Gravity too low, can someone tell me what I did wrong?

Zenasdassman · Feb 28, 2011

Hey everyone. I brewed my second batch of beer this past weekend, and I think my gravity is too low. I've put my recipe below.

I mashed the 5 lbs. of grain in 7.5 quarts of water at 153 degrees for 60 minutes. I sparged with 170 degree water to get 4 gallons of wort. I brought the wort up to a boil, then added the DME. I brought that back up to a boil and added my hops as listed below. Lastly, I put the wort into my fermenter and added enough water to get 5 gallons. I took a sample of that and it read 1.033 when it was supposed to be 1.055.

I planned on adding more DME tonight, but not sure how much. Is 3 lbs. too much? I figured that since that equals 1.026 (roughly) that would bring it up to where I need it to be.

Any and all help would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Target OG - 1.055
Target FG - 1.014
IBU - 49.5
BU:GU - 0.90
SRM 20

3 lb American Two-row Pale
12 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L
8 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
8 oz Flaked Wheat
4 oz Chocolate Malt (US)
3 lb Briess Pilsen Light DME after 60 min. mash

2.0 oz Cascade - 60 mins
1.0 oz Cascade - 35 mins
0.5 oz Cascade - 15 mins (1 tsp. Irish Moss as well)
0.5 oz Cascade - dry hop in secondary

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Shooter · Feb 28, 2011

You might not have fully mixed in your top off water.

BendBrewer · Feb 28, 2011

You should get into the habit of taking gravity readings before you top off and then do math to get your actual reading. I am going to guess this is another case of the top off water not mixing well enough with your wort giving you a bad reading.

I take the reading before the boil.

MeatyPortion · Feb 28, 2011

Shooter said:
You might not have fully mixed in your topoff water.

+1

This seems likely, as I've done it before too. Give it a day and then take another sample.

Zenasdassman · Feb 28, 2011

That seems to make a lot of sense. Now thinking back, I didn't go to town when I mixed in the top off water. Thanks guys!!!

Revvy · Feb 28, 2011

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) 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.

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"

If your target volume was correct, then it will be fine.

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