Hydrometer Reading mishap

[vclauson]

So last week I brewed my first batch of light ale and according to the recipe that I used, the original gravity was supposed to be around 1.034 or so but when I took the reading, I got about 1.071. Does this just mean the beer will have a higher ABV or is it still depending on how much yeast I used? Anyone else have this happen to them?

 

[whatisitgoodfor]

If you followed the recipe for an extract ale and diluted to 5 gallons, your OG is going to be spot what the recipe listed.

It's pretty hard to make the heavy partial boil wort mix with your top off water though, so getting wildly inaccurate hydro readings is common. It sounds like you took your hyro sample from pretty deep in the bucket.

 

[FreeM80s]

yeowza. what was your recipe? when I first got my hydrometer, I took my first grav reading in 4 gallons of water because i forgot to add the 5th before the carboy... something like that maybe? normally if your OG was that high, you would have a higher abv beer, but I doubt that you have that "problem". Unless you used about 12# of fermentables. but if the recipe said .034 then thats what you should have. unless you "tweaked" it

 

[whatsleftofyou]

Agreed with the above. Either your volume was below what it should be or it wasn't mixed well enough. To answer your other question, if it was 1.071 then yes that would significantly affect your ABV.

 

[vclauson]

Ok thanks guys. I just realized that when I did take a reading, it was before I added it to the 2 gallons of water that were in the carboy. My mistake.

 

[ChshreCat]

Ok thanks guys. I just realized that when I did take a reading, it was before I added it to the 2 gallons of water that were in the carboy. My mistake.

That'll do it!