What Happened?

[HogieWan]

I just finished brewing a Pale Ale. I put 6 pounds of DME plus I steeped a pound of crystal for a 5 gallon batch. I expected an OG or around 1.057 - I got 1.037. How did this happen?

There was a litlle - and I mean a few tiny little drops - water in the flask when I put in the wort. This may have thrown the reading of slightly, but not this much.

Can I boil another pound in a little water and add it to my batch?

[Grog]

Take another gravity reading. Someone elsewhere on this board wrote: if it defies logic, don't trust it.

Was the wort stirred thoroughly and was the wort temperature difference properly accounted for (and how much homebrew did you drink before taking the reading)? Those are the only things I can think of that might throw the reading off.

-G-

[axis714]

6 lbs. of DME even w/o the crystal should have put you somewhere near 1.050 easy...At what temp. did you take a hydrometer reading? and did you make an adjustment to the reading for that temp.? Another factor to consider would be rather or not you did a full wort boil or diluted a partial boil with water. If these things were considered I cant think of any reason for the low OG useing DME. Maybe someone else will have more to offer....

[ray m]

Agreed.....no way in Hades it's really that low. Like what Grog & Axis suggested, if you did a partial boil and, after adding your water to make 5 gallons, you didn't mix/stir/agitate the living hell out of it, that may account for the low reading----too much top off water & not enough of the actual wort went into your gravity reading sample.

[YamahaXS]

agreed. your wort wasn't stired well.

only other possibility is that you diluted to 7+ gallons instead of the targeted 5 gallons.

[HogieWan]

I'm not sure what I did - maybe it wasn't stirred - I took another reading when I woke up this morning - 1.056


Thanks guys

[blatant_brewer]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I'm not sure what I did - maybe it wasn't stirred - I took another reading when I woke up this morning - 1.056


I've done the same thing before -- bizarrely high readings with my first batches (because I just sampled the boiled wort from the kettle, not the carboy mixture with the water added), then bizarrely high ones (because I hadn't mixed the wort well). LMAO.

[corysdad]

Originally posted by blatant_brewer
I've done the same thing before -- bizarrely high readings with my first batches (because I just sampled the boiled wort from the kettle, not the carboy mixture with the water added), then bizarrely high ones (because I hadn't mixed the wort well). LMAO.

I did the same thing on my first brew. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one...

[Yodar]

6.6 lb Briess light extract and a couple pounds of english pale and 4 oz crystal, steeped for an hour, 1-hour full boil w/fuggles & cascade and I get 1.051

Very energetic ferm w/blowoff in 6 hours, then
a week later i hadda bottle as it stuck at 1.021

I suspect I am going to have a full flavored, pale colored "near-beer"

Yodar