Low gravity problem

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zarathustra19

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I just put a batch of coconut porter into the fermenter a few minutes ago, and when I took my initial reading, the gravity showed 1.046ish (my hydrometer is not the best). Anyway, according to Beer Smith, I should be showing 1.053, I've included the recipe below. As I'm trying to get this to porter status and not brown ale, I'd like to see a higher gravity. I'm wondering if there are any adjuncts I can add after the fact to boost the gravity, like a molasses solution or something. I'd like to see the abv reach about 5 rather than 4.3, which is the projection if all goes according to plan from here on out.

Recipe:

6lb Muntons Golden Light DME
.5lb chocolate malt
.5lb caramel 60
.75 oz Brewer's gold
.75 oz Kent Golding

Did a boil of 3 gallons and topped up with 2.5 gallons (to account for boil loss).

Thanks for any help,
Zach
 
This is pretty common, you topped up with water and it's really difficult to get everything well mixed.

You just pulled diluted wort from the top of the fermenter. Your gravity should be fine.
 
Did you aerate before checking the gravity? What was the wort temp? Regardless, if it is 1.046, add sugar, molasses or whatever you want into Beersmith until you reach 1.053. Assuming you don't do over 1lb (which you won't) you will be fine. Molasses sounds nice or maybe turbinado sugar, whatever, go for it!
 
Your O.G isn't THAT far off but I know how it feels not to hit the expected O.G the recipe calls for. As a rule of thumb I always add an extra cup of DME to my boil figuring that'll compensate for the LME left stuck to the side of the containers. I constantly hit my O.G and maybe go a little over. Since I'm doing a full boil (5.75 gallons in a converted keg) I usually don't have to add any water to the primary to make 5 gallons. With that said, if I do have to add a little water, a little water goes a long way in bringing the O.G down. Try adding a gallon of water at a time so you don't under shoot you expected O.G.

Steve
 
smontgo1 hit on what probably caused you to come up short... not emptying the LME containers. His technique is a good one. Another alternative is to add a bit of hot water to the containers, shake it up and add it to the boil. That will get the excess LME off, the water will get sanitized and you'll clean the containers. I would hit the O.G. every time.
 
What scoundrel said. That is what I do. I've got a small hot plate that I have a pan of water on heating up and ready when it comes time to add the LME. Once it's mostly empty I had the near boiling water to the container, close the lid and shake it and pour that into the BK. I've not missed my OG by much more than a few points.
 
I'm pretty sure he doesn't need to do anything. He used dme then topped off with water in the fermenter. It's mostly expected top get a gravity reading that's too low in that case because the wort isn't mixed completely.

It's really hard to miss your target using dme...

Sent from my FroyoEris using Home Brew Talk
 
I'm pretty sure he doesn't need to do anything. He used dme then topped off with water in the fermenter. It's mostly expected top get a gravity reading that's too low in that case because the wort isn't mixed completely.

It's really hard to miss your target using dme...

Sent from my FroyoEris using Home Brew Talk

I know of two ways to miss your gravity with DME/LME. One, not fully emptying your containers, like mentioned above and two, straining the hop and break material through a mesh bag. If you don't squeeze out the excess it will throw your gravity off.

I don't think I understand what you mean by not mixed. My process for partial boil's is to:

Boil DME/LME for 60 min
add the wort to the fermenter
add water to 5 gallons
pitch yeast
mix to induce oxygen
sanitize my thief
take a reading.

I would think it would be well mixed at that point and the reading would be accurate. Am I the only one who does (did) partial boils like this? Am I missing something?

Gfei, I'm sorry if I sound like a jerk. I'm not trying to, I've just never heard that before, so I want to understand.
 
It's common, how are you mixing? If your shaking the fermenter to aerate that won't mix it as well as you think.

Sent from my FroyoEris using Home Brew Talk
 
Did you use DME or LME? If you used DME I wouldn't worry about it. You just didn't mix it well enough. It is almost impossible to mix it completely if you top off with water. I would recommend doing nothing. Let it ferment and see how it turns out.
 
We get this question 3-4 times every day, so you're not alone. And in reality, nothing's wrong. (In fact you're the 4th one this morning alone.)

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

RM-MN has a great analogy;

This phenomenon is easy to see if you have a glass measure cup, some dark honey, and water. Pour in half a cup of water into the glass container, then dribble in some honey. Notice the honey sinks right to the bottom? It's more dense because of the sugar it contains. Now use a toothpick to stir the water above the honey. This will simulate using a spoon in a 5 gallon container. Did you get the honey mixed in? Not likely. If you drop in some dry yeast, it will find the honey and begin eating and the activity of the yeast will mix the honey in just fine.

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"

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

And just use the number it says in the instructions as the true OG, because it will be.

So the answer is, relax and do nothing.
 
Thanks for all the replies, guys. I do tend to over-think problems when it comes to brewing. To be honest, this is my fifteenth or sixteenth batch and I've only used a hydrometer for the past three :D.

Now that you've all pointed it out, under-mixing my added water was probably the problem. I'll take a reading in a few days just to what kind of activity I've been getting, but I'm fairly confident, especially since the airlock is bubbling away right now.

Thanks again,
Zach
 
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