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Hey guys, brewed my first AG brew on Sunday. It was a black IPA with a planned OG of 1.070-1.076 as per the recipe. I used a rolling pin to crush all the grains (13lbs), crushed to a good mix of sizes. Mashed at 153 for over 60 minutes, then started with sparge water at 168. I did pull several quarts of the wort out until clear prior to sparging, but did not drain the mash before beginning the sparge. Sparge lasted over 90 minutes. Ended with close to 8 gallons, boiled down to approx. 6 gal, then began adding hops and boiled for 60 minutes. Cooled to 68 degrees, took my hydrometer reading and it was only 1.045.
Began a yeast starter 2 days earlier, it was very active, more than expected. put starter in fridge after 30 hours, decanted before pitching and let warm back up to room temp. Pitched.

The fermentor began bubbling at a usual rate in about 12 hours. Not as strong as I had hoped. Now it is Tuesday evening and the fermenting appears to have stopped.

Can anyone give me some ideas on what went wrong? I am sure there is plenty.

Yeast was Headwaters Strain from Wyeast, used in IPA, then washed and stored in fridge for one month.

Recipe was 12lbs of Maris Otter, then some specialty grains

I also shook/stirred the fermentor this evening without opening it in hopes that it will resuspend the yeast. Not sure if this will help yet.

Thanks

Any thoughts

jbsg02

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was your recipe for a 5 gal batch?

cowgo

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Just off the info you provided, I'd suspect an inadequate crush. Order milled grains next time or make the leap to a grain mill. Like anything though, you're still making beer even if everything doesn't go as planned!

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TopherM

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How do you know fermentation has stopped? You've only given it about 48 hours since you started and it takes about 72 hours of stable final gravity to declare a fermentation complete.

Remember, bubbling IS NOT fermentation. There can be plenty of active fermentation going on without the airlock bubbling!

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chickypad

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Crushing that way is definitely a problem (been there, done that). You won't be sorry if you invest in a mill.

+1 to what Topher said about the fermentation.

Brulosopher

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First off, your method for crushing is likely the problem here. Have your LHBS mill your grain for you, or pick up a mill yourself (Corona mill for about $30 on eBay works fine).

Next, the brunt of your fermentation was probably done after 48 hours, given the great starter and low OG. Consider taking a FG reading and, if it looks about right, dry hop for a week or so, package, and enjoy. At 1.042, it won't require much time or conditioning IMHO

Cheers!!

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RM-MN

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Next time drain your mash tun before sparging. Your wort was pretty much saturated with sugars at the end of the mash and by adding your sparge water to it you only reduced that saturation a little and that meant that you couldn't extract all the sugars from the mash. By draining, you start with pure water for sparging and it will extract much more sugar which will increase the efficiency. While your sparge water is in the tun, stir, stir, stir to get as much sugars as you can.

chickypad

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I think think he (she?) is fly sparging, right?