Same SG, what gives??

[Pim]

Here's the deal. I've brewed two batches of beer now and each had the same SG. The first batch was a German Kolsh and the second a clone of Two Hearted Ale. The kolsh was supposed to give me a SG of 1.049 and the Two Hearted Ale clone was supposed to give me a SG of 1.062. I got 1.041 for both.

Both readings were took when the temp of the wort was 60 degrees.

Anyone have this issue before? Do I have a crap-tacular hydrometer?

 

[treehouse]

Were these extract brews or mashed grain recipies? Bad mashing efficiencies would account for the low SG's. Assuming you used extracts, were the recipes for 5 gallons? I would doubt a hydrometer could be that far off even if it was defective.

 

[Blender]

You can test your hydrometer to see if it is bad. Check it with water at 60 degrees and it should read 1.000

 

[Pim]

Were these extract brews or mashed grain recipies? Bad mashing efficiencies would account for the low SG's. Assuming you used extracts, were the recipes for 5 gallons? I would doubt a hydrometer could be that far off even if it was defective.

I used a mash grain recipie. What would qualify as bad mashing and how would you make it not bad?

I'll try my hydrometer in water at 60 degrees. Thanks for that tip, it probably would have taken me a few weeks to figure that out.

 

[treehouse]

I used a mash grain recipie. What would qualify as bad mashing and how would you make it not bad?

"Bad mashing" would be if you did not convert all the starches in the grain to fermentable sugars. The main cause of this would be mashing at the wrong temperatures or not long enough. Either too high or too low. Also not rinsing the grain (sparging) after mashing could give you low yeilds. I recommend that you consult a homebrew book on the specifics as there is way more information on this than I can give here. Good luck.

 

[Evan!]

What was your mash schedule?

 

[Pim]

steap in 2 1/2 gallons of water at 152 degrees for an hour, strain, then 160 degree water for a minute and strain again.

i had the heat on for the first half hour of the of the steaping, the temp readings i took were within a degree or two of 152. i turned of the heat, put the cover on and continued to take readings every 10 minutes, always within a degree or two.

so very confused.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[Bobby_M]

Ok, so you're doing a partial mash. In both recipies, I suspect you didn't thoroughly mix your wort/top up water to ensure even gravity just prior to measuring. This is very common.

 

[Pim]

I think you maybe on to something. I'm going to have to keep this in mind for the next batch. Thanks for the help and cheers