Denny can also comment on this technique. It is a method at the brewery I worked at to hit our OG when we had to add water to the kettle.
Another way to confirm your gravity is to measure the gravity of the wort before you top it up with water. This will eliminate the mixing issues. The amount of sugar in the wort is constant and will not change, you are simply diluting the heavier wort with water.
Take your gravity reading before topping up with water, multiply the reading by the volume you have before topping up, then divide that number by the total volume after topping up. For example (and I am going to work this backwards so you can see what your undiluted wort gravity should be), if you are looking for an OG of 1.057 in 5 gallons of topped up wort (57 x 5 = 285 gravity points) and have 3 gallons of undiluted wort, your undiluted wort gravity should be 285/3 = 1.095. For this to work properly, you need to have accurate volume readings before adding water. Also make sure your refractometer, if you are using it instead of a hydrometer, is calibrated to read zero with pure water.
Goose, you are absolutely correct, but for extract that’s too much hassle! There’s no need to take a gravity reading before topping up since with extract you always get 100% efficiency. All you have to do is use all your ingredients and be sure your final volu e is what the recipe intends.
Just to chime in: when I was making extract I would add my water and top off to 5 gallons after flame out. It really helped cool my batch down. These were the days of no wort chiller when I had to fill a storage container with ice and bath my kettle. Then since my water and wort was all in the same container I would transfer over and then shake my carboy like it owed me money before pitching my yeast.
I’m not sure what equipment you are using or how you go about your brewing but my process taught me a lot of trial and error.
One time I made an extract batch and put all 5 gallons into my boil pot. I could barely get a boil and it took forever because my stove wasn’t hot enough. That’s how I evolved to he method I just explained.
Hello Sir,
That’s essentially what I am doing. When the boil is done, I will pour 1.5 gallons of cold water (I put the water in the freezer while brewing) into the kettle. Then I take my kettle into a cold bath and wait until the temperature is below 80F to transfer to the fermeter. When the wort is in the fermenter I add additional water to get me to 5 gallons. Then I pitch the yeast.
Thanks everyone for the feedback and help! Planning on brewing this weekend and I’m gonna be taking notes and pictures of my process to share with the community. Hoping I can get a good OG reading this time!
I don’t know how wrong this is, but if it were me and I were doing these kinds of batches again I would try to skip that final top off step completely. I’d chill the wort and just try to bring it to 5 gallons with cold water. Then crash the rest in a bin like younsay you do. When you pour into the fermentor, it should be nice and mixed is how I see it, and, when you aerate the fermenter after you pitch yeast, it should mix even further.
Hello J,
I try to top my kettle with cold water as much as I can, but it wont make the 5 gallons. I think my kettle is a little bit smaller than 5 gallons. That’s why I add more water once the wort is in the fermenter.
Good news! So I just finished my brew day and now my OG problem is solved. As suggested, I agitated the wort after topping my fermenter to 5 gals and when I took the sample, I got a OG of 1.060. Me recipe calls for 1.063, but what the heck! Lol!
Good to hear. A point or three North or South is close enough. If your yeast attenuation is good you might have yourself a hell of a beer there. Congrats.