Low OG??

[ac0805]

This is my second batch that I have tried, and so far my OG for each batch has been about a percent lower than the limits set for the recipe. I have a batch of Brewers Best Oktoberfest going right now, and the recipe calls for 2 gallons of wort which is diluted by 3 gallons of water during cool down. I even added an extra pound of dextrose to the boil and still the OG was 1.046 and the lower limit called for 1.053. Any ideas why this is so low?
Thanks
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[Yooper]

It's important to take the sg, but in the case of a kit (especially one like Brewer's Best with standard ingredients), it's impossible to miss the sg. What more than likely happened is that when you top up with water, the heavier wort sinks to the bottom and doesn't mix that well with the water. So, the sg that you pull from near the top is low. But the correct sg is the one that came with the kit- sugars can't just disappear! I had that problem when I did extract, too. I ended up cooling the wort and then adding the water to my pot and then pouring it into the fermenter and then stirring very well and it did get better. 1 pound of corn sugar would add .10 to your sg, so your actual sg is probably 1.063 or so.

 

[ac0805]

Well that makes sense, i'll try to stir the wort before taking og next time. Thanks for the help.