Nick Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 A couple of weeks ago i picked up 2 cheap packs of Brigalow Brewing sugar. One went into a stout and the other went into an APA. The OG for the APA was 1053 which i thought was pretty high, so i tested it again and got the same reading (BE 2 is normally low to mid 40's) After 8 days the SG is 1008 making for an ABV of 6.5%. The numbers add up, but dont make sense. Has anyone ever used BBS and can make a comment on the above? My first instinct was that the first sample had undesolved ingredients affecting the reading, but the second was the same. The only thing that i can think of is that i have been disolving my fermentables in lukewarm water as it is a prick of a job keeping the temps down when starting a brew in this weather. Could that cause the fermentables to not fully disolve initially and givev a false reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 I haven't used it and don't know what is in it. But I would say it is undissolved sugar giving you a false reading. The kit and 1kg of brewing sugar/malt extract/enhancer shouldn't give you that OG unless the volume was 18-19 litres. Does the packaging state what the contents are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted January 21, 2013 Author Share Posted January 21, 2013 To be honest Hairy, i never looked at the ingredient list. i will have a look on wednesday when i go shopping. I made it up to 23lts so i am thinking its the undisolved sugar. My last 3 brews have all been made with lukewarm tapwater, so maybe all my OG are out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 21, 2013 Share Posted January 21, 2013 To be honest Hairy, i never looked at the ingredient list. i will have a look on wednesday when i go shopping. I made it up to 23lts so i am thinking its the undisolved sugar. My last 3 brews have all been made with lukewarm tapwater, so maybe all my OG are out? the grigalow brewing sugar is all they have in iga here...it says dextrose on the bootom of the pack? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 I made it up to 23lts so i am thinking its the undisolved sugar. undisolved sugar would result in a lower gravity, not a higher one. like putting stones in water, they won't disolve so they won't make the water more dense. The temperature wouldn't cause that much of a difference in the gravity either, a couple of points at the most. Check your hydrometer if that was the common denominator in all 4 brews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty A Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 undisolved sugar would result in a lower gravity, not a higher one. This is true unless the sugar that is undissolved gets pushed into the testing tube for the hydrometer. I use the brigalow brewing sugars for my APA because it has got a bit of dextrose in it as well as malt. Probably too much dextrose but I have never had any problems and it gives me a easy going beer that I can shove down the hatch quickly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted January 22, 2013 Share Posted January 22, 2013 undisolved sugar would result in a lower gravity' date=' not a higher one.[/quote']This is true unless the sugar that is undissolved gets pushed into the testing tube for the hydrometer. No. Undissolved sugar will not raise the gravity of water. It will just sit at the bottom of the trial jar doing nothing. The water will not become more dense unless it dissolves. I suppose you could get a higher reading if there was so much undissolved sugar that hydrometer is just sitting on top of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matty A Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Undissolved is probably the wrong word. Not mixed thoroughly is probably a better word. I have heard (on this forum and many others), not experienced (as far as I know) that if the sugar is not mixed correctly it will give a higher reading at the bottom half of the wort compared to the top half. I do however agree that undissolved ingredients will mostly fall to the bottom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 It could be that malt extract that isn't totally mixed through properly might raise the gravity a bit, since it's already liquid. If there's a bit of it at the bottom when you take the sample I suppose there's a small chance the mixture will be thicker and therefore read higher. But undissolved solids won't make it read higher; this is usually the advice given to people asking why their OG appears low - the dry malt or whatever wasn't dissolved properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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