I made a simple hefeweissen and for the second batch in a row I have had numbers off-OG and volumes. The Innkeeper PA was the first. The beer came out fine and I hit my OG dead on but with 4.5G final volume. Now with the hefe I topped it off up to the 5G mark and came in at 1.042. Directions mentioned 1.047. I have not missed numbers is decades. The beers come out fine, I scrape every bit of DME and syrups out to max the usage. What could be going on? Frustrated.
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Did you weight the extract and syrup to make sure ot was all included? Seeing as you are a seasoned brewer I’d assume you would have checked everything I am mentioning. You could be boiling too vigorously if your volumes are off. Also, if you haven’t already done so, measure exactly 5 gallons of water using a measuring cup to make sure the manufacture marks aren’t off.
All good points and I have done that. It is all so odd. I get the volume going down with a vigorous boil but the OG should be stable. I have not known that to change because of the boil after top off.
Something is amiss. If you use all your extract and hit the targeted recipe volume your OG should be as indicated. Have you calibrated your hydrometer?
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Mayby he does use a refracto meter.
I do not use a refract meter. A bit more than I have ever needed and this far into things I will likely not invest in one. Another fair pt. I will wait and see how this hefe turns out. Could be it tastes great (likely) and it is just 0.07 off the OG. Thanks to all for responding.
First things I would check are calibrating the hydrometer and make sure whatever vessel you are using has the correct graduations marked on it. I’m sure you already know the temp of the wort when taking your reading makes a difference and should be adjusted.
If my reading was only off .005 I would call it close enough but still be interested why.
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Its perhaps too late to chime in… If the volume goes down from boil, the gravity goes up… Equipment measures are one of 2… the other is the actual gravity/volume of the extract wort… Too save/make more, it could be not as potent as when the recipe was first brewed… So with that in mind… I’d be sure to have some DME and adjust so you are on with volume and Gravity also…
Sneezles61
Thank you for the support and responses. I bottle the hefeweiss yesterday. Came out at 1.010. I like that. As one responder said that 0.004 off is close enough. I will take it. The hydrometer sample tasted good. It also had a good thick head! I will try one in 2 weeks. On to something Belgian I think…Mike
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