All right. I've spent years brewing before I ever visited a homebrew forum. I looked at one thread, and I'm already posting. That didn't take long.
I love blue moon, and so does my wife. It might be my favorite all time beer. So when I saw this thread, I was hooked. I spent the last week trying to convert this recipe into an extract recipe. I've never done anything other than extract. But then I talked to a brewing buddy who said he would happily help me brew my first all grain recipe. So I brewed it today. I just checked the O.G. before pitching the yeast, and am extremely nervous. The O.G. was 1.020. How is that possible? My lowest O.G. in any of my dozens of extract brews was something like 1.036, but it was usually more like 1.046. Did I do something wrong?
Here was the recipe I used (5 gallons):
5 lbs 2-row
4 lbs white wheat
1 lb flaked oats
1 oz Hallertau (90 min)
3 tsp ground coriander (10 min)
3 tsp ground valencia orange (5 min)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale)
I mashed (is that the right term?) the malt for 1 hour at 155 degrees.
However, I was overly ambitious, and tried a few other things for the first time today, including...
- just bought a new 30 quart brew pot and brewed the full 5 gallon batch
- brewed in my garage using propane on a turkey fryer (in order to get 5 full gallons boiling)
- 1st time using a wort chiller (again, no other way to get 5 full gallons cooled quickly)
- and, of couse, first time doing all grain
- it's also my first time using my new glass carboy, but i don't know how that could affect the O.G. (I marked 5 gallons on the carboy and it is right at that mark)
I'm not overly concerned about alcohol content of my beer, but this won't even qualify as 3.2 beer. I'm mostly just nervous that it won't taste very good. I've found that my extract batches usually end up with a lower O.G. than it "should", but the beer still turns out good (and with plenty of alcohol). But 1.020 is incredibly low and much lower than the "expected" 1.052 I've heard from previous posters. I don't understand it.
Any ideas?