Low OG every time

[Yourrealdad]

I just brewed up m 4th batch of beer and it was Yooper's Dogfish head 60 min clone. I came up with a OG of 1.061-2 (temp taken at 67) that puts me about .01 off of target. I seem to always be getting lower numbers than the recipes I follow. Any ideas why?

I do 5 gallon extract full boils, and usually end up with about 5ish gallons in the fermentor. Probably about 1/4-1/2 gallon of trub leftover.

This time the recipe called for 9.5 lbs LME and I used 9 lbs LME and a little over .5 lbs DME which should put me over the required amount.

I have also brewed Ed's robust porter twice with 9 lbs LME and the last time I did I got a OG of 1.063 which seems low for that, but even higher than what I just brewed.

I am putting all the extract in at the beginning which seems to be what everyone else has done.

Thanks for the help and let me know what other info I need to give you.
Thanks

 

[Yooper]

I just brewed up m 4th batch of beer and it was Yooper's Dogfish head 60 min clone. I came up with a OG of 1.061-2 (temp taken at 67) that puts me about .01 off of target. I seem to always be getting lower numbers than the recipes I follow. Any ideas why?

I do 5 gallon extract full boils, and usually end up with about 5ish gallons in the fermentor. Probably about 1/4-1/2 gallon of trub leftover.

This time the recipe called for 9.5 lbs LME and I used 9 lbs LME and a little over .5 lbs DME which should put me over the required amount.

I have also brewed Ed's robust porter twice with 9 lbs LME and the last time I did I got a OG of 1.063 which seems low for that, but even higher than what I just brewed.

I am putting all the extract in at the beginning which seems to be what everyone else has done.

Thanks for the help and let me know what other info I need to give you.
Thanks

Are you just dumping out the 1/2 gallon of leftover "trub"? If so, you're loosing a 1/2 gallon of wort, unaccounted for in the recipe, and that would explain a lower OG of the final volume.

 

[agcorry00]

Have you calibrated your hydrometer?

 

[Yourrealdad]

Yes I am dumping out the trub, I didn't know you were supposed to pour that in. Will keeping that increase the OG or should I boil off more to get more concentration and then add trub?

I just put my hydrometer into 60 degree (tap) do I need RO water and the reading came out as 1.005 so would that mean that that my readings are always .005 lower? Even FG?

Thanks

 

[Hex23]

Yes I am dumping out the trub, I didn't know you were supposed to pour that in. Will keeping that increase the OG or should I boil off more to get more concentration and then add trub?

I just put my hydrometer into 60 degree (tap) do I need RO water and the reading came out as 1.005 so would that mean that that my readings are always .005 lower? Even FG?

Thanks

Whether you put the trub in or not will not change your OG. What volume you have at the end of the boil does. I'm not familiar with the recipe, but my calculations for that amount of LME and DME with 5.5 gallons says the gravity should be 1.063. So what's the problem? Are there mashed or steeping grains too?

1.005 is really high. Yes RO is better, but I doubt tap water would throw it off by more than 2 pts.

 

[aiptasia]

I also think it's your boil volume. You should either be A) experiencing more evaporation during your boils which will raise the OG, or you are B) adding top-off water to your batches to level them out at the "5ish" gallon mark in your fermenter and that's "thinning" the batch.

 

[Yourrealdad]

I also think it's your boil volume. You should either be A) experiencing more evaporation during your boils which will raise the OG, or you are B) adding top-off water to your batches to level them out at the "5ish" gallon mark in your fermenter and that's "thinning" the batch.

I guess I can try boiling off more but like I said I only have 1/4-1/2 G of trub leftover which seems pretty normal from what I have read.

I have never added water after a boil/ topping off.

Hex, I have a little more than 5G in my primary but Not near 5.5. Recipe is for 5 G, but it is a partial boil recipe (2.5G). Would this make a difference?

 

[Hex23]

I also think it's your boil volume. You should either be A) experiencing more evaporation during your boils which will raise the OG, or you are B) adding top-off water to your batches to level them out at the "5ish" gallon mark in your fermenter and that's "thinning" the batch.

