1 Week into Primary, need some insight

Process:

5.5gal batch

12 lbs belgian pilsner malt
1.13 munich
.50 carafoam
.50 caramel 60l
.50 melanoiden

few ounces of Citra

BIAB with 10 gal kettle. Mashed at 154F, lost about 4 degrees over 1 hour.

60 min boil

RIC to 70F in 20 minutes, pitched California Ale yeast vial.

SG reading . . . a measly 1.020

my bag was quite small and barely held the grains enough for me to tie it closed. Thats what killed my extraction.

One week into primary, fermentation has ceased, no activity and krausen has come and gone.

I spoke with the head brewer at my job yesterday and he recommended adding some LME to bump up the gravity and take advantage of left over yeast. but he did not specify how much.

I ended up with about 5gal of wort.

Would you wise folk recommend adding the LME? and if so, how much? i would love to get it up a few points on the hydrometer.

I filtered during the racking and it still, even after a week, looks like pureed banana. Hasnt budged towards clarity. I have read about gelatin, but am unsure how much and the process it involves to include it in prior to secondary.

Cheers all!!

So u mashed over 14.5# for an hour and only yielded an OG of 1.020? Are you sure your thermometer is calibrated correctly?

yes, my thermos are correct. i used two diff thermos in the actual mash ( an electric and a floating *camewiththekit* thermo. both registered the same temp) then i poked in a third, and it too, registered the same. Like I mentioned, my grain bag was awfully small, there was very little room for the water to get through and through, thus yielding low extraction.

What was the crush like?

sddanc said:

Process:

Would you wise folk recommend adding the LME? and if so, how much? i would love to get it up a few points on the hydrometer.

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I'm afraid your stuck with 1.020 now that it has fermented. Chalk this up to a learning experience and get bigger bags. Also next time you have a low gravity before you pitch the yeast you can add some DME/LME to bring it up.

As for the cloudiness try cold crashing it first. If that doesn't work try gelatin.

You could add gravity the way wine is sweetened. Pull about 2 to 3 gallons out, heat and dissolve 2 to 3 lbs dme/lme. Cool that and add back to the main batch. Itll add gravity and leave yeast alive from the unheated portion to convert the dme.

Just don't boil the extracted wort again: heat it to 170 and then mix the dme. That should do enough to keep things sanitary. Alcohol vaporizes at 173 if my memory serves.

I did this once and it worked out ok for me!

I`ve never done BIAB so I can`t help with that.It kind of looks like your doing a Becks clone to me,maybe not.I`ve had some brews come out low
and have added honey to the secondary and raised my gravity .010.I have
never used LME but it is a good question,maybe one of the veterans here can let us know more.If you tried honey it would probably ruin the style your after
but I do know honey does work somewhat.

SouthBay said:

You could add gravity the way wine is sweetened. Pull about 2 to 3 gallons out, heat and dissolve 2 to 3 lbs dme/lme. Cool that and add back to the main batch. Itll add gravity and leave yeast alive from the unheated portion to convert the dme.

Just don't boil the extracted wort again: heat it to 170 and then mix the dme. That should do enough to keep things sanitary. Alcohol vaporizes at 173 if my memory serves.

I did this once and it worked out ok for me!

Click to expand...

+1

This should work, every pound of DME/LME will raise the gravity about .007. And it will also raise the maltiness of of your wort and bring down the bitterness.

Excellent, thanks fellas. I will check out the price of some DME around me and go from there. If it is not too big of an investment, I might spring. Already a 50 dollar batch