Missed OG by .020....Thoughts?

I made a rye pa and it went fairly well

10lbs American pale 2 row
2lbs rye
1lb crystal 40
1lb rice hulls.

I mashed at 152.5 for 60 mins and here's where things got funky. I left a thermometer in the tun (10 gallon cooler) and when I opened it, it read 155. (Strike water of 166 and 4.7 gals). I also took a digital temp of 145. I'm guessing hot and cold spots, so I didn't stir it well enough. I batch sparged with 4.3 gallons at 167 didn't take temp reading after stirring the sparge water in. Then I neglected to let it sit for 10mins or so, as well as stirring it after I sparged sufficiently. Ha...I also neglected to take my SG and the OG was taken from the bottom of my bottling bucket I drained the wort into. I used a refractometer, however I legitimately forgot to take both readings. I pitched my starter into 72 deg wort and it fermented quickly with a smallish krausen. I took a reading and my OG is at 1.012 today and I brewed on Sunday....is it even worth keeping the beer? I know...have patience etc...however I don't want to wait 6 weeks for crappy beer.

are you stirring during the mash? I stir every 15 minutes just to keep things even, that seemed to help my efficiency immensely.

No I didn't. I erred immensely on this one, the last one I did everything came out as calculated. I'm thinking with a good size grain bill like that I should paid closer attention.

IanPC said:

I made a rye pa and it went fairly well

10lbs American pale 2 row
2lbs rye
1lb crystal 40
1lb rice hulls.

I mashed at 152.5 for 60 mins and here's where things got funky. I left a thermometer in the tun (10 gallon cooler) and when I opened it, it read 155. (Strike water of 166 and 4.7 gals). I also took a digital temp of 145. I'm guessing hot and cold spots, so I didn't stir it well enough. I batch sparged with 4.3 gallons at 167 didn't take temp reading after stirring the sparge water in. Then I neglected to let it sit for 10mins or so, as well as stirring it after I sparged sufficiently. Ha...I also neglected to take my SG and the OG was taken from the bottom of my bottling bucket I drained the wort into. I used a refractometer, however I legitimately forgot to take both readings. I pitched my starter into 72 deg wort and it fermented quickly with a smallish krausen. I took a reading and my OG is at 1.012 today and I brewed on Sunday....is it even worth keeping the beer? I know...have patience etc...however I don't want to wait 6 weeks for crappy beer.

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I am sure someone else can answer better than me but from first glance, the water calculations are off for a grain bill that steep. But I am not sure what your OG/FG should have been so again, just a first guess. I wouldnt toss it. Just because it's not what you wanted doesnt mean it will be terrible. Bottle it after a few weeks and work on keeping better notes on brew days. That has helped me

IanPC said:

I made a rye pa and it went fairly well

10lbs American pale 2 row
2lbs rye
1lb crystal 40
1lb rice hulls.

I mashed at 152.5 for 60 mins and here's where things got funky. I left a thermometer in the tun (10 gallon cooler) and when I opened it, it read 155. (Strike water of 166 and 4.7 gals). I also took a digital temp of 145. I'm guessing hot and cold spots, so I didn't stir it well enough. I batch sparged with 4.3 gallons at 167 didn't take temp reading after stirring the sparge water in. Then I neglected to let it sit for 10mins or so, as well as stirring it after I sparged sufficiently. Ha...I also neglected to take my SG and the OG was taken from the bottom of my bottling bucket I drained the wort into. I used a refractometer, however I legitimately forgot to take both readings. I pitched my starter into 72 deg wort and it fermented quickly with a smallish krausen. I took a reading and my OG is at 1.012 today and I brewed on Sunday....is it even worth keeping the beer? I know...have patience etc...however I don't want to wait 6 weeks for crappy beer.

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And as a secondary thought...I normally use White Labs yeast and most of the strains that I use have attenuation rates of 50%ish after 40-50 hours. If your OG was off and your reading today was close to complete...that kind of makes sense. Again, I guess it depends on the strain you used and your OG but worth looking into. Hope that helps.

If nothing else, you're confused about some terminology. You say you neglected to take an SG (Specific Gravity), but you used a refractometer. Did you take a reading or didn't you?
Then you say your OG (Original Gravity) is 1.012 today, but you brewed on Sunday. Your OG would be the reading you took on Sunday, which you didn't tell us.
All I'm saying is it's hard to tell if you even missed your numbers at all without knowing your target OG and actual OG. A reading from 3 days into fermentation doesn't really tell us anything about that.

Sorry about the terminology...I didn't realize I called yesterday's gravity reading OG. I also should of said pre-boil gravity. I had heard it referred to as starting gravity as well.

Also...I made a 1600ml yeast starter using WL California yeast. I don't think I would of dumped it, I was just irritated. About the water, I used the amount beersmith instructed...which I'm thinking I most likely made a mistake on the info when plugging it in to the program.

