Pitched yeast then checked OG and OG was low!

[HOPtuary]

So i finished up my second Big Beer, which was a Stone SSR brew. It was a 90 min boil with 6lbs LME and 4oz Chinnook at 90min. Then added 3lbs LME and 1lb DME at 15min and 1oz Simcoe and Amarillo at 10min. Beersmith said its est. OG was at 1.089. I did a 2L starter for this batch. So I forgot to take my OG reading until about 10 min after I pitched the yeast and my hydrometer read 1.075 and my refractometer read 1.065. I made a similar Big Beer the previous night and my OG was nuts on. I was hoping you guys could lend a hand in me figuring out my issue. Thanks.

 

[kh54s10]

Did you do a full boil, or use top up water. If you used top up water I would suspect it was not mixed fully.

 

[HOPtuary]

I only have a 5 gallon kettle so I boil about 4 gallons and then top off with about 2 to account for boil off.

 

[boydster]

Did you add top-off water after the boil? That is usually the reason for a gravity discrepancy with an extract brew. If you used the right volume of water, the true gravity should be exactly what Beersmith calculated.

Edit: I was too slow. RDWHAHB. Your gravity is right, the measurement was off because the extra water didn't fully mix.

 

[GrogNerd]

for extract batches, as long as volume is correct, the OG will be correct.

so, unless you ended up with more in your fermenter than the recipe called for, you should be OK

plus the stratification thing; higher gravity at the bottom, lower at the top

 

[HOPtuary]

The wort and the additional 2 gallons were mixed in the primary (6gallon bucket) so just over 5 gallons in the primary and then yeast was pitched. With the other batch i brewed the night before I followed the same process and hit the OG right on. Why would i be off by 14 points still?

 

[boydster]

You probably just got the wort mixed a little better last time. It's pretty hard to mix the top off water with the rest of the wort, so the fact that you got the OG right on last time is great but don't worry that it looked like it was off this time. You added a measured amount of sugar to a measured amount of water - efficiency isn't a variable you need to worry about with extract because the sugars have already been extracted - so you can rest assured that if you added the correct volume of water and all of the extract, you nailed the OG that Beersmith calculated. The yeast will take care of mixing the sugars the rest of the way, so it's really no big deal if there was some stratification. There are 2 ways you could have ACTUALLY came out 14 points low on your OG: You didn't add all the extract, or you added too much water. If neither of those is true, you hit your OG.

 

[HOPtuary]

Great! The other recipe (Black Imperial IPA) called for adding 1lb of sugar (dex) to the wort. Is this something one should do regularly for a big beer? Or just if the recipe calls for it.

 

[chickypad]

Was that all your fermentables? 9 lb LME should be 9 x 36ppg = 324 pts, plus about 44 pts for 1 lb DME = 368 gravity pts. In a 5 gallon batch that's 1.074. You sure you didn't enter that all in beersmith as DME? Then it would be closer to 1.088.

 

[HOPtuary]

chicky...Beersmith told me the OG should be 1.089 so your math is correct and i did put everything in as LME and DME accordingly. Im in agreeance with Boydster and the others that i prob didnt get a good mixing of the wort and the water.

 

[chickypad]

chicky...Beersmith told me the OG should be 1.089 so your math is correct and i did put everything in as LME and DME accordingly. Im in agreeance with Boydster and the others that i prob didnt get a good mixing of the wort and the water.

Okay if you've got it figured out. I'm still not understanding though because if I put your recipe in Beersmith as you noted it I get 1.074, if I put it all in as DME Beersmith gives me 1.089. You must have other fermentables that you're not listing in your original post?

 

[HOPtuary]

In Beersmith it was put in as 6lbs of LME at 90min and 3lbs of LME and 1lb of DME at 15min (LATE ADDITION) it came out with 1.089

 

[chickypad]

Late edition or not should not affect gravity, only IBU's. You're positive you're not entering that all as dry extract? The LME should have a potential of 1.036.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[HOPtuary]

Well i just replugged everything into my Beersmith mobile app and since i couldnt find a Light LME I used Pale Liquid Extract. This now shows my target OG to be 1.075, exactly what I hit with my hydrometer. Why would Beersmith not have Light LME? Strange

 

[itchygomey]

There are a LOT of ingredients loaded into Beersmith, but it's not realistic to expect every ingredient available to be in it. I've had to add some things at times. Also, not all the numbers are dead on nuts. I've had to adjust some things like srm, alpha%, etc.

 

[HOPtuary]

OK that i can totally see. But what im still hungup on it that the batch i made the night before hit nuts on using mostly LME and just a lb of DME and was plugged into Beersmith and Light DME and the dry extract toggle was changed from Dry Extract to just Extract and the same was done with this brew and I had the OG issue. I guess im not going to sweat it with all the knowledge you guys have thrown at me. Ill def see about adding a Light LME manually into my Beersmith to hopefully avoid this next time. Thanks everyone.

 

[freisste]

Great! The other recipe (Black Imperial IPA) called for adding 1lb of sugar (dex) to the wort. Is this something one should do regularly for a big beer? Or just if the recipe calls for it.

Regularly? Maybe not. But part of the style of an imperial IPA is the minimal malt compared to excessive (if that's possible) hops. The malt should really be in the background and not be pronounced. That's why simple sugars are added - more alcohol without an addition of malt. But again, that is a IIPA thing, not something to do on every big beer.