sensibull
Well-Known Member
Just finished my second AG and I thought I had the process down fairly well, but once again I got a much lower OG than expected (made Conroe's Mojave Red, should have been 1.056 or so, mine was around 1.041-1.042).
So, I'm pretty frustrated and don't want to have it happen again. Hoping if I describe my process someone might spot the points where I can increase my efficiency.
Steps
1. Buying the grain bill as specified and having my LHBS do the milling (i.e. not upping the grain bill, though I'm batch sparging. Should I?). Can't afford a mill at this point, but realize this might be an area to increase efficiency.
2. Been using Beersmith to calculate Strike and Sparge amounts. In this case, for about 10lbs of grain, I used 3.15 gallons for dough in and 4.3 gallons for sparging. Water is from a farmhouse well. Tastes great, maybe a little bit high in iron.
3. Dough it at 167, stirred, and mash temp evened out at 153.
4. Held mash temp at 152 for 60 min, as the recipe called for. Using a 10g rubbermaid with bazooka tube, per Flyguy's guide.
4. At 60 min. mark, vorlaufed a few pitchers of the first runnings, and then immediately drained the wort into my brew pot.
5. Sparged with 4.3 gallons at 172 degrees. Pour water in over a strainer. Now this is where I had problems. The temp of the grains + sparge water never hit 168. It only made it to 162 or so. Why? Only waited about 2-3 minutes**, vorlaufed again, and then opened the valve to collect the second runnings in the brew pot**. Collected a little over 6 gallons, with quite a bit still left in the mash tun.
6. Boiled for 60 minutes as normal, etc. etc.
Now, after a bit more reading, it seems the points marked with ** are where I made my errors, meaning I should let the sparge water sit longer and I should be draining the sparge water a lot more slowly. I also need to figure out how to properly mash out. Could those two things entirely explain my low OG?
Many thanks in advance for any advice offered.
So, I'm pretty frustrated and don't want to have it happen again. Hoping if I describe my process someone might spot the points where I can increase my efficiency.
Steps
1. Buying the grain bill as specified and having my LHBS do the milling (i.e. not upping the grain bill, though I'm batch sparging. Should I?). Can't afford a mill at this point, but realize this might be an area to increase efficiency.
2. Been using Beersmith to calculate Strike and Sparge amounts. In this case, for about 10lbs of grain, I used 3.15 gallons for dough in and 4.3 gallons for sparging. Water is from a farmhouse well. Tastes great, maybe a little bit high in iron.
3. Dough it at 167, stirred, and mash temp evened out at 153.
4. Held mash temp at 152 for 60 min, as the recipe called for. Using a 10g rubbermaid with bazooka tube, per Flyguy's guide.
4. At 60 min. mark, vorlaufed a few pitchers of the first runnings, and then immediately drained the wort into my brew pot.
5. Sparged with 4.3 gallons at 172 degrees. Pour water in over a strainer. Now this is where I had problems. The temp of the grains + sparge water never hit 168. It only made it to 162 or so. Why? Only waited about 2-3 minutes**, vorlaufed again, and then opened the valve to collect the second runnings in the brew pot**. Collected a little over 6 gallons, with quite a bit still left in the mash tun.
6. Boiled for 60 minutes as normal, etc. etc.
Now, after a bit more reading, it seems the points marked with ** are where I made my errors, meaning I should let the sparge water sit longer and I should be draining the sparge water a lot more slowly. I also need to figure out how to properly mash out. Could those two things entirely explain my low OG?
Many thanks in advance for any advice offered.