first AGB...missed my target gravity

did my first AGB today. hit my mash temp of 154F and held for 60 minutes at that temp.

fly sparged my 4.5 gallons at 170F...drawing 1/2 quart per minute. got a little over 7 gallons of wort from 9.08 gallons of mash and sparge. water.

supposed to hit 1.042-44 preboil SG.....hit 1.34. had to add some malt extract to bring it up to 1.044 before boil.

thinking my grain crush for the wheat wasnt fine enough...looking for thoughts as to why i missed so my preboil SG by so much.

dunkle weizen:

Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 4.3 %
6 lbs Red Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 52.2 %
2 lbs Caramunich Malt (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 17.4 %
1 lbs Barley, Raw (2.0 SRM) Grain 4 8.7 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (1.5 SRM) Grain 5 8.7 %
1 lbs Wheat Malt, Dark (9.0 SRM) Grain 6 8.7 %
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 13.3 IBUs
1.0 pkg Hefeweizen Ale (White Labs #WLP300) [35.49 ml] Yeast 8 -

I don't see enough base barley malt in your recipe to provide enough enzymes to convert 7 lbs of wheat starch. Wheat doesn't come with it's own enzymes, I'm not certain raw barley has enzymes for the conversion, either. I thought that was the reason it's malted. That being said, my first wheat beer wasn't as efficient as I had wanted it to be either, it was 4 points low. I tightened up my grinder and my second attempt was a bit better. I started simple with my wheat recipe:

5 lbs Pale Ale Malt
5 lbs White Wheat Malt
8oz Rice Hulls
1 oz Saaz for 60
Wyeast 3068

1st attempt:
Projected OG 1.052 actual 1.048
Projected FG 1.013 actual 1.010

2nd attempt:
Projected OG 1.052 actual 1.052
Still fermenting

What was your mash ratio (water per pound)? You should be able to get within 95% of these numbers:


In other words a mash thickness of 1.53qts/lb theorectically could give you a first wort of 1.080...so you should be able to get about 1.076 as a gravity coming out of your MLT (before any sparging).

If you're not then your problem is in the MLT (conversion) process and not in lautering.

helibrewer said:

What was your mash ratio (water per pound)? You should be able to get within 95% of these numbers:

In other words a mash thickness of 1.53qts/lb theorectically could give you a first wort of 1.080...so you should be able to get about 1.076 as a gravity coming out of your MLT (before any sparging).

If you're not then your problem is in the MLT (conversion) process and not in lautering.

Click to expand...

I learned something new today. Thanks.

winterc said:

I don't see enough base barley malt in your recipe to provide enough enzymes to convert 7 lbs of wheat starch. Wheat doesn't come with it's own enzymes

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That's actually not true, wheat malt has about equivalent diastatic power to barley malt. Unmalted wheat is a different story.

chickypad said:

That's actually not true, wheat malt has about equivalent diastatic power to barley malt. Unmalted wheat is a different story.

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+1

I've seen different sources conflict, but most agree that wheat malt's diastatic power exceeds 2-row, some its greater than pils malt, and some saying it's greater than 6-row. So it most certainly can convert that grain bill.

wubears71 said:

I learned something new today. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Braukaiser has a TON of great information on his site...all credit to him

helibrewer said:

What was your mash ratio (water per pound)? You should be able to get within 95% of these numbers:

In other words a mash thickness of 1.53qts/lb theorectically could give you a first wort of 1.080...so you should be able to get about 1.076 as a gravity coming out of your MLT (before any sparging).

If you're not then your problem is in the MLT (conversion) process and not in lautering.

Click to expand...

I mashed at 1.25 qt water per pound. I really think it was my grain grind....my red wheat should have been ground finer than it was. It's a much harder grain than other wheat, and it simply didn't crush enough I think.

I've built a new recipe that I'm going to use different wheat ground finer, and more ferment able base malts vs. nonfermentables:

See recipe in photo.

Wheat is a smaller kernel than barley and is harder too so it really is hard to get the proper crush and a poor crush will give you poor extraction of sugars. Some people have had success by wetting the wheat slightly to soften the kernels so they crush easier and other have closed the gap in the crusher to accommodate the small kernel.