Under gravity

[FaxedHead]

IPa extract kit came in under on the og, supposed to be 1.06- came out 1.050. What could be the cause? How could this effect the beer.
I have calibrated the hydrometer so...

 

[BrewStooge]

Grain or extract? If it's grain it could be any number of things from tempt to mash volume, PH, etc. If you mean extract, it depends on if it's a full boil or not. Too much water in a full boil will lower the end gravity (with the trade off of having higher hops IBU and more beer) if it's a partial boil then the top water and wert almost never mix normally so the reading is usually off, mostly on the low side since the heavy wert sits on the bottom until it ferments. In the last case there it should all mix fine when it gets going and end up just as you expected. Probably a good time to RDWHAHB.

 

[FaxedHead]

Great explanation, thank you

 

[BrewStooge]

I actually just had the flip side of the coin occur making some mead tonight. It didn't mix real well, but when I pulled a sample with my 'thief' and tested it in a vial it grabbed all the heavy stuff from the bottom, ended up with a reading off the charts (for my hydrometer at least) over 1.160