My readings: I didn't take a reading from my pre-pitched wort. I realized the mistake after I had pitched my yeast. So I took a few drops from my bottling bucket I used to drain the wort from my kettle in.

Sounds like you have some simple problems in the process that a little stirring and note taking will likely fix.

You've got to stir, and stir, and stir some more. You want a nice, uniform solution and temp through the entire tun. If you've got hot spots, that means you also have cold spots and you probably aren't getting great conversion in those cold spots. It also means you have a decent chance of dough balls - pockets of grains that clump together and don't get wet on the inside.

Low OG isn't going to ruin the beer - it will just be weaker. Fermenting a pale ale at 72 is much more worrisome. Did the temp drop after you pitched?

I agree with the other responses so far, stir during mash about every 15 min. I still believe your water is off somewhere. 13lbs of grain absorbs a lot of water and it is an easy mistake to overlook. Maybe your pre boil volume is not right in beersmith? That fixed an efficeincy issue of mine so look into that. I had my batch volume confused and I thought it meant post boil (5.5) but it was preboil (6.5). That fixed all of my efficeincy questions for the most part.

Take better notes! A full recipe and details of your entire process would help others diagnose your issue.

And if the california yeast strain is wlp001, it's only 40 hours to 50% attenuation.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp001.html

I've done plenty of extract batches an had no problems fermenting as high as 72 and I never noticed any issues with the beer. I don't look to do that but it is what is. The problem seems to be note taking and attention to detail. As it turns out I was short on water. But there were still hot and cold spots. I'm going to brew the same beer in a couple of weeks but lighten the load on grains to where it would sit at 5.5-6%. Perhaps exclude the rye for now..and just concentrate on a consistent IPA. I think I may double check beersmith by doing the math out on paper as well. Doesn't hurt to know how to do the calculations. I also failed to take the temp of the grain. I guesstimated. All in all it was a lesson learned. I wouldn't dump the beer, I was just frustrated. I also throw my putter and proclaim to never play golf again....yet I do. Just gotta keep at it and have fun, try to learn something new every batch.

After all, it makes beer in the end!

I appreciate the above stated responses...as I have grown lazy to taking notes. That's the first thing I will be fixing. Also...it's only 1 batch.

I'm a big believer in seeing it through as a learning experience, as long as its not an obviously infected batch.

I've learnt more from my unplanned changes (mistakes) than the batches that go to plan.

IanPC said:

I've done plenty of extract batches an had no problems fermenting as high as 72 and I never noticed any issues with the beer. I don't look to do that but it is what is. The problem seems to be note taking and attention to detail. As it turns out I was short on water. But there were still hot and cold spots. I'm going to brew the same beer in a couple of weeks but lighten the load on grains to where it would sit at 5.5-6%. Perhaps exclude the rye for now..and just concentrate on a consistent IPA. I think I may double check beersmith by doing the math out on paper as well. Doesn't hurt to know how to do the calculations. I also failed to take the temp of the grain. I guesstimated. All in all it was a lesson learned. I wouldn't dump the beer, I was just frustrated. I also throw my putter and proclaim to never play golf again....yet I do. Just gotta keep at it and have fun, try to learn something new every batch.

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I wouldnt toss the rye. Maybe only 1lb would do? I saw the water and grain bill and saw errors I have made as well so I thought that might help. I had a few batches go south last year and that started my fervent note taking process when brewing. It has helped me a lot to see where my mistakes could have come from. I wouldnt worry too much about fermenting at 72. The temp for wlp001 is 68-73 (assuming that is the strain you are using) and 72 is within its preferred temp range. I have noticed more esters at the higher temps with that strain but nothing that made me cringe. Temp is very important for yeast but as long as you do your research on each strain, you should be fine.

I dont use beersmith so I cant help you there but the crucial mistake I made is the batch size. My efficiencies were off and I checked every aspect of my brew days. Then I discovered that the reason was simply user error
Lesson learned but it was me chasing my efficiency issue for a year, taking notes, and finetuning everything that led me to fixing the issue and making better beer (thank you HBT for all the tips).

Lesson to take away is take better notes, double check all your formulas & software settings, do the math manually as well (never hurts to learn new things), stir your mash every 15min, and keep trying. Also and this may not apply to you, slow down on the alcoholic beverages on brew days. I fill up my growler for the day and thats it. That way we remember exactly what we did or didnt do. This has been my AG learning experience I went through. Hopefully it helps you too

Mirkin said:

I'm a big believer in seeing it through as a learning experience, as long as its not an obviously infected batch.

I've learnt more from my unplanned changes (mistakes) than the batches that go to plan.

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True story!

Note taking it is. After doing extract for a year I go lazy with notes. Looks like I'm gonna have to get me a note book,

Just print out one of these: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewdaysheets/

fizgig said:

Just print out one of these: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewdaysheets/

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Good tool. I have all of that information stored digitally so my notebook is what "actually" happens on my brew days. When my notebook runs out of pages I will use the PDF in a binder....could just write all my notes on the back.