Problems with OG

I am having problems with hitting the OG. I am brewing an amber ale. The projected OG is 1.046 and after the brew I got an 1.030? I was at 152 to 145 for the mash and after that followed all the proper steps. Any ideas for why the OG was so low????????/

Any ideas would be great.

Could be your crush. How are you sparging? Did you do an idodine starch test?

Those are very big factors I'll add a couple:
1) Did the grains look like flour, coursely ground or slightly broken open?
2) What steps did you take to sparge?
3) What temperature did you boil at, did you end at 5 gallons exactly?
4) What temperature did you take your hydrometer reading at?

I am sparging with a spoon and water. I have not used the iodine test. The grains were ground from the LHS. I did not take the boil temp. I did end at 5.25 gallons but that was in the promash also. I took the reading at 72.

betch said:

I am sparging with a spoon and water. I have not used the iodine test. The grains were ground from the LHS. I did not take the boil temp. I did end at 5.25 gallons but that was in the promash also. I took the reading at 72.

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Was figuring you used a spoon and water .....did you mash and sparge or did you mash and top off your kettle with water? How long did you mash and describe how you sparged...when sparging did you batch or fly sparge? Did you let it sit in the MLT for any length of time or did you quickly drain it? How finely milled were the grains?

HemiPowered said:

Was figuring you used a spoon and water .....did you mash and sparge or did you mash and top off your kettle with water? How long did you mash and describe how you sparged...when sparging did you batch or fly sparge? Did you let it sit in the MLT for any length of time or did you quickly drain it? How finely milled were the grains?

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Unless I am just clueless here, I believe when he said spoon and water, he is fly sparging with a spoon.....adding the water slowly by hand.

What concerns me is your mash temp. You stated 152-145. Are you using a cooler or a bucket...etc. Sounds like the sparge is where it went wrong for you. it is really hard to effectivly wash the sugars using a spoon to rinse the grains. Not impossible, just difficult.

The sparge was pouring the water over a spoon, slowly by hand. Not sure if that is called fly or not?
Anyway I am using a cooler for the mash. I have used the cooler in the past with ok results but the last two have been in the 22 to 35 on efficanty? Not spelled correct. I mashed for an hour and 10 minutes. Not sure what a MLT is but I slowly drained the wort for about 5 to 10 minutes during the sparge. Not sure how the grains were milled because the LHS did that.

Ok....there is the problem. yes you are Fly Sparging, but the process should take you a little closer to 45 min to an hour. You are draining to fast. If you are using the spoon method, you want the water to drain as close to the same rate that you are adding as possible. Reason I asked about your mash temp.......before you add grains or mash water, you should be putting about a gallon of near boiling water into the cooler to bring the temp up. That reduces thermal shock to the grains and keeps your mash temp around 1 degree of your desired temp for the whole hour. Your crush may still be a factor, but that is almost impossible to decide online without some really good pictures.


p.s. MLT = Mash Lautering Tun

What you may want to consider is batch sparging for a few rounds. It is SIMPLE. after your hour of mash, drain the water as fast as you can. Add all your sparge water at one time (dump it in) STIR LIKE HELL and let it sit for a few min. STIR again and let it sit for 5 min, then drain off your sparge water. You should easily hit 73-78% that way. If you REALLY want your efficiency to jump, add your sparge water in two batches. Drain in between them and you should hit 75-85%.

Thanks for the hepl. I will try the batch sparge next time. Not sure why the LHS did not mention that method? I also forgot to mention that I do fill the cooler up with hot water and drain before I add the grains and water to help maintain the temp. But I will also try the method you mentioned.

Another question by stirring the grains with the batch sparge is there a concern for a stuck sparge? I am using a cooler with a Phils false bottom?

Almost impossible to stick a batch sparge. Almost.

I agree it is your sparging method. I had that happen to me the first time too, I then switched to batch sparging and have been cranking out great beers and hitting 80's in efficiency too (though crushing your own makes a big difference too).

Batch sparge and stir very well on dough in and stir at least 2 more times thoroughly during the mash, plus stir right before you begin vorlauf. Add water for second batch and stir again.