zickefoose

Recipes 

This was my first attempt at my own recipe and using an online beer calculator it said my OG should be around 1.048. I only did a 2 gallon batch just in case it sucked hard but I'm afraid that my 1.022 OG is way too low, I've never heard of anything being that low.

Has anyone ever had a beer with that low of an OG and if so does that mean I'll end up only having a 1 - 2% ABV?

BTW its a witbier in case you are wondering.

Thanks!

SwampassJ

Recipes 

What are your ingedients and process? What temp did you take the hydro sample at? Try your hydrometer in 60 degree water it should be at or at least damn near 1.000

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Mysticmead

Recipes 

first... a silly question... you did get the grains crushed (or crush them yourself if you have a mill) right??

second, the reading of 1.022. was that before the boil or after?

zickefoose

Recipes 

My wort was at about 70 degrees when I used my hydrometer and it was after. Yes I milled my grains.
Here's my recipe for a 2 gallon batch:
2lb 12oz Belgian Caramel Pils 8L
1lb 8oz American White Wheat 2L
11oz Belgian Caramunich 50L
6oz American Crystal 10L

Also, My carboy is being used right now so I had to use my bottling bucket to ferment and the lid was just a slightly not on all the way. I snapped it shut today but I'm a little worried my fermentation might be totally "f"ed. Just wondering if I should worry about that.

Yooper

Recipes 

You didn't really use any base malt, other than the wheat. That's why your OG was so low. Belgian caramel pils is a crystal- not a base malt. You used almost all crystal malt, which won't convert into fermentable sugars. With only 1 pound 8 ounces of base malt (the white wheat), your OG of 1.022 is about right.

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broadbill

Recipes 

+1 to Yooper....I think you need to be in recovery mode right now. I'd buy some DME/LME, dissolve in it as little water as you can, boil for 5-10 minutes and add to the fermenter when cool. I'd also have extra yeast on hand.

TheSeether

Recipes 

I think broadbill is on the right line of thinking. I'd pull out some software and try to find the correct OG and volume of supplementary wort to hit or nearly hit the intended OG. Apologies for not knowing a direct and easy method for doing this off the top of my head.

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broadbill

Recipes 

Assuming this is a 5 gallon batch and were shooting for an OG of 1.048. Right now you are at 1.022:

You need to add (48-22) = 26 pts/gallon x 5 gallon = 130 points total.

DME gives 45 pts/lb so you need 130/45 pts/lb = 2.8 lbs of DME.

However, the issue you are going to have is that to get the DME into the fermenter, you need to first dissolve it in water and boil. Adding the DME is going to increase your volume so you won't quite hit the OG you need. You can add more DME to account for this:

Say you are able to get that much DME in 0.5 gallon...to account for the volume change diluting out the final product:

0.5 gallon extra water x 1.048 =48 pts/gallon = 24pts total.

24 pts/45 pts/lb = 0.5 lb of DME.


So I would boil 2.8lb +0.5lb = 3.3lbs of DME in 0.5 gallon of water and dump into fermenter mix...this should give you 5.5 gallons at 1.048.

Hope this helps.