low OG...??

[Jester]

I jsut brewed a kit from HomebrewUSA called Stony Hedge stout... and for some reason my OG was somewhere around 1.038-1.041 and the kit says my OG should be around 1.055... I dont knwo where I went wrong... or what went wrong... the only odd thing with this beer is once the wort had cooled and I was racking into the carboy and noticed there was alot more "crap" in the bottom of the kettle... this means I left a little more in the kettle as to not rack all that into the primary... maybe I left a little too much... any suggestions would make me feel better.. thanks..

Jester

 

[homebrewer_99]

What was the temp when you took your reading?

 

[Jester]

What was the temp when you took your reading?

probably somewhere around high 70s or low 80s...

 

[david_42]

If the sample was at 803F your reading would eb .003 low, but most likely you just left too much in the kettle. A pound of DME or corn sugar would bring it back up.

 

[homebrewer_99]

If the sample was at 803F your reading would eb .003 low, but most likely you just left too much in the kettle. A pound of DME or corn sugar would bring it back up.

Hey, Dave? Where'd you find a brewing thermometer that gets up to 803 degrees?

 

[Ivan Lendl]

whats the recipe? If its a partial mash i bet they rated your efficiency at 100 percent. I brewed a kit beer from midwest supply, and ended up with a gravity of 1.040. This was at 65 percent efficiency. How they expected me to get a decent og with 3.3 lbs lme and 4 lbs 2-row i dunno...even at 100 percent your talking like 1.052.

 

[magno]

If you did a partial boil, there is a possibility that you did not get a well mixed sample. This has happened to me a few times, if I am worried about it I mix it up better with a sanitized spoon, but most of the time I dont worry too much about it and use the target OG to estimate ABV.

See how it tastes when racking. If it tastes beerish then it was probably fine. If it tastes watered down, you missed your OG.

- magno

 

[Jester]

I did do somewhat of a partial boil.. started with about 4 gallons and ended up with somewhere around 3 after done boiling... so maybe the topoff water wasnt mixed well when I took my sample.. I got activity in the fermenter about 8 housrs after pitching the yeast... and its going like crazy now... we'll see how it turns out... since its a stout I'm probably only going to leave it in the secondary for a week and get it carbonating in a keg as soon as possible... Thanks for all the suggestions...

The Recipe had (if this helps) :

1lb 80l Crystal
4lbs Dark LME
3lbs Amber LME

Jester