Has anyone come across this weird OG issue with topped-off partial boil wort?
Just brewed my second partial boil extract batch yesterday. I chilled my concentrated wort and added to glass carboy (2.5 gallons) and topped it off with water getting it to 5 gallons. I aerated more by shaking/rocking carboy then took a gravity reading off the top with a beer thief. My calculations should have gotten me an OG of about 1.060 but it was 1.034. This happened in my first batch when I was expecting 1.067 and got 1.036. but that beer feels like somewhere between 6.5% and 7% abv when drinking it (it's quite delish).
My theory is that the OG is off because the concentrated wort has not fully mixed with the top-off water. I suppose I COULD have sat there and shook the hell out of it more. I also noticed a lot of cold break in there. I am just a day into ferm now with no bubbling but I don't want to open up the carboy just to take a better OG... unless someone can convince me otherwise.
Just brewed my second partial boil extract batch yesterday. I chilled my concentrated wort and added to glass carboy (2.5 gallons) and topped it off with water getting it to 5 gallons. I aerated more by shaking/rocking carboy then took a gravity reading off the top with a beer thief. My calculations should have gotten me an OG of about 1.060 but it was 1.034. This happened in my first batch when I was expecting 1.067 and got 1.036. but that beer feels like somewhere between 6.5% and 7% abv when drinking it (it's quite delish).
My theory is that the OG is off because the concentrated wort has not fully mixed with the top-off water. I suppose I COULD have sat there and shook the hell out of it more. I also noticed a lot of cold break in there. I am just a day into ferm now with no bubbling but I don't want to open up the carboy just to take a better OG... unless someone can convince me otherwise.