OG too low?

[dividedsky319]

I'm brewing a porter from a kit from a local homebrew place, and the directions say the OG should be .05-.055... however, when taking the OG mine was only appx .038 :-(

I'm still new to this, so why is mine so low? Too much water and not enough of the wort? quite a bit of the wort did seem to evaporate away, is that why?

And... will the beer be ok?

Thanks.

 

[D-brewmeister]

How did you take your sample? If you drew it off of the top of your fermenter after you added cold water to bring up the volume and cool to pitching temps, it is likely that the wort was stratified, in other words, the thicker stuff was at the bottom making your sample read lighter than the actual gravity of the whole batch. Be sure to stir the wort well before taking measurments (with a sanitized spoon of course). Or perhaps even better, just dont worry about the hydrometer, as many suggest on this forum. If you included all the ingridents from the kit, and ended up with the right volume of wort, it has got to be close to what is should be (you were using an exctract kit, right?). Just check your recipe, make sure you put everything it it, and then forget about it till it's time to bottle.

 

[dividedsky319]

Yeah, that's what someone else I spoke to suggested as well, that it was just stratified... I did exactly what the directions I had said, so it probably is ok.

Thanks!

 

[Dude]

Also keep in mind the correction you need for the 60 degree factor.....if you dind't take a reading at exactly 60 degrees you'll need to adjust for that...it won't amount to much but it might be a factor........

Honestly, I'm running with the "Janx" school of thought lately regarding the hydrometer...those readings and the hydrometer theory just make us nOObs worry....what you got is what you got, why worry about it? You move on, try your next batch and maybe make it better. By missing a few points on your OG isn't a big deal. Your beer will still taste fine--YOU MADE IT.
Cool?

 

[Janx]

If you didn't own a hydrometer, you wouldn't be worrying. Either way, your beer will be fine. So, you can decide whether the hydrometer and the worry it caused was beneficial to your brewing experience or not

As orrelse said, what you got it what you got. Would you dump it out if someone here said it was all messed up? I sure hope not. Let it ferment and try it and see if you like it. I find that hydrometers have bad taste in beer anyway and don't know what they're talking about. Cheers!