I'm new to homebrewing and just started fermenting an Ommegang Hennepin clone. The problem I'm having, and this happened last time, is that I'm not hitting the original target gravity. In this case, I should have been, according to the recipe, at about 1.072 and came in at 1.058.

I feel that I'm following the recipe, but must be doing something wrong.

Any help would be appreciated.

extract or all grain brewing?

Posting the recipe and mash temp would also help to see what's going on.

ya, whats the recipe and all grain or extract?

Also are you adjusting the gravity for the temp of the wort?

If you are doing all grain, are you adjusting for your efficiency too?

The recipe called for liquid (8 lbs) and dry malt (1 lb) extract. I steeped some grains at 155, per the recipe's instructions, for 30 minutes. The wort was about 73 when I checked the gravity.

Too much of a beginner to understand some of the questions, and thanks again for any advice.

I used the TB calculator and with 8 lbs of lme and 1 lb of dme your preboil gravity at 100% efficiency would be 1.053 and after a one hour boil it would have been 1.063. With the temp corrections of your hydrometer reading you would add .0016 to your reading which puts you at 1.059. With my math skills and using lme @37 points per gallon and dme @44 I think that you are 1.5 lbs of lme short of your target.

Agree that U r too low in your fermentables..IMHO most recipes assume often unrealisticly high efficiency- U will have to learn how things work..while in the learning curve with YOUR system always overshoot since U can always add a little chilled dechlorinated h2o to hit Ur OG

+1 to hankus about the efficiency. This is one of the things that brewing software really helped me with. Having it calculate your efficiency helps you understand your process. The imbedded calculations and style guidelines give you some guidance too. It's more useful than I initially imagined.

Not sure how efficiency would factor in here, since this was an extract and specialty grain recipe...

BluesnBrews- did you measure the final volume of wort that went into the fermenter? Did it match the volume of the recipe you used? Also- did you top off the boiled wort with additional water after filling the fermenter? If so, it's possible that the water and concentrated wort did not mix thoroughly before you took the gravity sample, which could have given you a low reading.

"Beginner Coming Up Short on Original Gravity Target"

lol
thats what she said

Honey, I'll be bigger next time.

Longshot, I think you may have something there. I did add water to the wort after the boil. I'm sure it was the right amount, but I can't be certain it was adequately mixed. I aerated using an air stone rather than by shaking this time. Thanks.