1st all grain O.G. way high. Is my efficiency low?

Brewed my first AG. An American Ale from the Brewsmith software. I expected O.G. to be around 1.047 but it was 1.062. after 6 days fermenting at 70-71F the F.G. is at 1.028

I mashed with 3 gal of water but it resulted in 1.5 gal of wort. Is that pretty normal? I expected 2 gal.

Is my efficeiency of my mash tun too low?
Why was my O.G. so high?

Recipe:
8 lbs Pale Malt 2 row
1 lb Crystal 40L
.25 lb Munich Malt
.75oz Centennial 8.4% 60min
1 oz Cascade 6% 10min
White Labs WLP060

2L starter

Mashed 3gal 158F 45 min
Batch sparge 5 gal
60min boil

Grain does absorb some of the water you add. I think the rule of thumb is about .125 gallons per pound of grain, so for you that's 9.25 * .125 = 1.15 gallons absorbed. Wheat absorbs more.

If you expected 47 points in 2 gallons, that's 94. 94/1.5 = 63. Sounds about right.

Add more water next time.

For you're mash efficiency you need to use the total pre boil volume and the preboil gravity.

My fermentation temp did drop from 70/71 down to 66/67 during a cold snap on the 3rd nite of fermentation . Could that have made the yeasties go dormant and not finish?

I don't think its done fermenting. Let it go another week and check the gravity.

What was your final volume after sparge? If 5-5.5 gallons, then it sounds like your hydrometer is off by about 15 points.

No, yeast are fine at that temperature. Your mash volume is more likely to be the issue than a downspike in temperature.

If you taste it, and it tastes sweet, then you have a stuck fermentation. If it doesn't taste sweet, then it's fine and will be ready to bottle soon. Just take another hydrometer reading, and if it's the same as the one above then the beer is done fermenting (it might still be cleaning up it's side products, though).

If you don't want the gravity that high, you have a few options. Get some enzyme from your LHBS (you can use Bean-O if you want to). Or add some champagne yeast in there and see what they can do. Basically, until you have taken another hydrometer reading and tasted the beer to see if it tastes sweet, then you don't have enough information to proceed.

If you want a low-risk "something" to do right now, try swirling the closed fermenter to get some more yeast in suspension. It might help. It won't hurt (unless you spill).

That's just my opinion.

timOD said:

What was your final volume after sparge? If 5-5.5 gallons, then it sounds like your hydrometer is off by about 15 points.

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Being my first brew this is something I completely forgot to check.

You can work it backwards to figure you're preboil gravity, if you know preboil volume, post boil volume and post boil gravity.

He said he mashed at 158. That's at the upper end of mash temps and is gonna give him a higher FG, although probably not 1.028-high. Also unless my math is wrong (likely ) he mashed at 1.3 quarts/lb which is a totally reasonable volume.

edit for typos

1lb of Crystal will give you a higher FG too, does brewsmith take into consideration the unfermentables in crystal?

As far as efficency, that has to do with the amount of sugars extracted from the malt. If you achieved a much higher OG then that would point to a high efficiency, or miscalculation. According my calculations you could not achieve that high of a gravity from that grain bill, unless you boiled down to less than 4 gallons.

When was the last time you checked the calibration your hydrometer? If it was off by .020 at the beginning, then your gravity would have been in the expected range and it would now be down around 1.010. Drop that sucker in some distilled 70*F water and see what it reads. If it's anything but 1.000 then you know it's wrong.

HexKrak said:

1lb of Crystal will give you a higher FG too, does brewsmith take into consideration the unfermentables in crystal?

As far as efficency, that has to do with the amount of sugars extracted from the malt. If you achieved a much higher OG then that would point to a high efficiency, or miscalculation. According my calculations you could not achieve that high of a gravity from that grain bill, unless you boiled down to less than 4 gallons.

When was the last time you checked the calibration your hydrometer? If it was off by .020 at the beginning, then your gravity would have been in the expected range and it would now be down around 1.010. Drop that sucker in some distilled 70*F water and see what it reads. If it's anything but 1.000 then you know it's wrong.

Click to expand...

Very interesting post. I actually boiled down to 4.5 gallons. This is my first all grain brew session so I wasn't sure what I would get from my equipment. So after the boil My gravity was 1.062 then I drained the wort into the fermenter I had 4.5 gallons to which I added 1/2 gal of steril water. If I have the numbers correct I did have a good efficiency from my mash tun of 85-90%. So maybe those conditions factored into my high post-boil gravity. Pre-boil it wasn't much higher. From the recipe it stated an O.G of 1047, but maybe that was post-boil, and I measured 1.049

a link to the recipe An American Ale

I'll have to check my hydrometer calibration as well.

Thankyou

Hydrometer 1.003 in distilled water @ 70F