I made NB Bavarian Hefeweizen extract kit tonight for the first time and I was struggling. I added the DME with 15 minutes to go and it clumped up a lot. Even as I was cooling the wort the saw clumps so gave it a few stirs. It kicked up all of the sludge on the bottom of the pot and I ended up adding it all to the carboy not realizing this until I got to dumping the bottom of the pot. Now that all of this is settling and sitting on the bottom, should I move it to a secondary sooner than later? Will it alter the flavor to much?
The OG ended up being 1.054, the instructions say 1.049. Would the sludge suspended in the wort add to the gravity?
the sludge wont be an issue. it will be fine. and you don’t need to rack to a secondary any sooner than normal (or at all if you don’t want to). a sludgy sample wont change the gravity reading unless the hydrometer is sitting on a pile of it (ie. not floating).
did you top off with water? if so, i bet you just got a concentrated sample for your OG reading.
If you used all the extract. and ended with 5 gallons. your OG will be what the kit says. there’s mathematical equations that calculate extract gravity just with the weight of extract and volume. so there really isn’t wiggle room unless you got sent to much extract, or ended with less than 5 gallons.
when you top off with water, it wont mix 100%. so you are destined to get a diluted, or concentrated sample for the reading. happens all the time, and there will be no ill effects. fermentation will mix it better than you will be able to
S.Scoggin, the concentration makes sense. I did top it off it water, this was the first time that the reading was higher then the OG stated in the directions. Usually it has been .003-.005 lower.
