Low OG

Jen32

Started a new batch of beer at a friends house tonight and the OG was only 1032 !. It was Coopers Australian Pale Ale and the temp was about 23C when we pitched the yeast. Everything else went by the instructions.

How bad is this and is it worth keeping ?

foghlu

it will still turn out as beer so wouldnt worry too much, will just be a easy drinking session beer.

had a few kits with low og myself, most kits i have brewed never really turn out at the exact stated gravity

but I would keep an eye on how much water you are adding in, generally the markings on the fermenter are just a guideline they might not be accurate

Jen32

He just rang me and said he boiled half a bag of carbonation drops in a cup and threw it in. Apparently someone told him it would increase the alcohol content at the end ?

BeerNut

This has happened to me in the past and the reason is the wort wasn't mixed properly so the hydrometer was giving a false reading. A good stir sorted it out. By adding extra fermentables he's never going to know what the real starting gravity was.

Jen32

Does this mean that the OG could have been higher than 1032 before he threw the drops in ?

Also, will adding those drops have any effect ?. He said there was about 80g of sucrose in total.

BeerNut

Jen32 wrote: »

Does this mean that the OG could have been higher than 1032 before he threw the drops in ?

Yes.

Jen32 wrote: »

Also, will adding those drops have any effect ?

They'll raise the OG very very slightly.

Jen32

Wow...this latest batch is a slow one....not a dickie bird from the airlock after 50hrs. I know you guys said it could be escaping elsewhere but this must be a little unusual ??
We've got that layer of 'gunk' just above the level of the beer and the hydrometer reading has come down 6 points so it must be fermenting yes ?

Mashtun

yup, if the reading on the hydrometer is dropping then you have fermentation. Just be patient and it'll get where it needs to be.

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

This has happened to me in the past and the reason is the wort wasn't mixed properly so the hydrometer was giving a false reading.

I have seen this too, I was doing a 18% sugar brew and it formed a dense syrup on the bottom of the fermenter.

Another reason might have been incorrect volumes. Some fermenters will have level indicators screen printed on the side, if these are put on wrong your volumes might be out.

Jen32 wrote: »

Also, will adding those drops have any effect ?. He said there was about 80g of sucrose in total.

Thats an expensive way to do it, he could have just simply added sugar. It would be like buying sugar cubes to do your main brew, which is what carbonation drops are like -portioned sugar.

BeerNut

rubadub wrote: »

Another reason might have been incorrect volumes. Some fermenters will have level indicators screen printed on the side, if these are put on wrong your volumes might be out.

And while we're at it, for the benefit of someone else finding this thread later: another reason might be failure to calibrate the hydrometer for temperature. But that's not likely to be the case here 'cos a 1.032 reading in wort at 23C is still only going to be 1.033 when calibrated.

Camilo

Similar problem here.

I am making coopers real ale and used 1kg brewing sugar, 450g Liquid malt extract and 100g of more sugar. Im expecting a brew of about 5% but that hydrometer reading was 1.020 which i though was rediculously low.

This is my first real brew and i have no experience with hydrometer so does anyone know what this means for my brew? will it be really weak?

P.S. Also it should be noted that somehow, i really cant recall how i let it happen, but the brew went up to the 20 litre mark instead of 23, will this have impacted the hydro reading?

BeerNut

Camilo wrote: »

Similar problem here.

And similar diagnosis. Did you give the mix a thorough stir before the yeast went in?

Camilo wrote: »

will it be really weak?

No. If it's a false reading all the fermentables will still be used. But if you don't have a reading you won't know exactly how strong.

Camilo wrote: »

will this have impacted the hydro reading?

It'll have made it 15% weaker, which isn't very much.

Camilo

BeerNut wrote: »

And similar diagnosis. Did you give the mix a thorough stir before the yeast went in?

It seems that it wasnt mixed enough, as stated in the other thread i (foolishly) overfilled the fermentor and so could not give as thorough a stirring as i would have liked without risking spillage. Will this lack of good stirring affect my ale?

BeerNut

Probably not.