Hydrometer mystery!?

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mugwump3

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Tested the hydrometer... it reads a perfect 1000 with water at 70 degrees.

I just made an American Wheat with the following recipe:
-- 6lbs wheat extract
--0.5.lbs dextrose
1.2oz various hops.

boiled for 1.5 hours, then cooled using copper wort chiller.

poured the wort through strainer into ale pale, then filled it up to 5 gallons with plenty of sloshing around to aerate the wort + mix together with the water.

Let sit for 5 minutes to come to temperature: a perfect 68 degrees.

Then took a S.G. reading... 1030!?? WHAT THE H?

Thoughts?
 
Got to ask; why boil for 90 minutes?

With extract it is difficult to screw it up. You are probably not fully mixed, it's difficult to do in a pail. The yeast will take care of it.
 
boiled for 90 minutes to have a clearer bitter+flavor+aroma hop separation. I guess this was a problem of putting the water over the wort and it not mixing fully... but I've NEVER had that problem before... hhmmm....
 
Maybe boiled off too much, then in turn added too much water? You would have hit your target SG with a lower volume of water. I add water to hit the target SG, not to a particular volume of water, which I think is the proper method. So a 5 gallon batch will not always make a full 5 gallons, depending on your boil off.
 
I'm gonna say you just didin't mix properly especially since you had a long boil and still came in low. If anything maybe you added more water than necessary and diluted past the 5 gallon mark...although according to my calculations you would have had to had to have added up the the 7 gallon mark to get to that point. Are you sure you used ALL of the extract? Something isn't adding up right....How hot was the sample and are you reading SG or balling?
 
I have had some similar issues. I have had a few times when readings come in way under target. Like .01 or more under. I think it has to do with poor mixing, but I usually shake the bucket for a few minutes. I add water after I add my wort, and the shaking really only splashes the top part, so maybe that is it. Although I usually grab a large spoon and stir some as well before I take readings. I have done all extract and partial mashes, and both have ended up the same way. From what i gather, you or I couldn't really be that far under with just extract, so I attribute it to poor mixing. And yeah I did a temperature conversion.

I don't really worry about it, because the OG is really just for knowledge. If I was getting what seemed to be unreliable FGs I would be concerned.
 
I am having the same problem with a Canadian Lager I brewed last night, it was an extract kit with steeping grains. My target OG was 1.049 it came in at 1.035 not sure why.
 
Maybe boiled off too much, then in turn added too much water? You would have hit your target SG with a lower volume of water. I add water to hit the target SG, not to a particular volume of water, which I think is the proper method. So a 5 gallon batch will not always make a full 5 gallons, depending on your boil off.

Speaking from my limited knowledge, if you're boiling off, you're just boiling off water, so adding in water equivalent to what you boiled off would have absolutely no affect on gravity. It just means what's left after boil off is more concentrated. Adding MORE water (ie topping off to more than 5 gallons) would dilute it. The only time I've measured under target with extract (that wasn't a wort/top off water mixing issue) was because I overfilled.
 
I am having the same problem with a Canadian Lager I brewed last night, it was an extract kit with steeping grains. My target OG was 1.049 it came in at 1.035 not sure why.

Was your OG calculated by brewing software? I learned pretty quickly that if I was steeping grains, the software would assume some sort of mash conversion, when I was was using specialty grains with little or no diastatic power without a base grain for any conversion (steeping roasted barley, aromatic malt, etc). I started calculating OG based on only the extract and then adding a couple points for the grains (less than what software estimated) and that balanced it out nearly every time.
 
Qhrumphf said:
Was your OG calculated by brewing software? I learned pretty quickly that if I was steeping grains, the software would assume some sort of mash conversion, when I was was using specialty grains with little or no diastatic power without a base grain for any conversion (steeping roasted barley, aromatic malt, etc). I started calculating OG based on only the extract and then adding a couple points for the grains (less than what software estimated) and that balanced it out nearly every time.

No, no brewing software I'm a noob last night was only my 3rd brew, I was going off the instructions from the kit. It was 1lb of grains (not sure what it did not specify) I did sparge the grain bag with about 1/2 gal of 170 deg water. I put 1 gal of water in fermenter first and dumped wort on top of that then topped to 5.25 gallons, stirred with mash paddle and used a stone to oxygenate before pitching yeast. I am looking into brew software I plan on brewing for a while and I read how helpful it is.
 
I would lean toward the poor mix explanation. I did an extract oktoberfest beer Easter sunday, was shooting for 1.059 and came up 1.045. I turned my carboy on it's side and rolled the crap out of it and still came up with a 45. It's been fermenting quite vigorously for a lager at 50 deg. for 11 days. I took a reading last night and got 1.032, corrected for temperature it's maybe 1.030. There's no way it has only come down 13 points so all I can assume is it wasn't well mixed enough when I took the O.G. I'm thinking of trying one of these to make sure my wort is completely mixed.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...10408&osCsid=49b7b78eb0954b9fdcd00867f32273c1
 
I am having the same problem with a Canadian Lager I brewed last night, it was an extract kit with steeping grains. My target OG was 1.049 it came in at 1.035 not sure why.

Figured out what happened after reading my notes, I used my hydrometer after I pitched so I'm hoping that will make up most of the difference.
 
qhrumphf, I think you've found the source of the problem!

I do use brewing software, and that was a particularly heavy on the specialty grains recipe.

Next time I'll do the partial-mash-in-the-oven technique to make sure all the grains convert.
 
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