Specific Gravity...is my hydrometer broken or what'd I screw up?

[Mellman]

Yesterday I brewed up some midwest kits. I did their Irish Red Ale, and a Oatmeal stout which I added 1/2lb of chocolate malt to.

In my previous two brews I"ve not bothered with SG readings and everythings turned out fine, but since I'm trying to make this hobby a learning process I decided to check my SG's to see how i was compared to the what the recipe sheets said.

The Irish Red was a SG of 1.031 but the recipe says it shoudl be around 1.042-1.046

My Oatmeal stout was a 1.013 and the recipe says it should be a 1.042-1.046

What did I do wrong?

I brew in 5 gal batches, and lose anywhere from 1-2 gallons in the boiling process. I transfer the contents of the brewpot to my carboy through a counterflow, and get the wert down to about 85-90* and then fill my carboy with water to reach my desired 5 gallons.

I then siphoned out some of each beer into a test tube and took my hydrometer readings, and got the above numbers. Now...I understand how a hydrometer works, and that my final alcohol content is the SG-FG, but i'm a little worried that the irish stout SG was = to the FG!

I took multiple readings, spun the hydrometer in the tube, tried bouncing it...always remained the same. What can I do to fix it? Or maybe my hydrometer is just broken?

 

[lapaglia]

Float the hydrometer in clear water. It should read 1.000 if its close to that then it works fine.
Post the recipes and lets take a look.

 

[Mellman]

the hydrometer is fine, tested it in water after I posted (should've thought of that before i posted duh )

pretty standard recipes, grains were steeped for 30 min, flavoring hops added as soon as i hit a steady rolling boil, aroma hops in irish red added for last 2 min.
IRISH RED:

6lbs Gold LME
12oz caramel 40
2oz special B
2oz roasted barley
1oz cascade @0 min 1 oz German tradition @58min
wyeast american ale #1056

Oatmeal Stout:
6lbs Dark LME
8oz rolled oats
4oz Chocolate malt (+8oz Chocolate malt I added)
4oz Roasted Barley
1oz Glacier Hops @ 0min
wyeast irish ale #1084
Both beers are bubbling away happily at 1-2 blips per second, added yeast ~18 hrs ago (Wyeast for both) And both smelled and tasted great. are my beers just going to have a low alcohol content? Hmm...

 

[Stratotankard]

My first thought is that you haven't stirred enough after topping off your carboy to 5 gallons. Especially if you take your sample off the top, if your wort isn't mixed together well with the water you added you're not getting a true sample. The sugars are heavy and like to stay at the bottom when you top off. Try stirring for what seems like too long, then stir for another minute, hehe. Then take a sample.

You're getting most (almost all) of your sugars from LME in those recipes so it's very hard to be that far off on the gravity. Since the hydrometer checks out and it looks like you're doing the process of testing (spinning, level counter...) right, that really only leaves the mixing.

In the meantime RDWHAHB. Even if they are light beers, they're YOUR light beers.

Terje

 

[Mellman]

Thanks Terje! That's another excellent idea and reasoning. Makes perfect sense Both SG's were around 1.042-1.043 Woohoo! Right on target. thats with ~ 22 after pitching.

Actually enjoying some birch beer I made with the rainbow kit right now...

Good point...even if they were low on the alcohol...they smell/taste fantastic right now. i can only imagine this oatmeal stout after about 3-4 months conditioning in the keg... And i'm really looking forward to this irish red ale.

Thanks to everyone!! love this forum!

 

[JocoBrew6976]

one thing eveyone seems to forget make sure when you take a reading the temp of the wort is that of the calibrated temp for your hydrometer which is usualliy 60Deegrees F