What happened?

[LuNchBoX1371]

So i did an extract IPA yesterday and i used 7 pounds of malt extract for my recipe; according to brewer friends, with all my ingredients the O.G. was suppose to come out to 1.059. When tested the wort with the hydrometer it came out to 1.122. I used 7 gallons of water for a 5 gallon batch- like normal- and idk how the o.g. got so high. Anyone know why?

 

[joaoking]

 

[JimRausch]

If you added the proper amount of extract, and wound up with the correct amount of wort in your fermenter, then almost by definition your OG will be within a point or two of what the recipe says it's supposed to be.
If you got a different OG, then it's almost always due to not getting everything mixed in completely before sampling. Very common complaint, although usually it's "my OG is lower than expected". The fermentation process will mix everything, so no worries.
Other possibilities would be not adjusting your hydrometer reading for a temperature different than 60, or even just misreading the hydrometer, but I can't believe you'd be 63 points off there.

 

[LuNchBoX1371]

If you added the proper amount of extract, and wound up with the correct amount of wort in your fermenter, then almost by definition your OG will be within a point or two of what the recipe says it's supposed to be.
If you got a different OG, then it's almost always due to not getting everything mixed in completely before sampling. Very common complaint, although usually it's "my OG is lower than expected". The fermentation process will mix everything, so no worries.
Other possibilities would be not adjusting your hydrometer reading for a temperature different than 60, or even just misreading the hydrometer, but I can't believe you'd be 63 points off there.

Yea thats what i thought, 60 points is a big difference. I dont think its the temperature correction on my hydrometer cause i have always gotten my o.g. pretty dam near on without the temp correction so i dont think its that. But hopefully it is that everything is not mixed up but i dont think so cause i think that would only account for a low o.g. not a high one. But we'll see, lets hope that it attenuates 110% and i get a good I.P.A but if not maybe an I.P.A wine might not be to bad lol

 

[Trox]

Did you do a full boil? If so then the wort should have been well mixed, and you wouldn't have that issue. Mainly the whole not mixed well happens when you try to add cold water to cold wort, since both liquids are cold they just won't mix well.

If you did add top off water then that could account for the higher OG if you mostly grabbed wort, but that does seem to be an extremly high for that.

Have you checked your hdrometer in regular tap water to make sure it is still reading correctly?

 

[boydster]

Unless you accidentally dropped in a 5 lb bag of sugar or jar of honey, you shouldn't have anything to worry about (except perhaps the accuracy of your hydrometer... but the beer will be fine). Any chance you took your sample from a spigot at the bottom of a bucket? That could explain things, especially if you used top-up water. Regardless, putting a measured amount of extract into a measured amount of water means the OG is calculable so it seems either the hydrometer is off or the wort wasn't mixed.

 

[LuNchBoX1371]

Did you do a full boil? If so then the wort should have been well mixed, and you wouldn't have that issue. Mainly the whole not mixed well happens when you try to add cold water to cold wort, since both liquids are cold they just won't mix well.

If you did add top off water then that could account for the higher OG if you mostly grabbed wort, but that does seem to be an extremly high for that.

Have you checked your hdrometer in regular tap water to make sure it is still reading correctly?

Yes i got a full boil and yes i did use top of water about 4 gallons of room temp water. But thats a good idea i forgot about the water test to see if the hydrometer is off i will definitley try that out

 

[boydster]

Yes i got a full boil and yes i did use top of water about 4 gallons of room temp water. But thats a good idea i forgot about the water test to see if the hydrometer is off i will definitley try that out

There's the answer. A full boil means boiling the full amount of water. You did a partial boil and topped off with additional water. When you do that, it is very hard to get the wort to mix completely with the water, resulting in LOTS of people reporting an OG reading that is off when they make an extract batch. The good news is that you have a known amount of sugar (in the extract) and a known amount of water, so even though it wasn't mixed entirely, you know that your OG necessarily has to be the predicted OG as long as you used the right amount of water and all of the extract. The yeast will mix it up for you during fermentation. When you take your FG reading, you should be able to rely on that to be accurate.

 

[LuNchBoX1371]

There's the answer. A full boil means boiling the full amount of water. You did a partial boil and topped off with additional water. When you do that, it is very hard to get the wort to mix completely with the water, resulting in LOTS of people reporting an OG reading that is off when they make an extract batch. The good news is that you have a known amount of sugar (in the extract) and a known amount of water, so even though it wasn't mixed entirely, you know that your OG necessarily has to be the predicted OG as long as you used the right amount of water and all of the extract. The yeast will mix it up for you during fermentation. When you take your FG reading, you should be able to rely on that to be accurate.

Your right i didn't do i full boil- i was thinking a roiling boil lol. But ok cool yea i thought it was wierd that my gravity was so far off with only so much extract but ok cool thank you for the advice.

 

[andy6026]

It's likely not mixed well, as others have suggested.

However, do a water test with your hydrometer. If it's off and there are no apparent cracks in the hydrometer then it could be that the paper in the hydrometer has shifted. That happened to me recently and it took me longer than it should have to figure out the problem.

 

[LuNchBoX1371]

It's likely not mixed well, as others have suggested.

However, do a water test with your hydrometer. If it's off and there are no apparent cracks in the hydrometer then it could be that the paper in the hydrometer has shifted. That happened to me recently and it took me longer than it should have to figure out the problem.

O ok good tip thank you for the help