How big a deal is it to be missing my target OG?

[DatsyukianDeke]

Just brewed my second batch yesterday. With the first I was looking to hit a target OG of 1.050 and came out with 1.046. Second batch's target was 1.064 but I came in at 1.074. What can I do before I pitch to get things more in line? Or am I close enough where I'll be alright as is?

 

[chickypad]

First off we should make sure the numbers are real. Is this extract or all grain, partial or full boil? Are you cooling the samples before measuring? Is your hydrometer calibrated? Are you accurately measuring your volumes?

 

[beergolf]

What kind of process are you using.

IF you are doing partial boil with extract, then it is as simple as the top off water is not fully mixxed. With extract it is almost impossible to miss OG unless your water volumes are way off.

If it is all grain then it is more of a problem. A couple of points is not a big deal, but 10 points is a lot.

 

[mdindy]

for the second one I would say add more water, but 4-5 points is just fine. that being said even at 10 points off it will ferment just fine, so don't stress too much.

 

[dsaavedra]

With your OGs being pretty close to the target OGs, I personally wouldn't really worry about it. If I was shooting for 1.050 and got 1.046 I would just say that's the way she goes. If I was shooting for 1.064 and got 1.074 I would just settle for having slightly less beer that is a little bit stronger . You could dilute the wort until it is at your target OG though.

Are you brewing extract kits and topping up to your final volume with cooled water? If so, this can cause your OG to differ from the target OG if the top up water isn't thoroughly mixed in with the denser wort. This typically causes low OG readings as the OG sample mainly consists of the less dense top up water. Although if you are taking your OG sample from the bottom of the fermener I suppose it could work the other way around and give you a higher OG. But the point is, if you are using an extract kit and you add all of the supplied malt extract and top up/boil down to the specified final volume, your OG will be pretty spot on regardless of what your hydrometer may be telling you.

If you are not using extract kits and you are using all grain, you could try milling your grain finer to get better efficiency, stirring the mash more thoroughly, playing around with water/grist ratios, playing around with sparging techniques, or a number of other things to try and increase your efficiency. I'm sure someone else can help you out better in this department, Im pretty new to all grain.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Are you brewing extract or otherwise doing partial boils, and topping up with water to volume before taking your sample?

If so, are you topping up to the right volume, and are you including the exact fermentables the recipe calls for?

If so, you're probably not getting an accurate reading. Water and wort don't easily mix, and you may be grabbing more wort than water (for your 1.074) or more water than wort (for your 1.046). In this case, at least if you're brewing extract (which as it's your second batch I'm assuming is the case), then your gravity is correct, it's just your reading that is wrong.

If your volume or fermentables were off/changed from the recipe, then it will be off. If you're brewing all-grain, then there may be something else going on.

 

[DatsyukianDeke]

Sorry, extract kits both batches, both partial boils starting with about 2.5g, both topped off to five gallons before a reading was taken and both batches had cooled to pitching temp (68 both times) before reading were taken. Kind of eyeballing the volumes using the gradations on my ferm bucket and brew kettle.

I wasn't too concerned on the first batch since I was so close but batch two was way off and got me thinking about being more attentive to hitting my targets.

 

[Qhrumphf]

In that case, it's likely that the wort just wasn't well mixed, and you probably won't be able to get it well enough mixed to trust the reading. If your volumes were right (the marks on ferm buckets are usually close but rarely exact, my buckets have their 5 gal lines maybe 0.1 gallon low. But if you were close-enough-ish based on the ferm bucket, the gravity will be close-enough-ish (+/- a point or two).

 

[chickypad]

Sorry, extract kits both batches, both partial boils starting with about 2.5g, both topped off to five gallons before a reading was taken and both batches had cooled to pitching temp (68 both times) before reading were taken. Kind of eyeballing the volumes using the gradations on my ferm bucket and brew kettle.

Well being few points off can certainly be explained by the volume being off, but you'd have to be off closer to a gallon to be 10 pts off. It's very likely to be a mixing issue as it's hard to get topped off wort mixed properly. If you figure a way to measure your volumes accurately then you can pretty much go by the kit OG on extract kits as it's pretty impossible to miss.

Edit: too slow

 

[DatsyukianDeke]

Thanks for the help. I've been so concerned with sanitation I feel like .some of the finer points are getting missed so with these subsequent batches I really want to dial in my process and fermentation variables.