Question about Initial Gravity reading

[micahwitham]

brewed the surly furious clone from midwest and it said my initial reading should be 1.060-1.068 and mine was actually 1.080.
Why would I get a higher reading and should I be concerned?
thx

 

[kbuzz]

Need more info.

You might be concerned that you'll fall on your ass after drinking a few.

 

[erikpete18]

Yeah, more info would be good. For instance, did you boil the whole 5+ gallons, or did you boil part of it and top off with water in the fermenter. If you did top off, its often pretty tough to get the water mixed with the wort that you boiled, so depending on where you drew your sample from, you could have been drawing from a thicker portion of the batch.

Second, was it extract or all-grain (or some proportion in between)? If it was all extract or extract+steeping grains, there's really no way you could be off if you used what they sent you and got the volumes right. If any portion of it was mashed, its possible that you got a higher efficiency than the recipe intended, in which case your specific setup will help us figure out where that might have come from. Either way, I'd bet its gonna turn out great from the reviews I've heard of the beer .

 

[micahwitham]

It was a partial grain with just some specialty grains and mostly extract. The steeping got a little hotter than I wanted at 160 instead if 155. Also I did boil 4 gallons and then topped off what was left before pitching yeast which was about 3.5 gallons. I didn't really mix it up so my sample was taken from the bottom with a thief and very well could have been a bit concentrated. Thx for the info I appreciate it.
Micah

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

+1 on the sample being from a more concentrated part of the wort. Especially if the sample was taken from the bottom. I've had it happen.

And a double +1 on that beer turning out great! It's an amazing beer and from what I read, NB's kit makes a damn fine furious clone.
:rockin:

 

[Revvy]

We get this question every day

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) 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.

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 it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

 

[micahwitham]

Thx for the input
Another question is since I've dry hopped ive gotten a pretty significant secondary fermentation and activity in the airlock. Is this common?

 

[Daybis]

Did you rack to a secondary fermenter? You might not have finished fermenting yet and/or if you did rack to a secondary fermenter, the additional hops and the agitation is probably knocking some CO2 out of solution; giving the appearance of active fermentation.

 

[cervezarara]

Some of the CO2 produced by fermentation is dissolved in the beer. The lower the fermentation/bulk conditioning temperature, the more CO2 that can remain dissolved. However, when you dry hop, you provide nucleation sites for the CO2 to become released. That is, presuming you measured SG and fermentation was complete. If not, the hop addition may have stirred the yeast a bit.

 

[micahwitham]

I did rack to secondary when i dry hopped. I didn't take a gravity reading at this point but the airlock was quiet for a good 2 days. I'm thinking about a 3rd transfer to dry to clear this beer up a bit before I bottle it. the recipe I had gave me some pellet hops for dry hopping which has caused it to be a bit cloudy and murky. would you ever rack it a 3rd time and cold condition it? i've got a fridge in the garage with a set up for a keg but no keg yet so it would fit in there. right now i've got it set up for an oktoberfest i'm going to lager here soon.
thoughts on that move?

 

[Spartan1979]

We get this question every day

It's a pretty common issue for ANYONE topping off with water in the fermenter (and that includes partial mashes, extract or all grain revcipes) 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.

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 it's supposed to be. And it will mix itself fine during fermentation.

I've never heard that before. I'll have to give that some thought. Any reason the water and the wort don't mix easily?

 

[Revvy]

Wort is heavier than water....And therefore it's harder to initially mix. It's that simple.

This is one of the most common first time brewer posts on here it's either "my gravity is too low" or "My gravity is too high." And the first question always to ask is whether or not it's an extract or partial mash top off batch.