everything was mixed well. This assumes your hydrometer is measuring correctly. Did you top-off and possibly not get a good mix?
 
Did you add top-off water? I think your water is not fully mixed in with your wort. You're reading slightly diluted water, instead of reading wort.

Transfer, shake, agitate, oxygenate, and then pull another sample. I bet you get a much more accurate reading.
 
First thing, check that hydro with some distilled water. I had one that was off by 4 points, and it took me a long time to figure it out.
 
Test they hydro in water.

Did you use the correct temp?

If you used top off water, this is 99.9% an issue with not mixing well enough. Yes I know you mixed really well, but it is sometimes not humanly possible to mix a partial boil well enough to get an accurate OG.

If you use extract, and you get the correct final volume, your OG is as advertised, regardless of what you measure.

Congrats, you made beer. Yum!
 
It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE using extract and then topping off with water (and that includes partial mashes,) to be able to get an accurate OG reading.

It is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get it to full mix. Your wort from the stove is heavier than the top of water, and usually sinks to the bottom initially.

When I am doing an extract with grain recipe I make sure to stir for a minimum of 5 minutes (whipping up a froth to aerate as well) before I draw a grav sample and pitch my yeast....It really is an effort to integrate the wort with the top off water...This is a fairly common new brewer issue we get on here...

Don't sweat it..Just go by the OG in the recipe, as long as you made the correct batch size for your recipe (not for example making a 5.5 gallon batch out of a 5 gallon kit) You will nail the og....Extract recipes are actually fool proof. The OG in the instruction will be your OG give or take a not important point of two...

The wort and water will merge fine during fermentation.
 
I don't see where the 1.042 number comes from, but I'd guess the 1.070 is a mistake somehow.

5 pounds of LME and 2.25 pounds of DME in 5 gallons gives 1.056 and in 6 gallons gives 1.047. (aprox)

Maybe their OG was Pre-boil?
 
Let's put it this way: a 0.070 specific gravity is not really possible for what you're doing here. If it were, you'd have a SG that corresponds somewhere between that of gasoline and butane. This doesn't even seem to me like it's a "mixing" problem--if you got all water you'd still be a LOT closer to 1.000, right?

My first reaction was that you either have a broken hydrometer, the hydrometer got "stuck" on your sample tube somehow, or you accidentally read the wrong scale on the hydrometer (some of them have three scales). If it were me, I'd try to take another reading, or just go with what Revvy said and assume you hit the one posted with the recipe.
 
the 1.045 comes from the recipe. i did add about 3/4 gallon of boiled and cooled water to make up for evaporation right before i took the sample so i guess i learned something to day. would not have imagined it would make that much difference. gonna check that hydrometer tho....:mug:thanks guys !
 
There was a typo. 1.070, or 0.007 ???? .070 would be thinner than alcohol. What about 1.007

Look at post 1 & 2. Where I quoted him.

I can see 1.070 in a concentrated 2 gallons out of 5.25 batch of 1.045.

I can see 1.007 on a pourly mixed and topped-off batch.
 
gawd. i guess its my readings. i will have to wait till i get home and look at the hydrometer again. on the same scale that i use to measure FG it was at the "07" mark with a corresponding "potential alcohol" reading on the other side of the scale of like 11 or 12 percent.
 
OK it was another noob mistake. the reading was 1.070 which is a little high but my volume was a little low. i guess that was it....i will have a strong amber ale ! my hydrometer says that is closer to 9 percent !
 
OK it was another noob mistake. the reading was 1.070 which is a little high but my volume was a little low. i guess that was it....i will have a strong amber ale ! my hydrometer says that is closer to 9 percent !

You got 1.070 at what volume of beer wort? 2, 3, 5.25 gal?
 
I plugged your numbers into promash to approximate the OG. Here you go....

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Extract (Lbs): 7.75
Anticipated OG: 1.060 Plato: 14.78
Anticipated SRM: 9.5
Anticipated IBU: 0.0
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 18.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 6.10 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.049 SG 12.23 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
64.5 5.00 lbs. Alexander LME - Pale America 1.037 2
29.0 2.25 lbs. Briess DME- Gold America 1.046 8
6.5 0.50 lbs. Crystal 90L America 1.033 90

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.
 
checked my notes again.

it was 4.5 GAl at the time i took the measurement. i added .5 gal of my leftover boiled top-off. i ended up with 5.00 gal instead of the recipe called for 5.25.

is this going to be strong ale or what ?
 
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