Low SG wort??? Festival Bonfire Stout

[Elliott75]

Hi all

Long time lurker, love everyone's work!!!

I need some help.

So I've just set up a the festival Bonfire stout, and the wort came out at 1036 some way short obviously from where I would've expected it.

What could've happened to this? I'm generally not an idiot with this (I'm a chemist). I can definitely get the vol of water correct (top up to 17l) and I can do a good job of rinsing / squeezing out the two bags. I can stir things correctly.

I can't think of any other human error that could've had such an effect.

Any good ideas? Is this common?

3.5% stout isn't the worse thing in the world, but it's a shame if that's how it's going to end. I was excited.

I have 500g of brewing sugar knocking about. Reckon I should chuck it in???

 

[MyQul]

Whats the OG supposed to be. If you didnt mix it VERY thoroughly it's easy for the proportion of malt extract to water to be off in your sample to throw the reading off

 

[Drunkula]

You sure you got the spoon all the way to the bottom and got all that gunk incorporated? I had the same thing happen and it was me just not being boss enough with the sludge.

 

[Elliott75]

It doesn't give a suggested OG but it says 6%, so surely something north of 1050?

I gave it probably 30s + of whisking, perhaps the malt is in the bottom 1/3rd or so of the FV?

 

[MyQul]

It doesn't give a suggested OG but it says 6%, so surely something north of 1050?

I gave it probably 30s + of whisking, perhaps the malt is in the bottom 1/3rd or so of the FV?

6%? and OG 1.036? Thats a long way short. If you put all the malt extract in and added the correct amount of water I'd definately say you didnt mix it properly. The only other thing I think it could be is a faulty hydrometer (if it's one of those with a paper scale inside, the paper can slip). Test it in tap water. It should be 1.000

 

[dwhite60]

It doesn't give a suggested OG but it says 6%, so surely something north of 1050?

I gave it probably 30s + of whisking, perhaps the malt is in the bottom 1/3rd or so of the FV?

You got it! You need to get down to the bottom and stir it all into solution.

Whisking it does nothing to mix it.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Elliott75]

I'm going to go and give it another mix. :)

 

[terrym]

A kit 'package' of LME usually requires at least 1 litre of very hot water and a lot of mixing to get it fully into solution before you add the cold water water top up. If you didn't do that then you are likely to have some LME still stuck on the bottom of the FV.
But if you have followed the instructions and can't subsequently get every last gram of LME mixed in, I personally wouldn't worry about it, the average SG across the FV is correct, and the yeast will soon to consume the concentrated LME.
And speaking of yeast, its also good practice to give the FV contents a good aeration at the beginning to help get a healthy yeast crop going before the majority anaerobic fermentation period sets in.

 

[nige]

If stirring doesn't change things you can always add extra when are going but it's most likely as others have already stated.