really low og.

[dontman]

For just pennies a day, you can help us find a cure for noobitus. Nah, wouldn't work. The cure is already there in the stickies and in the search feature. It's more a matter of delivery. How can we get people to read the stickies and search the forums?

Hell if I know.

(I don't mind the low OG posts, mostly because one of my first posts here was the exact same thing. It just didn't occur to me that someone else could have made the exact same mistake.)

Actually I don't believe the cure is really right there. Because every problem is unique.

More importantly, because there is a newb reading these last couple posts, we are totally just kidding around with you. We don't mind seeing the same questions day after day. What it means is that new people are picking this obsession on a daily basis. And this can be nothing but good.

So welcome, do your best to be patient and this beer will reward you. You could do some terrible things to this beer and it would never even shudder. It will still be a champ when you get through.

To me the most important piece of waiting to do is the three weeks after you bottle until your first sip.

 

[ssabin]

Thanks for the post, Pol. It just seems a bit strange that John Palmer could be - wrong?

This is timely as I am putting together a spreadsheet to calculate OG and IBU for extract recipes. The twist from what I understand is in most brewing software is that it has flexibility to properly account for hop utilization depending on what times the eaxtracts are added, in addition to the hop times.

Granted, the difference isn't large, but I always like this sort of thing to be as "good" as possible. Perhaps I'll change the "Generic" values for DME and LME to the numbers you posted. The user can always override them as well.

I'll post this spreadsheet (probably on the extract forum) when I get it a bit more refined and tested.

 

[The Pol]

Thanks for the post, Pol. It just seems a bit strange that John Palmer could be - wrong?

This is timely as I am putting together a spreadsheet to calculate OG and IBU for extract recipes. The twist from what I understand is in most brewing software is that it has flexibility to properly account for hop utilization depending on what times the eaxtracts are added, in addition to the hop times.

Granted, the difference isn't large, but I always like this sort of thing to be as "good" as possible. Perhaps I'll change the "Generic" values for DME and LME to the numbers you posted. The user can always override them as well.

I'll post this spreadsheet (probably on the extract forum) when I get it a bit more refined and tested.

John Palmer has been wrong before. Have you read some of the homebrewing "rules" from the 80's? Wow... much has changed.

Also, the numbers I got, were from Briess and Muntons... I think they know the gravity point value of thier products better than Palmer. Like I said, do the research. I have never brewed extract, but did some research when this post came up... the manufacturers of LME and DME know thier product, and thier numbers support the idea of 1.25lbs LME to one pound of DME, that is all I am saying. I trust the manufacturer over Palmer... the manufacturers values are what are loaded in the top three or four brewing software applications. That is where I got the 1.25lbs of LME to 1lb of DME.

 

[goetzUM]

I've been getting extremely low hydrometer readings as well. The hydrometer works fine in water. I get a reading of 1. But my last two batches have had OGs around 1.030 when the recipe said they should be much higher.

 

[The Pol]

I've been getting extremely low hydrometer readings as well. The hydrometer works fine in water. I get a reading of 1. But my last two batches have had OGs around 1.030 when the recipe said they should be much higher.

If it is extract, poor mixing is generally the problem. It is quite difficult to get the sugars from extract mixed well enough to get a good reading.