I am new to home brewing and have brewed the NB Sierra Madre, Witbeir and Petite Saison extract kits. This past weekend (Sunday, Labor Day), I brewed the Kolsch extract. Within about 4 hours I had very active fermentation and found the lid blown off the fermentation bucket this evening (Monday).
The OG was ~ 1.054 as compared to the 1.048 by the directions.
What happened?
If doing a partial boil, it can be difficult to get the wort completely mixed. When you take a sample for the SG reading, you can get a concentrated sample or a diluted sample.
As long as your volume in the fermenter is correct, you added all the extract, you should have the correct SG.
In other words, nothing happened. 
[quote=“Nighthawk”]If doing a partial boil, it can be difficult to get the wort completely mixed. When you take a sample for the SG reading, you can get a concentrated sample or a diluted sample.
As long as your volume in the fermenter is correct, you added all the extract, you should have the correct SG.
In other words, nothing happened. [/quote]
I agree. When using a kit as long as the amount of water and ingredients are correct there is not much to worry about with your OG. The .006 difference would not make much of a noticeable difference anyway.
Might also want to calibrate your hydrometer by dunking it in 60°, preferably distilled water to see if it reads 1.000. Use a hydrometer flask, not the tube it came in. They are a little too small.
Yeah, there’s basically no way to screw up the OG of an extract batch, provided your final volume was right. The only other variable is how much you lose to trub. I’m not sure what if anything NB assumes for trub, but it wouldn’t make much difference on this beer anyway.
Wort stratification can make measuring the OG difficult when you do a partial boil. But it doesn’t impact the final product, the yeast will go find all the sugar and mix it all up for you.
Personally, I don’t even measure the OG anymore when I do an extract brew.
