Squad1Guy

Recipes 

A recap of my brew day...

I decided to do a 2.5 gallon BIAB for my first run. Everything went pretty well (for a first time anyway..) but there is a lot of room for improvement.
The good:
- Had the procedure down pretty well (mentally, at least!) so there were no real surprises.
- I hit my mash temp almost dead on. I dropped down to 148F after dough-in, but a few minutes on the burner had me up to 152F. The pot went into the oven (set on lowest setting) and stayed between 151-152F the whole time :-)
- Sparge went well, although my sparge pot had too much water so I had to empty some out to fit the bag.
The less-good:
- HBS was out of Cascade so I had to sub Centennial
- HBS was out of Nottingham so I had to sub Wyeast 1274
- OG came in low at 1.045
- Brewhouse efficiency was only at 54%...This is probably because I have an electric stove and a concave brewpot :-/

I assume my efficiency will increase with practice. From what I understand, I can increase my grain bill a bit to compensated for the lower efficiency. I am also pretty surprised that I barely got 2.5 gallons in the fermenter. I started with 4.75 pre-boil and didn't have as much evaporation as I had hoped. It is still a good size for me since I am the only beer drinker in the house, but we like to do our best :-)

I also had a LOT more trub in the bottom of the pot. I have done partial-mash before. Is this just a result of doing an all grain batch? I also didn't have a filter on the end of my tubing so I avoided digging too deep into the bottom of the pot (because of the trub). I didn't want a ton of junk in the bottom of the fermenter.

Finally, my fermentation is moving slowly after 12 hours (but it IS moving). The Nottingham really takes off, but I guess the Wyeast is slower to get going, or just slower to do the job. Fermentation temp is between 64-68F. I have the primary sitting in a tub of water/ice to try to keep the temp more constant.

I am pretty positive my fermentation is done. It stayed in the primary for 2 weeks and my FG is coming in at 1.005. I am guessing the fermentation is complete. I decided to put it in a secondary to clarify. This is going to last a week and then into the bottle!

My question is.... Beersmith and the original recipe call for an OG of 1.151 and a FG of 1.012. I came in at 1.145 and 1.005. Although my ABV is right on target (5.2%), what is the lower FG going to mean for my beer? I assume it is going to be drier, but is the flavor profile going to be significantly different from the original recipe? Thanks!

dawgmatic

Recipes 

Drier, yes. Which also implies it will be less malty and it might have a slightly thinner mouthfeel.
I assume that the OG's in bold were actually 1.051 and 1.045.
You were about 6 points low on each end it seems. I would not worry, that beer is gonna turn out great.
Have you ever calibrated your hydrometer?
and do you take temp readings with each gravity calculation for adjustments?
These are not meant to tackle anything specific, but in the event you don't your beer actually may be more on target than you think

Either way, here's to your first AG, may there be many more

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Squad1Guy

Recipes 

The gravity readings are corrected for temperature using Beersmith. I have never calibrated the hydrometer...I will have to look up how to do it :-)
You are correct...1.051 and 1.045

Squad1Guy

Recipes 

So I checked the calibration on my hydrometer and you were absolutely correct. The SG reading for water, corrected for temperature was 0.996. That puts my readings right on target. Thanks for the advice!