SG waaaay too low, what do?

[b4k4]

Hey all,

So I made an AHS Pumpkin last night get it all set to go and pitch it. Then I remember I need to cgeck the grav. Somehow its between 1.02 and 1.03. Way too low. Is there anything I can do to salvage this beer?

 

[broadbill]

Is that gravity reading temperature corrected? Hydrometers are calibrated to read correctly at 60F, and gravity readings for wort at higher temperatures read low.

Frankly, it is kind of hard to miss your gravity extract brewing, short of forgetting to add fermentables or screwing up your volumes.

 

[HopPhish]

do you do full boils or top off with water? you can get a low reading if you haven't mixed your wort and top off water.

 

[Revvy]

We get this question 3-4 times every day, so you're not alone. And in reality, nothing's wrong.

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.

And just use the number it says in the instructions as the true OG, because it will be.

So the answer is, relax and do nothing.

 

[b4k4]

I like that answer. That sounds like it may be the case, in the past I've used buckets for my primary and I stir with the stainless steel spoon, but this time I got a better bottle, so I had to shake it up, maybe didnt shake it enough. Thanks, this bothers me a whole lot less now