+1. I see the recipe now. It's written to put 5 gallons into the fermenter.

 

[Hex23]

Hex, I have a little more than 5G in my primary but Not near 5.5. Recipe is for 5 G, but it is a partial boil recipe (2.5G). Would this make a difference?

No, the difference b/t boiling down to 5 gal and topping up to 5 gallons would not matter, unless one discarded the trub before topping up.

I'd recommend staying with the full boil since you are obviously able to handle it and it should help quality. But a couple of points there. Full boils will increase hops utilization - so if you follow the hops schedule from a PB recipe in a full boil you'll get more hops bitterness. If you only put 5 gallons in the fermenter, esp with hops trub you won't get near 5 gallons into package. So if you don't want to transfer the hops trub and want to also account for yeast trub you should scale fermentables and hops to put 5.5 gal into the fermenter and maintain OG.

Edit: To clarify ... I should have said scale to make a 6 gallon volume at the end of the boil, then transfer 5.5 gallons (leaving the hops trub). Then if you lose 0.5 gallons to yeast trub, you'll have 5 gallons to package. Of course you can tweak these values if you don't think you have 0.5 gallons of hops or yeast trub, but these are common assumptions.

 

[Yourrealdad]

Yeah I haven't been able to understand yet how to account for hop utilization from partial to full boils, but Yooper said that I should just add hops on the schedule of the extract recipe she posted.

 

[Yourrealdad]

Back to my hydrometer, it looks like it is at 1.004 in water. How do I fix it or can I? Does this mean that every reading should be 4 pts less so say for this batch instead of a 1.061 I had a 1.057? That is even more depressing an a little unbelievable. 9# LME and .6# DME plus 1# of crystal 40 and only 1.057?

 

[Yooper]

I guess I can try boiling off more but like I said I only have 1/4-1/2 G of trub leftover which seems pretty normal from what I have read.

I have never added water after a boil/ topping off.

Hex, I have a little more than 5G in my primary but Not near 5.5. Recipe is for 5 G, but it is a partial boil recipe (2.5G). Would this make a difference?

Yes, that's normal. But the SG readings are taken with a certain volume. If the recipe is for 5 gallons of wort, and you dump out .5 gallons of it as trub, and put 5.25 gallons in the fermenter, you actually made a 5.75 gallon batch, and your OG readings will be lower if you use the same amount of extract as someone making a 5 gallon batch.

I hope that explains it better. With an extract brew, you shouldn't get too much trub so you could try simply pouring your wort through a strainer if you really don't want any trub in it, so that you get more volume and use less water in the boil to "water down" the recipe.

Back to my hydrometer, it looks like it is at 1.004 in water. How do I fix it or can I? Does this mean that every reading should be 4 pts less so say for this batch instead of a 1.061 I had a 1.057? That is even more depressing an a little unbelievable. 9# LME and .6# DME plus 1# of crystal 40 and only 1.057?

Yes. But again, if you're not ending up with 5 gallons (total) and instead 5.75 gallons, that's a big difference as you're using 15% more water in your batch. I didn't do the math, but is your OG 15% lower?

 

[Yourrealdad]

Thanks Yooper,
I have been straining into a paint strainer bag, which by the way works great. I guess I will just boil off a little more and strain more out.

With the hydrometer, since it is about .004 off meaning a OG 1.070 reading is really 1.066, does that mean a FG is lower too so a 1.020 is really 1.016?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yooper,
I have been straining into a paint strainer bag, which by the way works great. I guess I will just boil off a little more and strain more out.

With the hydrometer, since it is about .004 off meaning a OG 1.070 reading is really 1.066, does that mean a FG is lower too so a 1.020 is really 1.016?

Yep, adjust all readings! I don't usually strain my wort, but it all settles out in the end anyway and I end up with clear beer. It's just up to each brewer and their system (leaf hops clog up my pumps, but pellets don't).