Extract batch low OG

Hey a common complaint among extract brewers is wildly wrong OG. The answer the more experienced brewers always give is “stratification” of the wort, which is fancy-speak for the dense wort from the kettle didn’t mix well with the thin top-off water.

I just did my first extract batch in years, and boom! 20 points low! Should be about 1.050

But it’s cool, I know about stratification so I didn’t worry. Here’s the cool thing. I also use a Tilt.

This is about 6 hours as my kviek Voss started waking up… as the yeast gets active it starts stirring the wort, as the wort mixes, the gravity climbs back up to almost where it should have started. Voss is apparently a sugar-consuming monster so it didn’t get all the way to the top.

Anyway, I hope this helps people understand when you do extract, the sugar is there and even if it sometimes it doesn’t mix, the yeast will eventually figure it out.

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Very cool to see that on the graph

Nice proof of something that’s hard to visualize. Thanks!

With this in mind… then recirculating at the end of extract looks like a good idea… Pull from the bottom, dump on top (Vorlauf)… Thank you JMCK!
Sneezles61

I’m not sure I could explain that easily to a a n00b in a non confusing way.

I’d recommend a new Homebrewer should either

  1. Not worry about making the hydrometer say the right OG number.
  2. Try a well-sanitized wine degasser (cough)paint stirrer. — although +1 for wort oxygenation

And when they come in after-the-fact with, “why am I off 20 points?” Then it’s #1: Relax don’t worry, wait for your homebrew.

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