Lower OG than expected

[jayh]

Hi all,

I brewed the Smuttynose Noonan clone from the latest BYO but ended up with an OG of 1.046 instead of the listed 1.071.

I'm curious if it was due to more wort boiling off and adding more water than expected to get to 5 gallons?

In a scenario like this do you just proceed as is or are there tricks to boost a low gravity?

Thanks in advance,

Jay

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

did you use top off water? this happens a lot when topping off. it's hard to mix the water with the wort after topping off.

 

[jayh]

Yeah I topped off. I've only got a 5 gallon pot so I'm limited to partial boils. Hopefully I'll be buying either an 8 or 10 gallon pot next month

 

[beerman0001]

If it was an lme or dme recipe then it is because you topped off. If all grain new can of worms.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Yeah I topped off. I've only got a 5 gallon pot so I'm limited to partial boils. Hopefully I'll be buying either an 8 or 10 gallon pot next month

since you topped off, don't worry about it. like i said, it's really hard to mix the water and wort before taking a reading. chances are you hit your OG, or were close.

 

[dougdecinces]

If you are going to top off your beer, I would suggest doing so before you aerate your wort. That way the water gets thoroughly incorporated, and you don't run into this problem again.