What went wrong?!?!?!

Brewed an IPA today, OG estimate was 1.064, we hit 1.046.....the only thing I can think of was we added water to get to the boil level; about 1.25 gallons.....

I'm about to brew another so what do I need to do to correct this?!

Boil volume is 4.33 gallons with preparation of 5.4 gallons for sparging, we use this amount but NEVER are able to get this amount when sparging. So rather than adding water do we just continue to spathe until we get the boil amt desired???

Thanks guys

brentt03 said:

Brewed an IPA today, OG estimate was 1.064, we hit 1.046.....the only thing I can think of was we added water to get to the boil level; about 1.25 gallons.....

I'm about to brew another so what do I need to do to correct this?!

Boil volume is 4.33 gallons with preparation of 5.4 gallons for sparging, we use this amount but NEVER are able to get this amount when sparging. So rather than adding water do we just continue to spathe until we get the boil amt desired???

Thanks guys

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Yes, adding water will definitely decrease your efficiency/OG. Water has an OG of 1.000, so you're "diluting" your wort when you add water.

Next time, use 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain, and sparge up to your boil volume.

Should we sparge once @ 1.5 quarts per pound -or- initial sparge at 1.5q per, pound, then sparge until boil volume??

Right now within beersmith it has me sparging 3 times

brentt03 said:

Should we sparge once @ 1.5 quarts per pound -or- initial sparge at 1.5q per, pound, then sparge until boil volume??

Right now within beersmith it has me sparging 3 times

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Don't sparge three times! You're smarter than Beersmith- change the settings so that you sparge twice, with 50% of the sparge volume each time.

Mash with 1.5 quarts per pound. Change that in Beersmith so that you can plan on it, and it'll give you the strike temperatures. You should have about .125 gallon of absorption per pound of grain.

To make it easy, here's an example. 10 pounds of grain. That means you'd mash in with 15 quarts of water. 1.25 gallons of water will be absorbed by the grain. So, you'll get about 2.75 gallons out of the first runnings. That means you'll need 4.25 gallons of sparge runnings (if you're starting with 7 gallons, adjust as needed). So, use 2 gallons of sparge water for two batch sparges to get 7 gallons.

Does that help?

I think I am getting it, been a long day so I am a bit slow!

We have 8.95 lbs of grain (so 9lbs), this will give you 13.5q for your initial sparge, after grains absorb the water you are left with 11.25q (2.8gal).

We are brewing a 3.5 gallon batch, with a boil volume of 4.33 (with Beersmith), so we need an additional ~1.5 gallons.

So this leaves us with an additional sparge....where am I missing something??

Ok, I just added 13.5 quarts to the grain, mashing at 154, i will stir every 15min and in an hour, sparge again with 13.5q

Any other thoughts???

Just brewed the second batch; we added 13.5q let it sit for 60min, added to boil kettle, added 13.5q to mash, let sit for 10 min, sparged and boiled.

OG estimate according to beersmith was 1.068 we ended up at 1.052, still not sure where the error was??? Our goal was to brew 3.5 gal and that is exactly what we hit but our OG was STILL off.....

We have brewed this batch multiple times, and for some reason we have been off today??

Thoughts? Ideas??

Thanks guys

I think what you're calling "initial sparge" is really your "strike" when you "mash in". I'm new but correct terminolgy will help the smarter brewers than i help you out.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

For each batch I was striking at 168 and stepping at 154.....

Any ideas?!

After thinking on it, extra water is killing me in my brews! I'm still off on my sparging

When I followed beersmith method in my other batches I would come out near perfect on my OG, but would end up less on my amt

brentt03 said:

For each batch I was striking at 168 and stepping at 154.....

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I'm not sure I understand some of your terms.

When you mash, you can strike with 1.5 quarts of pound per grain. If I mash at 154, I use 166 degree strike water.

When I batch sparge, I measure the runnings OUT of the mash. And then sparge with the volume I need to make up the boil volume.

Like this:
2.5 gallons out of the mash.

I need 7 gallons for my boil volume. That means I sparge with 4.5 gallons of sparge water.

If you do that, do the math "backwards", you will hit your volume every time. Do it by hand, instead of Beersmith, so you know what you're doing. Then correct the settings in Beersmith later.

If your volume is correct, but your OG is lower than you expected then your efficiency is different this time. That could be related to crush, or not stirring well enough if you're batch sparging.

could be the crush of your grain or water pH as well. I get my grain crushed from Northern brewer and use the 5.2 Buffer for pH. I get about 75% efficiency. I do the same thing Yooper mentioned. 1.25-1.5 qt/lb for stike water or mash in. collect runnings and figure out how much more water you need to get your wort to the desired preboil volume and divide that into 2 equal batch sparges. Use 180 degree sparge water to get those sugars out

I can't tell for sure, are you now getting the correct post-boil volume but the OG is low? If you're hitting the volume that you were trying to but just ending up lower in OG, then that's a different issue. It could be your crush is too coarse, or you're not mixing well enough, or a number of other issues. From your last post it sounds like you usually end up at the right gravity, but with less volume. So you had efficiency issues then as well.

Are you correcting your OG for temperature of the sample? Also, how did you decide how much to sparge with? Just sparge with enough to get the volume you need in your BK.

Ok, I just added 13.5 quarts to the grain, mashing at 154, i will stir every 15min and in an hour, sparge again with 13.5q

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I don't stir every 15 minutes ... I add strike water to MLT hotter than I need it, wait for it to reach desired strike temperature, add grain, mix it in well, then let it sit for the entire time (opening MLT every 15 minutes and stirring might be reducing your temperature, leading to lower conversion).

I have been making 3.5 gallon batches. And when sparging, I have been coming up ~.5gal short.

What I have been doing is getting some water to about 180, adding to cooler to get the temp up, meanwhile I heat water to 168 and add for mash in, allowing it to cool to 154 and sit for an hour, stirring about every 15 min, then I sparge 2 more times with the water left that was initially prepared.

I have been mashing/sparging according to beersmith, I am to prepare 5.4gal to achieve a boil volume of 4.33 to get a final batch of 3.5 gallons.

Yesterday I added 13.5q for mash in, let it sit for 1 hour, collected the first runnings, then added another 13.5q for sparging, let sit for 10 min and collected runnings, and my OG was considerably low!

I think it all boils down to I need to calculate per 1.5q per lb of grain and go from there; what would be the best way to get consistent and increase efficiency from mash to boil??