low OG??????

[orleans]

just cooked up a Christmas gift, MoreBeer extract Rasination (Lambic). the info had OG estimated at1.060-1.065. I'm getting 1.040. Why would that be? I followed the instructions using all of the fermentables.

 

[cfonnes]

just cooked up a Christmas gift, MoreBeer extract Rasination (Lambic). the info had OG estimated at1.060-1.065. I'm getting 1.040. Why would that be? I followed the instructions using all of the fermentables.

Did you stir it really well after adding top off water?

 

[sheeshomatic]

It was extract only? Do you have the proper final amount of water?

Test your hydrometer with plain water and see if it reads '1.000'

 

[orleans]

I did not stir but I doo really slosh in the water (to get some extra o2), pouring it from milk jugs---I use well water from my farm and have no more with me now, I seem to remember cking it a few months ago and it was 1.000 but will ck again when I get home. I went ahead and pitched and stirred. Will the yeast change the OG with-in 15 mins? I'm gonna take another reading right quick. thanks all

 

[orleans]

oh, 8lbs light LME + 1lb turbinado? yes 5 gal total

 

[luke2080]

What temperature was the wort? If it was around 130 degrees or so, your OG would adjust to about 1060. (Don't have a calculator handy, but I think I'm close)

 

[BrewKnurd]

I did not stir but I doo really slosh in the water (to get some extra o2), pouring it from milk jugs

If you just poured the water on top (no matter how vigorously you poured), you did not mix things up well. Even if you shook your carboy up pretty well (assuming you're in a carboy), you still might not have mixed well enough to get a true reading.

The good news is, with extract kits, you didn't miss your OG. I promise. You're within +/- 0.002 gravity points. You just don't have a representative sample to measure do to mixing issues.

Will the yeast change the OG with-in 15 mins? I'm gonna take another reading right quick. thanks all

Not in any way you'd be able to measuer.

 

[Grinder12000]

99.9% of the time a kit will be dead on with OG. It's REALLY hard to mess that up unless you add 5 extra gallons of water..

Just a bad sample I would bet!

 

[mdatum]

You probably had a sample that had top off water that wasn't mixed in well enough. I wouldn't worry about it. Extracts are generally spot on.

In the future it is good to aerate the wort as much as possible before pitching the yeast. This has the dual purpose of mixing in any top off water quite well.

I'd just leave it. Not worth contaminating the batch at this point in my opinion.

 

[orleans]

bad sample, thanks

 

[Revvy]

You didn't do anything wrong. In fact nothing's wrong at all.

We get this question 3-4 times every day, so you're not alone. And in reality, nothing's wrong.

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.

 

[pyth]

I was just about to ask the same question that spawned this topic, but after that explanation Revvy I can avoid cluttering things up with yet another 'my OG is low!" topic. Someone should really sticky your explanation.