Did I take the OG too late?

[stevestone1988]

I spent all night making a classic rauchbier, after 2 am It seemed like it took forever to cool down the wort. Anyway, I pitched the yeast and totally forgot to take the OG. I took it right afterwards (literally right after I pitched, and it came in at like 1.070..... needless to say I'm not going to be able to tell ABV but would the hydrometer be off that much so soon without fermentation?

 

[Spring_Chicken]

You're fine. Look up RDWHAH

 

[RM-MN]

Since this is the extract part of the forum I have to assume you used all extract for your wort. If you know the amount of extract and the amount of water you can calculate the OG and be spot on. If your OG you measured doesn't agree with the calculated amount and you added top off water, the discrepancy will be due to incomplete mixing. It does take some time for the yeast to produce enough alcohol to affect the hydrometer reading. I would expect anywhere from a few hours to perhaps a day.

 

[shufflethenhit]

Since this is the extract part of the forum I have to assume you used all extract for your wort. If you know the amount of extract and the amount of water you can calculate the OG and be spot on. If your OG you measured doesn't agree with the calculated amount and you added top off water, the discrepancy will be due to incomplete mixing. It does take some time for the yeast to produce enough alcohol to affect the hydrometer reading. I would expect anywhere from a few hours to perhaps a day.

How exactly do you calculate the OG with that information? I'm USUALLY (haha) good about taking it but it would be good information foe future reference

 

[janivar123]

Software like Brewtarget will tell you what OG you get in a given amount of water with your extract additions
Its free and well supported(you need to adjust it to your hardware tho)

 

[schokie]

If you took the gravity reading immediately after you pitched than your OG reading is still valid. The yeast get to work quickly, but not so quickly that your hydrometer reading is going to change in just a couple minutes. You could probably wait even a couple hours and still get an accurate reading.

 

[airving]

Look here for potential extract: http://hbd.org/uchima/tech/extract.html

Basically, for 1 pound of lme in 1 gallon of water, you would expect a gravity of 1.037 . Using lme you should get exactly that - there's no mash and sparge efficiency to be concerned about.

More realistically, 8 pounds in 5 gallons would be 1 + ((8 * .037) / 5) = 1.059 , etc.

 

[stevestone1988]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate it

 

[strambo]

More realistically, 8 pounds in 5 gallons would be 1 + ((8 * .037) / 5) = 1.059 , etc.

My 1st batch was 8lbs LME with 1lb crystal 20 and my measured OG was 1.060...so like airving says, if your water volume is correct and you know the amount of LME you used, the actual OG will be within +/- .002 or so of the predicted one if not exact.

 

[greenthumbed]

Hey Steve,

Check this calculator out.http://www.brewcraft.com.au/wa.asp?idWebPage=9616&idDetails=172

I use it all the time.