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

[ArchiBish]

Good advice. I panicked when I had a 1.040 reading on a beer that was supposed to be 1.053. I decided to do a 2nd reading from the bottom and guess what? 1.072 ! *relaxed*

 

[vogtenstein222]

I just did a BIAB wheat batch today. The OG should have been about 1.056 (high end for the style). at 69*F, I got 1.016. I used absolutely no extract of any kind and followed my brew sheet to a tee. I am wondering if over...or under-crushing the grains could have led to any issues.
My grain bill was-
6 lbs - red wheat malt
4 lbs - 2 row
1.25 lbs - cara-pils

Mashed in at 150* (5 G water) and held at 153* (per Palmer - HTB) for 75 minutes (per brew sheet), mashed out, no sparge, added 1.25 G water (brew sheet called for a pre-boil volume of 6.48 G) and ramped to boil.

dying to figure out what the deal is, what I should expect.
Thanks in advance...

 

[Fid]

Have you tested your hydrometer in plain water to make sure that it reads 1.000? Your og reading seems almost impossibly low if you followed the steps as stated.

 

[freisste]

Have you tested your hydrometer in plain water to make sure that it reads 1.000? Your og reading seems almost impossibly low if you followed the steps as stated.

Or your thermometer. If it is off, you may have denatured the enzymes effort they had a chance to do much.

 

[HomebrewPadawan]

Hi, welcome.

You probably came here today because you just got your first kit, and you did what it said it all the books and all the forums, and you tried out your hydrometer for the very first time...and the reading makes no sense.

Yes it is important to get in the habit of using one, especially if you start brewing all grain. But when you start with extract brewing, like most of us did, the first reading can be a bit on the confusing side.

You didn't do anything wrong. In fact nothing's wrong at all.

We get this question 3-4 times every day, so you're not alone. And in reality, nothing's wrong.

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain recipes) to have an error in reading the OG...In fact, it is actually nearly impossible to mix the wort and the top off water in a way to get an accurate OG reading...

Brewers get a low reading if they get more of the top off water than the wort, conversely they get a higher number if they grabbed more of the extract than the top off water in their sample.

RM-MN has a great analogy;



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...unless you under or over topped off or the final volume for the kit was 5 gallons and you topped off to 5.5, then the issue, sorry to say, is "operator error"

More than likely your true OG is really what it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

And just use the number it says in the instructions as the true OG, because it will be.

So the answer is, relax and do nothing.

Like 99% of everything else in brewing. Just relax, and everything will be fine.

This just saved my night...I was done arguing with my friend about what we did/didn't do correct! I tried to tell him our methods were fine, that I was the Master, and he was the Padawan, but newbies have little faith! Good thing I had a few beers on hand to calm him!

Thanks for the info. I have now won another beer brewing argument :rockin:

Thanks Revvy

 

[skuhn2004]

Way to be proactive! I got fooled my first 2 batches(at 6 now) till I read another thread on the subject. I think the biggest problem is that extract recipes(Brewers Best, at least) call for a partial boil of 2gals. Why not boil the full 5gals.? I assume its because they assume that,as a beginner, you dont have an adequate sized kettle to account for boil-overs?

Further research tells me that full boils are superior when extract brewing, and thus would eliminate the need for top-off, giving you an accurate OG, correct? I've also read posts mentioning negative issues with steeping specialty grains in a full boil. Is this an accurate concern? Hopefully I didnt derail the subject too much

I read a ton of stuff here before I tried my first beer. Revvy told me to throw the instructions that came with the extract kit away so I did and have always done full boils. Of course I always boil over a bit because I have not tried fermcap yet. Even if I don't I still end up a little off due to boil off. So I am always off a little. I'm pretty sure I've made this mistake.

 

[ncbrewer]

Of course I always boil over a bit because I have not tried fermcap yet. Even if I don't I still end up a little off due to boil off. So I am always off a little. I'm pretty sure I've made this mistake.

If you get a lot of boil-over's, I'd suggest boiling just a little less and top-off for the difference. You'd still get most of the advantage of a full boil, but with less mess. But that's just me, because I hate boil-over's.