First All Grain didn't go so well

I did my first AG on the 4th and we ran into some problems. This biggest problem is that my thermometer was broken and I didn’t realize it until about 1/2 into my mash.

When I figured out that my thermometer was broken I was about 30 minutes into the mash and running about 12 degrees too low. I raised the temp and finished the hour long mash.

I assume I should have let it sit longer but being my first time I panicked and finished it up. My estimated OG should have been 1.050 but I only got 1.032.

Is this way too low? Can I fix this at all, possibly mix up some extract and add it to the fermenter? The fermenter is bubbling away so it is doing something I am just worried that I will have water beer!

I say just go with it! Don't add any extract and let the batch ferment out. You might be surprised at it. It could be a real nice session beer. Provided it is not really hoppy, like and IPA where the hops are just going to overpower.

Nothing wrong with a low ABV session beer, certainly not in the summer. Yes, you can add extract at this point. Depending on how full your fermenter is, you can mix water:extract about 1:3 and pour it in. Heating it to about 160F for ten minutes will aid in mixing and pasteurize the mix.

I had exactly the same problem on a batch once; broken thermometer, really low OG, etc.
What I ended up doing was going to the LHBS the next day to pick up a few pounds of DME, boiling up a high gravity wort and mixed it in with the batch. That actually turned out to be a fantastic batch of beer and I still have people asking me about it.

My worry is that this brew was a Dogfish Head Blood Orange clone and I am afraid that the low ABV may cause an infection with all the fresh fruit in there. The wort was so thin that I didn’t top off the fermenter after the boil so I have a few inches of space so I may just mix up some more wort and add it.

Still it smells good so it cant be that bad no can it!

ThatGuyRyan said:

My worry is that this brew was a Dogfish Head Blood Orange clone and I am afraid that the low ABV may cause an infection with all the fresh fruit in there. The wort was so thin that I didn’t top off the fermenter after the boil so I have a few inches of space so I may just mix up some more wort and add it.

Still it smells good so it cant be that bad no can it!

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Did you sanitize the fruit in any way? (add sulfide or boil it?). Did you add it to the primary or secondary? If you haven't added the fruit yet, you may want to let the fruit soak in a sulfide solution overnight. (Read up on procedures for wine making).

You didn't give your mash temperatures. If your mash temperature was low 149f-150f, you'll get higher attenuation, boosting your abv a bit. Plus the fruit will as some fermentables. So you may end up in close to 4%.

Any idea what your mash temp was for the first 30 minutes?

You said you were 12 degrees too low. If you shooting for 152, you were mashing at 140? Beta amylase can work at 140. I don't have enough experience to know if you can get enough alpha amylase activity at that temp for the beta amylase to do it's job.

at that low a mash temp, it'll be pretty dry. some extract might help re-balance the flavor profile close to what it was intended to be.

then again it might turn out more awesome the way it is.

unless you were making a high octane beer I don't think another 15 points of gravity is enough alcohol to prevent any wild infections from the fruit.

Good yeast pitching might though

I had a really bad first ag too, but that's a story for another time. I wouldn't do anything to it. You did the good thing of measuring the og, so in the future you will at least know what your beer's will come out like under these circumstances.

I really wouldn't worry about it at all. Speaking from experience since I've done about 10 AG and about half of them in the beginning I fudged some aspect of the process. The beer I'm drinking now came in around 15 points under the OG and it's great.

Above comments are good. I have one suggestion for you in the future. Use a starch test to verify that you have reached complete conversion. All you need is a bottle of iodine. Pull a small sample off of your mash and drip iodine into it. If there are still starches in the mash it will flash black (this is a very strong reaction, you don't need much iodine at all). If the mash is converted the sample will just turn kinda ruddy as the iodine mixes with the sample.

I remembered that on the second batch and used a few drops of my Iodophor and it did not change color. I heard that you can test with that as well so hopefully it will work out. I now have blowoff tubes on both batches since they kept blowing the lids off! So they are fermenting like crazy and everything looks promising!

This weekend I will attempt another batch and of course I cant find my AG recipe book! Anyone have any advise on a good AG beer for a new guy?


Thanks for all the help!

Ryan