Hi, so I took a reading after cool down at 100 degrees F and got a reading of 1.100 and the reading should have been close to 1.057. Did I do something wrong?
Most likely didn’t mix the wort well enough. Unless you have it really well mixed, there is often stratification in the kettle. I’m assuming you brewed a concentrated batch and topped-off with water? Also 100° is very high for most hydrometers and will give you an inaccurate reading.
At 100F, your gravity should have read too low, not too high. With an extract kit, if you got a gravity significantly higher than the recipe called for, either the kit's designer screwed up (unlikely), or one of these things happened... - You ended up with less than the intended volume of wort (boiled away too much). - You should have topped off with more water after the boil, but didn't - You topped off, but didn't mix it thoroughly before taking the hydrometer sample. - Measurement error.
Thanks I did take it from the kettle before adding to the top off water. So is it to late to recheck or can I take a reading now it hasn't been in the primary more than 24 hrs. It has been in for 12 hrs so far.
If you know how much wort you had when you measured the gravity, you can correct the reading for the temperature, and then correct it again for the additional water added. But really, it was an extract kit. If all the ingredients made it into the kettle, and if the final wort/water volume was correct, your OG would have to have been very close to the expected OG. ETA: The reason the volume is so important is that Gravity is basically a measurement of the density of stuff dissolved in water.
So your saying to not worry about it now and when I take final reading to assume that it was correct. I boiled 3 gals and didn't lose to much. I added 2 gallons of water to the bucket and it was back up to 5 gallons.
What VikeMan says is correct. Brewing with extract is very predictable, so as long as your water amount is correct, the expected OG from the recipe can be used. However, if you boiled 3 gallons, you may have had more boil-off than you think so that if you added two gallons of top-off water, you may be short of your needed amount. If your fermentation container has been calibrated to the 5-gallon level and you are at that level, you're okay. But if you are unable to measure the 5 gallons with much certainty now, you will still be able to do it when you transfer to your bottling bucket. (Take the time now to mark your bottling bucket now by using 5 gallons of water.) At the time of bottling you'll need to add water to sugar to make your priming solution, so your water amount shortage (if any) can be the amount that you add to the sugar. Just remember when measuring liquids while brewing, it's better to be short on the needed amount than to have too much.
IDK man, you’ve got a lot of variables going on here. Maybe best to chalk this batch up to “art” as opposed to “science,” and just estimate the abv and enjoy. FWIW
I'd say the only real variable here was volume. If his final volume was on, his OG should have been right on the recipe OG. If the final volume was off (but known), it's trivial to compute the OG from the target OG.
