Not hitting Original Gravity #'s

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jhutch31

Active Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2012
Messages
35
Reaction score
1
Location
Fall River Mills
Hello everyone,

I bought a brewmagic about a month ago and have been brewing like mad. I also purchased beersmith for my laptop to assist in my brewing. I have brewed four batches of beer now and none have hit the calculated OG's from beersmith. In fact, I am usually off by a tenth or more on each one. For example, I build a recipe in beersmith and it says my OG should be 1.05. I take my hydrometer reading at 60 degrees and I get 1.039. Very frustrating. It's not off by a consistent amount either. I am mashing in at the specified temps with the specified water volumes. Any thoughts? So far, all my beers are very watery and bland. Frustrated. Thanks for any feedback.

John
 
Stauffbier said:
How are you sparging?

I am taking the calculated volume in beersmith and sparging at the endof my mash by running the sparge water through the grain bed with a hose that whirlpools the water from the top of the grain bed and allows it to drain through. Thank you for the responses.
 
I'd say check your thermometer accuracy, your grain crush, water chemistry, and sparge temps...
 
Stauffbier said:
I'd say check your thermometer accuracy, your grain crush, water chemistry, and sparge temps...

I'm going to ask a real dumb question, but oh well. I am mashing in with the temp and volume that beersmith calculates. I flood the water into my mash run and stir the mash enough to get the grain nice and soaked. I then start my rims system and cycle the water through the grain bed so the automated temp control can lick in the target mash temperature. Just thought I would throw that out there in case cycling the water that early was bad. That completely explains my mash process. Any thoughts on letting the mash just soak in the run before circulating the wort?
 
I am taking the calculated volume in beersmith and sparging at the endof my mash by running the sparge water through the grain bed with a hose that whirlpools the water from the top of the grain bed and allows it to drain through. Thank you for the responses.

If you're fly sparging, what's your rate?
 
are you mashing in with the water at 152, or is the grain/water mash 152 degrees (or close) after you dump the water in and mix?
 
MalFet said:
If you're fly sparging, what's your rate?

Hmm. Thats a good question. I don't know. I should keep track of the amount of time it takes to sparge the grain. Is that what you are referring too? I will track that on the next batch. Thank you.
 
lumpher said:
are you mashing in with the water at 152, or is the grain/water mash 152 degrees (or close) after you dump the water in and mix?

I mash in at the strike water temp calculated in beersmith. That program rocks. I think my strike water temp for the batch I have been referring to in this thread was 167. I then set the target for 152 on this batch ad thats what beersmith calculated. I double checked all the math long hand one night to make sure that it made sense and it did. It just seems like I'm not getting good conversion.
 
Being off that much sounds like dough balls to me. You say you are getting the grains wet but don't mention breaking up dough balls. I'd suggest getting a really large whisk (restaurant supply) and using that. Dough balls are resilient little buggers and but I've found that beating the hell out of the grain with a whisk gets rid of them.

I usually add my strike water first and then add the grains in three equal parts, beating them into the water thoroughly each time.

Also, I'd make sure your brewing equipment is entered correctly in Beersmith. Good luck, I know this is a really frustrating problem.
 
TarheelBrew13 said:
Being off that much sounds like dough balls to me. You say you are getting the grains wet but don't mention breaking up dough balls. I'd suggest getting a really large whisk (restaurant supply) and using that. Dough balls are resilient little buggers and but I've found that beating the hell out of the grain with a whisk gets rid of them.

I usually add my strike water first and then add the grains in three equal parts, beating them into the water thoroughly each time.

Also, I'd make sure your brewing equipment is entered correctly in Beersmith. Good luck, I know this is a really frustrating problem.

Thank you! I will implement this. I add my grain to the strike water in thirds, however I don't get very vigorous with mixing it once it appears to be evenly wet. That may be my downfall. I'll give that a whirl and I own a large wisk. That would be awesome if that's all I needed to do.
 
Hmm. Thats a good question. I don't know. I should keep track of the amount of time it takes to sparge the grain. Is that what you are referring too? I will track that on the next batch. Thank you.

It's an easy calculation. Roughly how much water are you sparging with, and roughly how much time does it take you for the sparge to run through?
 
MalFet said:
It's an easy calculation. Roughly how much water are you sparging with, and roughly how much time does it take you for the sparge to run through?

Gotcha. I will track it exactly next time, but I would say it takes roughly five mins for the sparge to complete and I sparged this particular batch with about 7.5 gallons of water.
 
Gotcha. I will track it exactly next time, but I would say it takes roughly five mins for the sparge to complete and I sparged this particular batch with about 7.5 gallons of water.

Oof. Way, way too fast. You should be looking at 20-30 minutes, at least (most do more).

How big of a batch was this?
 
MalFet said:
Oof. Way, way too fast. You should be looking at 20-30 minutes, at least (most do more).

How big of a batch was this?

