OG not what calculated to be.

bluefishjim

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Last night I brewed an exstract, I used 7.5lbs DME light, it's a 5gal batch, 2lbs smoked malt, and 2lbs crystal 60l as steeping grains, boiled half the DME for 45mins, added the rest last 15mins, my OG came out to 1.092, calculator telling it should be more like 1.074, why so different, what am I missing?
 
Did you do a full boil or did you have to add water after it was in the fermenter? If you added water you probably just didn't get it mixed up enough so there was a thicker section and a lighter section and your sample came from the thicker section. If you didn't add top off water the only thing I can think of is you ended up with less than the target volume of wort so the sugars are more concentrated in less water.
 
Volume difference or if your volumes match the calculated amount, maybe more efficiency from the steeped grains. Extract recipe calculator is set for 35% efficiency for grains. If you got considerably more efficiency from conversion, it'd add a few points. Probably not almost 20...Probably volume difference.
 
Did you do a full boil or did you have to add water after it was in the fermenter? If you added water you probably just didn't get it mixed up enough so there was a thicker section and a lighter section and your sample came from the thicker section. If you didn't add top off water the only thing I can think of is you ended up with less than the target volume of wort so the sugars are more concentrated in less water.

I did a partial boil, three gals, added a little over to gals once in fermenter, this makes sense but my sample came from the top, wouldn't the more concentrated wort have been on the bottom still?
 
I believe JA is correct, your volume is too low. A simple fix is to adjust it with sanitized water. Bonus, more beer.
 
I did a partial boil, three gals, added a little over to gals once in fermenter, this makes sense but my sample came from the top, wouldn't the more concentrated wort have been on the bottom still?
If you took the sample with a thief or turkey baster you could have reached below the watery part.
 
I did a partial boil, three gals, added a little over to gals once in fermenter, this makes sense but my sample came from the top, wouldn't the more concentrated wort have been on the bottom still?
Usually not. Sugar is very soluble and doesn't require much mixing. Also, once mixed, it won't stratify.
 
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