low O.G.

[brew2you]

I have another question. I have noticed that my last three brews have all had a low O.G. I'm using beer kits and the i'm not at the "suggested" starting gravity. I'm wondering if this will matter and if so how do I fix it on future brews. My brews are a double wheat bock that should have a reading of 1.080 mine was 1.059. Traditional European Bock should be 1.068 mine was 1.052. And a Russian Imperial Stout which should be 1.080 mine was 1.065. This one had the correct F.G. of 1.020. This is the only one that has made it to bottles so far. Any advice will help. Thanks

 

[lil' league]

It really depends on what kind of kit you are using. If you're using a kit that was put together by a homebrew shop its probably going to be fairly innaccurate. If you're using like a Coopers then the only way your OG should be lower is if you are adding too much water, or not boiling nearly long enough.. Good thing is, you can always add more extract!

 

[brew2you]

Two of the kits were Brewer's Best and the other one was from Listerman's Brewery Supply.

 

[Pharmguy]

I had low OG's with brewers best as well. Trend? I just shot for the low end of the suggested FG to be sure fermentation was complete and all is well. Your first one seems really low though, maybe it wasnt stirred enough when you added your top off water??

 

[ArcaneXor]

Assuming your wort was well-mixed when you took your readings, here's what you can do to fix this in future batches:

If you do partial boils, simply stop adding water once you reach the desired OG, i.e. don't be guided by beer volume, but rather by your hydrometer/ refractometer.

If you do full boils, either boil for longer or reduce the boil volume.

Alternatively, you could always add more fermentables.

 

[brew2you]

Thanks for the advice. I will try it Tuesday when I try a winter warmer.

 

[frolickingmonkey]

Are these extract batches? If they are, you have to try pretty hard to miss your target OG. In my experience, when my gravity readings were low it was a result of the wort and top off water not being well mixed before I pulled my sample. There was one time I actually had a OG that was LOWER than my FG! Just be sure to give your bucket or carboy a good minute or two of shaking or stirring to get things well mixed before you take your reading. You should be a lot closer to the proper OG if not right on the money.

 

[Maveric777]

I'm sure you done your homework on calibration of a hydrometer, but in case you haven't you may want to check on that. I was having similar issues until I found out that the hydrometer is calibrated to 60deg and every point off that changes the final reading. Here is a chart I just found (I use the one in my "Hoe To Brew" book) HydrometerTemperatureConversionChart.pdf

 

[jepputeacher]

I'm having a similar problem. I think I have just too much water. Next time I'm going to try boiling a bit longer and using less water before cooling. Also, I'm going to switch to a premium yeas. I'm curious... Will the type of yeast used have any impact on the OG? Also, any opinions on mixing 1kg spray malt with .5kg of white sugar? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[devilishprune]

I'm sure you done your homework on calibration of a hydrometer, but in case you haven't you may want to check on that. I was having similar issues until I found out that the hydrometer is calibrated to 60deg and every point off that changes the final reading. Here is a chart I just found (I use the one in my "Hoe To Brew" book) HydrometerTemperatureConversionChart.pdf

Glad to see that it helped you finally get off the streets and start brewing!

On a more helpful note, you can't really miss the OG on your extract batches, not by that amount anyway (provided you have the correct volumes). That's the only problem that I could see. Calibrate your ale pail with a container of a known, accurate volume.

 

[KeithMoonsLiver]

I'm having a similar problem. I think I have just too much water. Next time I'm going to try boiling a bit longer and using less water before cooling. Also, I'm going to switch to a premium yeas. I'm curious... Will the type of yeast used have any impact on the OG? Also, any opinions on mixing 1kg spray malt with .5kg of white sugar? Any help would be appreciated.

Yeast won't affect the OG.

I wonder if it's just not mixed completely- it's pretty hard to mix pure water with the concentrated wort from a partial boil just by shaking it for a few minutes. My initial OG readings always seemed to be off more than it should, but then if I tried taking another reading later but before fermentation took off it would be what I was expecting to get. I don't really even bother taking OG readings for extract kits anymore; if you use the correct amount of water it shouldn't be off by much.