This was a 10 gallon batch utilizing 18.5lbs of grain. It was a blonde ale recipe I developed. So slowing down the sparge will allow more fermentable sugars to be washed out? Good stuff! I can do that. I have been opening the valve to my boil kettle wide open and letting the wort drain in as fast as it could go. That makes sense. Thank you! Now I'm fired up to brew another batch and implement these changes.
 
This was a 10 gallon batch utilizing 18.5lbs of grain. It was a blonde ale recipe I developed. So slowing down the sparge will allow more fermentable sugars to be washed out? Good stuff! I can do that. I have been opening the valve to my boil kettle wide open and letting the wort drain in as fast as it could go. That makes sense. Thank you! Now I'm fired up to brew another batch and implement these changes.

Yeah, definitely don't do that. The slower the better. Target something like a quart per minute as a starting place.

If you come back after your next back with the numbers required needed for Kaiser's worksheet, we'll be able to give you a much clearer picture of where things are working and where they aren't, as well. Good luck! :mug:
 
MalFet said:
Yeah, definitely don't do that. The slower the better.

If you come back after your next back with the numbers required needed for Kaiser's worksheet, we'll be able to give you a much clearer picture of where things are working and where they aren't, as well. Good luck! :mug:

Thanks to everyone for the responses. It is very appreciated. I will report back with results. Thanks!

John
 
Do you pre-heat your MLT? Also I think it's fine to start recirculating right away, but give it a real good stir first. As MalFet said, slow that sparge way down. I know people that go 45-60 mins for a 5 gallon batch, so for a 10 gallon batch it should be a lot longer. I'm feeling pretty sure that since you drained your sparge so fast that's what hurt your efficiency.. Make sure it's coming out of your HLT just as slow as it's draining from the MLT. I batch sparge myself. Most people say when you batch sparge to just let it drain fast, but I don't. I drain for about 35-40 mins and I swear it helps my eff..

Cheers!
 
Stauffbier said:
Do you pre-heat your MLT? Also I think it's fine to start recirculating right away, but give it a real good stir first. As MalFet said, slow that sparge way down. I know people that go 45-60 mins for a 5 gallon batch, so for a 10 gallon batch it should be a lot longer. I'm feeling pretty sure that since you drained your sparge so fast that's what hurt your efficiency.. Make sure it's coming out of your HLT just as slow as it's draining from the MLT. I batch sparge myself. Most people say when you batch sparge to just let it drain fast, but I don't. I drain for about 35-40 mins and I swear it helps my eff..

Cheers!

That makes sense. I can't wait to brew this same batch of blonde again. I'm hoping the #'s come up. Just out of curiosity, typically how long do you let your grain sit in the mash? I have been doing an hour, with the exception of one batch that had oatmeal in it. Beersmith said 75 mins on it. I had no idea how long these batches of all grain would take. It's pushing 4.5 to 5 hours to brew a batch of beer now, counting the time it takes to heat the HLT.
 
What efficiency percent are you using in Beersmith? I think 72% is the default, but I don't know for sure. Anyways, if that is set too high, you won't hit your numbers.

John
 
Gotcha. I will track it exactly next time, but I would say it takes roughly five mins for the sparge to complete and I sparged this particular batch with about 7.5 gallons of water.

Are you adding all your water at once before draining or are you adding it as you drain? If the former, it is a batch sparge and a quick drain might be fine, so long as you stirred all the water in well and let it settle for several minutes before draining. If the latter, then it is an extremely fast fly sparge.
 
John0872 said:
What efficiency percent are you using in Beersmith? I think 72% is the default, but I don't know for sure. Anyways, if that is set too high, you won't hit your numbers.

John

Yes, it's set at 72. My efficiencys have been really bad.
 
John0872 said:
What efficiency percent are you using in Beersmith? I think 72% is the default, but I don't know for sure. Anyways, if that is set too high, you won't hit your numbers.

John

72 us what it's set at. I've been hitting in the 50's so far.
 
Orthobrewsky said:
Are you adding all your water at once before draining or are you adding it as you drain? If the former, it is a batch sparge and a quick drain might be fine, so long as you stirred all the water in well and let it settle for several minutes before draining. If the latter, then it is an extremely fast fly sparge.

Ya, I'm fly sparging. The mash tub would overflow if I batch sparged. Thanks for the info. I wish I would gave asked after I screwed up the first batch.
 
Just out of curiosity, typically how long do you let your grain sit in the mash? I have been doing an hour, with the exception of one batch that had oatmeal in it. Beersmith said 75 mins on it. I had no idea how long these batches of all grain would take. .

I've been mashing for 90 minutes lately. I've been toying with doing extended mashing and overnight mashing as per inspiration that I got from a member on this forum. Here's a link to his thread; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/extended-mashing-my-process-307113/
A lot of times my iodine test doesn't show as good a conversion at 60 minutes as it does at 90 minutes. Since my cooler holds temp so good I only lose about 2-3 degrees in 90 minutes..
I know what you mean about AG taking longer. My brew day is sometimes as long as 6-7 hours with set-up/clean-up.. I enjoy it though!
 
Back
Top