Missed my OG big time

Im relatively new to all grain, less than 10 batches or so. I stopped brewing for a couple of years and just got back into it a year ago. Ive done 4 batches since then and all buy one of those the OG reading has been really low. I just brewed a pumpkin ale today, with 12.5 lbs of Briess pale malt, .5 lbs of crystal 60, and .5 lbs carapils 20. My og before i pitched only got to 1.040. I was hoping for a bigger number than that. What did i do wrong? Can i add anything before i pitch to help bring up the final ABV? I need help!

Hellfire_Ales said:

Im relatively new to all grain, less than 10 batches or so. I stopped brewing for a couple of years and just got back into it a year ago. Ive done 4 batches since then and all buy one of those the OG reading has been really low. I just brewed a pumpkin ale today, with 12.5 lbs of Briess pale malt, .5 lbs of crystal 60, and .5 lbs carapils 20. My og before i pitched only got to 1.040. I was hoping for a bigger number than that. What did i do wrong? Can i add anything before i pitch to help bring up the final ABV? I need help!

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Did you correct your reading for temperature? Was the temp below 100 at sample? Is your hydrometer calibrated/refractometer?

1 pound of DME will add .009 gravity points to a 5 gallon batch. You can also boil longer, you'll get less beer at a higher gravity.

My reading was taken after my wort chiller, at about 78 f. My hydrometer is new so it should be pretty accurate. The longer boil makes sense, i didnt boil off as much as i normally do, i still have over 6.5 gallons AFTER my boil.

I have not pitched yeast yet, i just have the carboy sitting with the air lock on. Would it be worth it to reboil it again tomorrow or is that a really bad idea?

Sounds like you had miscalculation with your water volumes (unless you don't do 5 gallon batches). You won't hurt anything by boiling off more water. You could always toss in some rice syrup solids too. They don't affect the flavor much at all and will raise your gravity some.

I was guessing water volume too. http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php
its never let me down.

I just did the exact same thing. My first all grain. I mashed with WAY to much water and hit a 1.040 Pre boil. 1.079 target I wasnt able to sparge much my burner is inadequate as well After an hour only 1.050. Target was 1.059. I don't think I'll hit my fg of 1.008 I barely lost a gallon during the hour boil.

Yup, a gallon and a half of extra wort will totally throw off your gravity . You need to re-evaluate your volumes and losses and get a handle on your boil off rate to hit your volumes correctly.

Also, don't assume your thermometer or hydrometer are accurate just because they're new

The hydrometer should read 1.000 in distilled water at 60 and test your thermometer at boiling and in a glass of ice water to verify its low and high end readings.

You probably don't wanna re-boil; you'll boil off all your flavor and aroma hops. However, if you haven't pitched, you wanna do that, like, yesterday; homebrewers never achieve 100% perfect sterilization, so, something is eating that wort, you're gonna wanna get that yeast in there and out-competing it before it gets established.

Presuming you didn't spill a couple of gallons somewhere, it sounds like you're only getting ~40% efficiency into the kettle based on that grain bill end ending up with 6.5 gallons at 1.040. With that much sugar left in the grain, I'd look at a couple aspects of your mashing process:

- Are you hitting and maintaining your mash temperature? Have you recently calibrated your thermometer, so you know you're hitting the temps it says you are?

- Are you mashing for long enough? Give it an hour, and stir vigorously for a minute or two a couple times.

- Are you sparging? What kind of gravity readings are you getting for your first runnings and sparges?

If you really, really don't want a session beer, you can add sugar and/or extract. Probably too late to get to your LHBS tonight, but, it won't hurt to pitch tonight and add more fermentables tomorrow.

Thanks for all the great responses. I think my problem was too much water. I base everything on a 5 gallon batch, and i finished with 6.5. I think i used far too much water in my mash. I was having trouble hitting my temp and just used too much.

So i know what i did wrong, now i have to fix it. My homebrew store isnt open tomorrow so i cant get extract. I still gave not pitched and its been about 4 hours since i finished brewing. I want to get the yeast in asap, but im really not looking forward to drinking a 2.5% beer. I wad thinking of adding some brown sugar since its a pumpkin ale. Any other fermentables i can try that will help me out?

Brown sugar or turbinado could be good. I wouldn't go over a pound tho which will get you to around 1.046. 1.040 would be closer to 4% alcohol by the way; how'd you figure 2.5? Also, if you boiled down to 5 gallons you'd of hit 1.052. I'd advise using a few extra pounds of base malt on your next brew. At least until you get back into the swing of things plan on lower efficiency. It's way easier to deal with higher than expected efficiency than lower.

Even if you had boiled it down to 5 gallons, your OG would be very low. An OG of 1.052 is really low for 13.5 pounds of grain. You need to try to figure out why your efficiency is so low (53%).

I agree, i was shooting for 1.074. I did a 60 min rest at about 153f to 154f, with about 7.5 gal. Mashed out about 4.5 gal, did a rinse with about another 3 gal, and ended up with 7 gal of wort. I didnt take a reading before my boil. I think my thermometer may be screwy, so i may not have done a rest at 154, i need to check that tomorrow.

If you got 4.5 gal out of your mash, and you added another 3, you'll will get close to 7.5 gal because your grain has already absorbed your water.

Best to get the yeast in ASAP. Get some DME ASAP. You could add it later. Or brew a really large beer and blend the 2. Me, I would pitch yeast, and let it ride. Actually, if I had DME on hand, I would add that now.

At any rate, could turn out to be a nice, very light beer.

The big variables are crush of the grain, temperature and water chemistry. If the crush is decent, it's probably not your issue. Do you know the mineral parameters if your source water? Of they are way off it can lead to pH issues which affect efficiency. Temperature is a big factor as well. Cheap thermometers "calibrated" to boiling and freezing temperatures don't necessarily read accurately at mash temperatures. Invest in a quality, lab calibrated thermometer...

I have no idea what the mineral parameter of my water are. How do i go about checking that/ fixing it? And i know my thermometer is junk, i need to invest in a good one.

On a good note though, i added about a pound of brown sugar right before i pitched my yeast, after about 24 hours, my fermentation is going nuts, so i guess thats a good sign.

Hellfire_Ales said:

I have no idea what the mineral parameter of my water are. How do i go about checking that/ fixing it? And i know my thermometer is junk, i need to invest in a good one.

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What was your source water? Any chance it has chlorine/chloramine?
Water reports are available from your supplier if you are using tap, or you can go with bottled or various types of filtration. Beer is 90% water so your water is certainly an important variable...