Hey Guys,
I am rounding my sixth batch of extract brewing and I love it. Its simple, doesn’t take too much time, and produces pretty decent beer. That being said, I am trying to find some answers online but I just cant get the answers I am looking for so I decided to join the forums.
Everything I read about OG and extract brewing is that its pretty hard to miss the OG. I ended up buying a Tilt Hydrometer to check it out, and for the life of me, i cannot hit it. I pour the cooled wort into the fermenter, add the recommended water and shake the heck out of it, then drop the tilt in. When i say I cant hit the OG, I mean I am not even close. My last brew was the dead ringer IPA and I ended up with 1.052 when it was designed to be 1.064. I do make sure the hydrometer is calibrated correctly,
So I started to look into adding DME but I cannot find anything that tells me when to add it. If i am checking my OG after its already in the fermenter, clearly im past the point of adding DME right? Was hoping for some guidance on this. I saw how to do the calculations and such, just dont know when to add it.
Others mention not adding as much water. I guess i could do this, but i feel like I would need to not add up to 1/2 a gallon to get the correct reading. That kinda sucks for a 5gal batch of beer to be 4.5gal.
I have a rolling boil, could I be boiling to hard to cause too much evaporation? Does that effect anything?
Thanks guys,
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Boiling off water INCREASE the OG… If you haven’t added yeast yet, you can add DME… You may need a pint soda jug with a sealable cap… About 1/3 DME and add hot water… leave some room… cap it and shake it… take the cap off allow to vent … recap and shake some more… Yer making a concentrated mini wort to add to yer fermenter to reach yer desired OG…
You could just add DME to the wort and stir too… I’d think you may end up with some sugar balls that didn’t dissolve…
Sneezles61
A couple questions, what is your starting boil volume and what is your finishing boil volume? Are you filtering out your hot break and hops or just dump it all into the fermenter? How much of the boiled wort makes it into your fermenter before you top off? What size kettle are you using to boil in? How are you chilling? What is your wort temp when you are measuring OG?
I believe that if you are adding DME you would want to add it while boiling to sanitize it, typically for the last 5-10 mins of your boil.
Rad
Thanks for the reply’s guys!
Starting boil volume is 2.5gal.
Finish volume is around 2.25gal
I don’t filter out the hot break and hops, but I do try to make the effort and leave the sludge behind
Less than 2 gal makes it into the fermenter
Using a 5gal kettle
Using a wort chiller connected to the garden hose
Wort temp is around 76 degrees when checking OG
So when measuring OG, and this is where I get tripped up, don’t you measure it when everything is in the fermentor except the yeast, and you’re ready to put the plug in? If I tried to measure the OG of the wort during boiling, it would be way high because it hasn’t been diluted down with water right? Or are you saying go ahead and add x amount of DME so when I’m topping it off with water, it will be easier to get the volume I want with the OG I need? That definitely makes more sense.
Like Rad mentioned volume measurements are critical. Doesn’t matter how much you boil off just make sure you top up to exactly 5 gallons. How are you measuring the volume? Another thing mage sure you rinse all the LME out of the bottle
Looks like your recipe is designed to end up with about 2 gallons after the boil, but you are making 2.25 gallons and throwing away more than a quart in sediment, to a volume closer to like 1.85 gallons or whatever. Are you using a hop sock to keep solids out of the brew? If you did then you shouldn’t need to lose a quart on every batch, that would help. What’s happening otherwise is that your gravity is reduced by a ratio of about 1.85/2.25 = 82%, which takes your 1.064 beer down to… 1.052. Yeah… maybe don’t do that. 
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As @dmtaylo2 mentioned it sounds like you’re leaving quite a bit of concentrated wort behind. Another suggestion is to use a funnel with filter while pouring your wort into a carboy or a fine mesh bag if pouring into a bucket. And as @brew_cat mentioned your volumes AND recipe are very critical. Some recipes may be designed for 5gals and some 5.5gals to end up with 5gals. If you have a recipe designed for 5gals and add a little too much top off water your OG will be low, despite getting all the extract out.
If you’re buying extract kits from a reputable source, like NB, and you use all the ingredients and hit the proper volumes your OG won’t be off my more than a point or two.
So it’s pretty simple. Either you’re not using all the ingredients or your volumes are off. When taking OG you may get readings that seem way off but most times this is due to stratification of wort at different temperatures. Or you have a bad hydrometer.
I don’t have a Tilt. Is there any temperature correction involved with them? Readings were taken at 76 degrees OP states.
As @dmtaylo2 mentions above you’re dumping out a good portion of your wort for no good reason. You’re doing extract so there will be minimal hot break to begin with. Dump everything into the fermenter and move on. Any trub or hop material will settle to the bottom after fermentation and will have zero negative impact on your beer. If you want to reuse yeast then put your hops in a muslin bag during the boil. Stop throwing out perfectly good wort!
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This is all extremely helpful.
In retrospect I guess it doesn’t matter if you pour al the contents of the boil in as the wort gets siphoned off after fermentation or secondary ferm anyway. I get all my brews from NB.
Just wanted to give everyone an update. I brewed the Caribou Slobber over the weekend. This time I dumped the entire extract brew into the fermenter along with 3 gallons of cold water. Low and behold after rigorous shaking and dropping the tilt in, boom, hit the target OG dead on. First time ever.
I guess leaving the sludge behind was hold me back.
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