First Brew

[drcook]

Ok Everyone,

I started my first brew tonight. I used a basic IPA kit and modified the hops to give the flavor notes of my favorite IPA ( Sam Adams Latitude 48).
I'm pretty stoked about how easy and smooth the process went. Other than the hop modifications I added 16ozs of Belgian rock sugar to bring the OG up and hopefully replicate the 6% alcohol that this beer also has. After cooling to 80 degrees as stated in the recipe I checked the OG which should have been at 1.050 before and sugar additions. However even after the sugar additions the OG was only at 1.045 at best. I mixed it well and took the reading again and still obtained the same OG reading of 1.045. Is this cause for concern or is it possible I'm not getting a good reading. Wart was boiled for 60 minutes and reached the Boil break after the first 10 minutes. Sugar was added in the last 15 minutes as I have read on the forum as a great practice. Color looks great, Smell was amazing, and I even tasted the flavor notes. I know this is a little aggressive for my first attempt. Just concerned about the OG.

Thanks:rockin:

 

[bobeer]

Congrats on your first brew. Assuming this was an extract batch, did you give the wort a good stir before you took your hydrometer sample? It's difficult to get it all mixed in well with the water and it will totally throw off your reading a little if your sample isn't mixed well. Either way though, you made beer and that's what counts. It will most likely look, smell, and taste like beer, as long as you practice good sanitizing methods, so congrats again on your first brew. Now get on your next batch so you can get the pipeline going!

 

[freisste]

Did you correct for temperature? When you say 1.045 at 80, do you mean that it actually read 1.039 and you corrected to 1.045? Or are you saying it read 1.045? The latter would be pretty good news.

Regardless, you will soon have beer. You aren't off by that much. Cheers.

 

[Potamus]

I wouldn't worry about being off on the OG by .005. Extract batches are notoriously hard to get a good gravity reading on because the top-off water and wort are hard to mix well. The only way you would be substantially off your target OG on an extract batch is if you forgot to add some fermentables or added too much water.