Initial Gravity Reading too high???

[micahwitham]

brewed the Ferocious clone from Midwest last night and the initial gravity was 1.080 and the sheet said it was supposed to be 1.060-1.068.
Any thoughts on why that would be the case and what does that mean for me in the end? Should I do anything different from here on out?
thanks
micah

[ColoradoBrewer]

Micah,
You didn't say, but I'm assuming (yeah, I know) this was an extract kit. It's really pretty hard to mess one of those up if you follow the instructions. At least with respect to OG. Sometimes when an extract brewer experiences gravity readings that are way out of line with the recipe it's because the wort was not thoroughly mixed after topping up. Of course this assumes you were doing partial boil and not a full wort boil. A little more info on your brewing method would be helpful.

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum!

[jawbox]

There are a few things that could be affecting your reading

1) There are adjustments that you make based on the temperature of your hydrometer sample. If you look on the hydrometer it should tell you the calibration temperature.

2) you had an aggressive boil causing your evaporation rate to increase, in turn increasing your og

3) Like Colorado said you may have not blended your wort and water throughly.

More info on your process would be helpful.

Welcome aboard.

Jaw