OG is always below expected SG

[Agnebrew]

Alright, I'm a little frustrated with my brewing. I've done about 8 batches and all of them have had low staring gravities. Today, I brewed an Octoberfest which was suppose to have a starting gravity of 1.051. The real gravity turned out be 1.043. Every batch has been around ten points low even with the temperature correction. I'm doing full boils. Here are my thoughts on what could be the trouble:

1) The LME is not giving me enough points.
2) I'm not boiling off enough water. I start with 6 gallons; I would guess that I'm leaving a half gallon in the kettle.
3) Not a VigArous boil. The boil is a rolling one, but probably on the low side. I don't have a lot spare room in my kettle.

Any thoughts, BN Army?

[Mylo]

Check your hydrometer (and/or refractometer) with 60 degree distilled water. You could boil a little more VI-ger-ousely. You also might want to start with a slightly bigger batch. In order to have 5 gallons of finished beer, you might have to have 5.25 gallons in your fermenter. Add your .5 gallon of leftover, and you need to have 5.75 and the END of the boil. With a 12% boil off rate - you need to start with about 6.5 gallons.

Also, maybe the LME that you buy is a little thinner than what others use. If your measuring tools turn out to be calibrated properly - then maybe you just want to up your usage on each batch.


Mylo