Bad Hydrometer?

[Proofman]

I brewed this yesterday (PM).

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.75 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) (Late add) Dry Extract 44.77 %
0.50 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) (Early add)Dry Extract 5.97 %
0.55 lb Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract 6.57 %
1.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 11.94 %
0.88 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 10.51 %
0.67 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.01 %
2.30 oz Fuggles [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 15.4 IBU
0.40 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 1.8 IBU
0.25 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.36 oz chocolate extract (liquid) (Secondary 2.0 weeks) Misc
1.10 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
6.60 oz Cocoa powder (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
0.75 lb Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 8.95 %
0.28 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 3.28 %
1 Pkgs London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) Yeast-Ale

It's a BYO clone for Young's Double Chocolate Stout scaled up to 5.5 gal. Everythin went off well but when I took my OG it came out at 1.041. I stirred the fermenter after I topped it off. Then took a sample. I got 1.041 (correct for 70F). I stirred it some more (and aerated it with a pump and airstone) and got the same reading. I let it sit and spun the hydrometer a couple of times and checked 30 min later. Same. How can this be possible? The sugars and DME alone would get an OG reading higher than this (~1.050). The only other thing weird was that after I added the cocoa (disolved in water) it made the wort look like Yoohoo (made it look totally unappealing). Could it be the hydrometer?

 

[Catfish]

Put your hydrometer in water, does it read 1.000? If not it is off by that amount; add or subtract that number from your gravity reading.

 

[malkore]

Put your hydrometer in water, does it read 1.000? If not it is off by that amount; add or subtract that number from your gravity reading.

+1

Assuming it is on target, you just didn't stir it up enough. It probably seemed like you did, but if you didn't stir for 10 solid minutes, and especially if the top off water was cold to help cool off the warm wort....it's REALLY a pain to mix into a homogenous solution.

with extracts, its hard to miss your OG if you use the right amount of water. a lot of guys skip OG in extract brewing and just worry about the final gravity, which will be accurate if your hydro is accurate.

 

[adx]

Check it in distilled water. Tap water may have something dissolved in it that would effect the reading.

 

[eddie]

Check it in distilled water. Tap water may have something dissolved in it that would effect the reading.

..and at the proper temperature. Most are 60F.

 

[adx]

Except for mine which is callibrated at 68F. Double check those inserts!

 

[uglygoat]

Bad Hydrometer?

they're all bad imho....

glass probes of the devil!

 

[Proofman]

well I checked mine hydrometer and it reads 3 points high in distilled water at 60F. it just blows me away that after stirring twice and aerating the wort I would still get a funky reading. And I have gotten a few funky OG readings in the past.

 

[david_42]

Mixing two fluids is much more difficult than you might imagine. You have to lift the high gravity solution into the water. Stirring round & round doesn't do much. Having worked with oil-based house paints, I can attest to that.

If you use buckets for fermenting, get a paint mixing attachment for your drill or buy a wine de-gassing whisk.