Low Og's

[drev500]

Hey guys! Just joined the forum tonight to try to solve my problem. I've been brewing for about two months and its been great! I love the new hobby. Well the past three brews I have done were off the shelf kits I had picked up from a store nearby. The first two were Brewers Best Holiday Ale. When I brewed up those two, both times my OG's were lower then what the kit had said. The kit calls for anywhere between 1.075-1.065 (IIRC) but I got 1.062 for the first one and 1.048 for the second. The third batch I brewed tonight was a Honey Wheat kit and it called for an OG of 1.048 but I got 1.030.

I'm following the directions to the kits to a T but something is up. I want to I may be adding in too much water but I don't know. The kits are 5 gallon kits and when I add the wort to the carboys I only fill them to the 5 gallon mark (I am using 6.5 gallon carboys but measured them out to 5 gal. and marked with a sharpie). Do you think the water is my issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

[jetmac]

I don't think you stirred enough. Read the quote from Revvy below.

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;



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 the recipe says 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. .

Trust me, Revvy knows his stuff.

 

[dzlater]

Make sure your volumes are correct, make sure the wort is mixed well, and check your hydrometer with distilled water

 

[usfmikeb]

Also keep in mind that temp affects gravity reading.

 

[HomebrewMTB]

Be assured it's impossible to miss you OG if you followed the recipe. That's the beauty of exact. It's guaranteed sugar at the correct concentrations as long as you hit your volumes.

 

[drev500]

Thank you guys very much for the help! I was really worried at first but I am feeling a lot better now. It definitely has to be my stirring. I'm doing an IPA today so I am going to stirring the hell out of it today before I take gravity. Thanks again guys

 

[mcaple1]

yeah dude...you're probably ok...a lot of times extract brewers will live and die by their OG numbers....but forget to properly mix of their wort after topping up. typical mistake and it gets you all panicked.