Wow, OG is 29 points below where it should be

[Mustangfreak]

Ok, I brewed an IPA today, and beer tools pro said the OG should have been at 1.071. After boiling I racked to the carboy and topped it off to 5.5 gallons, and I saw that there was so much sediment in the bottom already, that I let it settle down, and then racked to a new carboy. I racked as much as I could without getting into the dense sediment. I then topped off the carboy with about .25-35 gallons of water to the 5.5 mark and took a reading. 1.042.


Is there anything I could do? I have packets of priming sugar lying around. I remember someone adding that to their beers to bump up the alcohol content. Could I do that? If so, do I need to boil it or just pour it into the carboy? How much should I put in?

 

[Kokopuff829]

Did you pitch the yeast? If not you could boil the water off till you got the gravity right. Sure you would have less volume but atleast you would have the right gravity. Correct me if Im wrong. DME?

 

[Mustangfreak]

Did you pitch the yeast? If not you could boil the water off till you got the gravity right. Sure you would have less volume but atleast you would have the right gravity. Correct me if Im wrong. DME?

No have not pitched yet, and yes I used 6 lbs of DME and 2 lbs of LME

 

[Mustangfreak]

Anyone?

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

ferment it and call it a pale ale. make sure to follow your recipe/process exactly next time!

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

when you added water the 2nd time, you were diluting the recipe. the sediment didn't mean add more water, it meant you got less than the original projected yield. adding additional water just watered it down.

 

[Jtc2811]

Also, if all you used was extract, there shouldn't be that much sediment. Based on how much you said was in there, could it have not dissolved properly?

 

[beersteiner2345]

Are you certain you mixed the wort well before taking your sample to test OG?

I wouldn't think a quarter gallon would drop OG from 1.070 to 1.042?

 

[944play]

Are you certain you mixed the wort well before taking your sample to test OG?

This. Water is lighter than wort (as proven by your hydrometer!), so you need to mix it in for the water not to float on top like a black & tan.

 

[Mustangfreak]

Yes, I have mixed the wort well.


Is the priming sugar a good or bad idea?

 

[npauley88]

ALWAYS take a pre-boil gravity reading and make adjustments as necessary

 

[ArcaneXor]

Priming sugar will dry out the beer. Just ferment it as a pale ale, or boil up some DME and add that to boost the gravity.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Adding the water amount you claimed should have dropped a decent amount of your OG.

However, your expected OG is off as well.

Assuming standard LME = 36ppg and DME = 44ppg, for 5.5 gallons your OG should be 1.061, not 1.071.

So you had to top it off again to 5.5 gallons, with .25-.35 gallons of water. That would dilute your OG between 1.058 and 1.057.

You are still a decent amount off, but not as bad as you think. Next time check the gravity before topping off the carboy. If you have 5 gallons at the correct OG then you don't want to add another half gallon, unless you are willing to trade a lighter beer than expected for having more of it.

 

[IffyG]

You are still a decent amount off, but not as bad as you think. Next time check the gravity before topping off the carboy.

However he is using extract. There are only really three things that I can think of that would cause low OG in an extract batch. 1) poorly mixed after topping off, 2) didn't actually add all the extract (I'm sure it happens) or it wasn't actually the weight used to calculate OG, 3) too much water added to top off (also possible knowing how innaccurate the buckets can be.

The only reason I say this is through 10 extract batches I have always come out to within a point of what Beersmith told me.

 

[Germelli1]

So you topped up once, racked again, and re topped up again?

That sounds to me where your gravity points were lost If I read the OP correctly.

 

[weirdboy]

For future reference, that thing you did where you racked the beer off the sediment? Don't do that. It will all settle down into a nice compact layer by the time fermentation is done.

 

[ayoungrad]

I would agree that it could be inadequate mixing.

The other thing is that you racked off the break AND THEN you brought the wort up to 5.5 gallons. My bet is that the recipe was intended to be topped off to 5.5 gallons WITH the break. This could change your SG significantly depending on how much you left in the original pot after racking.

 

[ayoungrad]

Oops. Just notice you topped off twice. So, yes, as Germelli1 said, that is/was your problem. No question about it.