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Consistently low OG readings
I just brewed my third batch tonight, an German altbier, and for the third straight time my orginial gravity was way lower than the "suggested" readings. I know, i know, the numbers don't have to be perfect, but this time my reading was 1.028 while the suggested OG was 1.048. This is by far the largest discrepency I have had. The temp is not an issue, I took the reading at 62F. I can;t think of why there is such a large difference... maybe I just add too much water, but I measured it all out perfectly and even marked the 5 gallon mark on my carboy.
Looks like beer number 3 with a super low ABV. What could I be doing wrong?
Wow that is exactly like what happened to me when I switched to AG brewing!
You left out a LOT of important things. Extract or AG? What are the EXACT steps you are taking from start to finish?
The temperature isn't a big indicator. I think Papazian said that even though a hydrometer reads accurately at 62F, each degree over is a small percentage off.
Once I know everything you did, I can help out.
Ok here are some more details:
this was a partial grain made with 6.6 pounds of coopers amber, and 5 ounces of light DME
I steeped the malt (5 pounds of a crystal, munich, and vienna combo) until the temp reached 170, removed, and brought to boil. Once boiling, i shut off heat and added LME and DME, and brought back to boil. Once boiling I added bittering hops. After 30 minutes I added flavoring hops. After 45 minutes I added Irish Moss. At 60 minutes I added aroma hops and shut off heat. I cooled wort in my sink filled with cold water. Once wort reached 100F, I added it to 2 gallons that was already in my carboy. I then added 1.5 gallons of water until it reached the 5 gallon mark on the carboy. I poured out a sample and set it aside. I then pitched the yeast at 68F, gave it a good swirl, out the airlock on, and set it in my pantry. I let the sample cool to 62F and took my OG reading... 1.028
That is it, soup to nuts. I hope this helps!
Was the Cooper's amber a kit? I have used their kits before, but it was nearly 2 years ago. If this was indeed a kit, I was always told to use two x 1# bags of DME along with it. In fact, when I bought my kits, the owner handed me the two bags and said to use them.
The regular liquid extract tubs he sold didn't have a name of it, so I have no clue who ithey came from. I am only aware of beginner's kits like Cooper's and Muntons.
If this was a regular bucket of liquid malt (not a kit), I'm still trying figure this out.
Cubx,
this was not a Coopers kit, just Coopers LME. I had my choice of amber LMEs (my LHBS guy said it didn't matter which one I chose) and I picked Coopers because I know they make quality stuff.
Like I said, I did use a DME, but the recipe only called for 5oz. There should be plenty of fermentable sugar in there, I used 5 pounds of malt, plus 2 cans of Coopers, plus the dried malth extract.
Fermentation took over 24 hours to begin, but that is probably just the yeast. I have never used a german ale yeast before (Whitelabs).
Just out of curiosity, what was the cause of your issue?
I'll have to think about this more when I'm fully awake. Off the top of my half asleep head, I can't think of a reason why your OG is so low.
Each yeast behaves differently. In fact, I've had 2 of the same strains react differently. One might take off fermenting in 12 hours, the other took almost 24.
Also, some strains won't show much of any activity. If I remember right, most of the wheat beer strains I have used don't produce much airlock activity.
My problem wasn't with kits. Early on with extract, I might only get 4.5 gallonss, so I was topping the fermenter with another gallon. I didn't know at the time that was killing my OG. I figured once the extract was boiled, the OG was locked in. Shows you how I naive I was.
As for all grain, my major problem is I was not using 100% runoff. I thought I was supposed to collect 1 gallon of runoff, and top up to 5 gallons with water. Once I explained this to the homebrew store owner, he informed me that I was an idiot and what I did wrong. Ok, he didn't call me an idiot, but he probably should have.
So, should i not top off after my boil? That is the only thing I can think of ...
When I used last used extract (around fall 2005), I boiled 2 to 2.5 gallons of water, removed from stove, mixed in the 7# bucket, brought back to a boil, and let it go for an hour. I usually lost about 1 gallon from evaporation.
Assuming I had 1.5 gallons left, I cooled it and dumped that into the fermenter and topped up to 5 gallons, then pitched the yeast.
Since it sounds like you already did this, I still can't think of a reason why you are getting a low OG. Unless I'm missing something plain obvious, it looks alright.
Maybe someone else here has some ideas, or your homebrew shop owner might figure something out.
Definitely always top it up. The wort is very concentrated and it needs to be diluted.
I never used DME with my extract buckets. I'm wondering if the extract was really old and/or simply didn't have enough sugars to begin with??
Thanks for your help. If you are curious as to what recipe I used, I posted the link in the "Recipe" section of this forum. I followed everything perfectly, except I only had 2 gallons (not three) sitting in my carboy before I added the wort, then I topped it off to 5 gallons. Either way, 2 gallons or 3, it all equals the same amount of liquid, 5 gallons.
I was getting some wacky readings from my old hydrometer and then realized it was cracked. I bought a new one after my first brew, so i am currently using a structurally sound hyrdrometer.
Brewrob,
I have never used extract, so i do not how much help i can be, but here goes. Low OG is going to be caused by one of two reason that i can think of. one if you are using to much water that would reduce it, and it does not seem that you are. the other reason is you may not be getting full conversion when you are steeping your grains.
if you steep the grains at around 153- 156 for 60 min that will help with conversion and should bring up your numbers.
I had the same problem when i went from 10gal batches to 35gal batches and had a pro brewer recomend the above which worked. i hope this helps.
Cheers
Chas
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