Hmmmm...

So, after a long hiatus after ceding disappointment in the smoked beer I tried (It ended up down the drain), I decided to brew another batch. This time I figured I would try, despite the lack of appropriate cold storage, a kind of lager. I figured a lager not unlike the beauties I had in Europe this past summer would be ideal. Bavarian excellence. Think like Munich's Hofbräuhaus only on a smaller scale, from places like Wurzburg or Bamberg.

Well, here's the thing. Something is amiss in my system for sure. As I had mentioned in my "Super Efficiency" post, recipe calculations and my O.G. readings didn't cooperate. Well, here again, I have an issue. It's not a point here or there on the scale either. It's a whopping error. I thought perhaps I should measure my water. Boring I know but then at least if it was a hydrometer error, it would show in tap water too. I know that it should realistically be distilled water but a giant error would show in tap water as well.

No dice.

Tap water measures correctly. I suppose my thermometer may be wrong but, even 20 degrees can't account for the variation. My measuring cups certainly can't all be wrong for water volumes, I suppose my scale could be off but calculators lead me to believe that would have to be by a factor of 2 to be coming out where I am measurement wise. I will say that the SRM estimations are all off too. Sure that's an eyeball kind of thing in an operation such as mine but probably worth noting. It's certainly the kind of thing that until I can figure out in an extract recipe leads me to think that hybrids and full mash are probably best avoided.

I'm at a loss. It's extraordinarily difficult to hit a target if you can't figure out how you're missing.
I have way more sugars in the fermenter than I should by calculation so I guess in a week or so, I'll see what happens.

Oh well...