Missing OG

Northern Brewer General
1

I just finished a Black IPA (OG 1.075. I brewed it using a 6 gallon full boil. I measured the OG as 1.066. I thought i did everything right. I did leave a bit of trub in the bottom of the kettle. What causes the OG to come in low? It was a kit and they suggested using a 2.5gal partial boil. Can this make a difference?

Thanks

tk

2

Extract or all-grain? What was your final volume (including trub)? Have you calibrated your hydrometer and whatever you use to measure volume?

3

We actually missed our OG on the Black IPA kit as well. It was our second or third all grain batch and as it turns out we just operate at a bit of a lower efficiency. Now that we know that we can just add some more base malt to recipes to make up for it and we’ve been hitting the marks.

That said, the beer was totally great even though the ABV was a tad low. I actually thought that anything higher would have been bad because I drank so much of it as it was and had to cut myself off a few times…

4

It was an extract kit and the final volume with the trub was about 5.25 gal.

I guess if it mostly only affects the ABV then it should be fine. The last to batches I made have been on the watered down side, no body to them. This batch was the first full boil i did in a long time. I hope the end result is better!

Thanks for all the advice.

5

Have you calibrated your hydrometer? With an extract kit, there’s simply no way you could be off that much unless you forgot to add some of the extract.

6

+1, also are you sure about the volume measurement, for example are you just using the factory markings on a bucket or have you measured and marked yourself. I’ve noticed the factory markings on some of my buckets to be off quite a bit in the past. 5.7 gallons of 1.066 wort would have the same sugar as 5 gallons of 1.075.

7

Thanks for the insight. I will look into calibrating my hydrometer and the volume measurement.

Thanks