What happened?

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Fishin-Jay

Fishin-Jay

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So I just did my second brew ever, Columbus IPA extract kit from Morebeer.

Once the boil was done, I chilled, did the whirlpool, and transfered to the carboy. I did a full boil starting with 6 gallons, but only had 4 gallons left at the end. :(

So, I figured I would top off to 5.0 gallons. Before I topped off I checked the OG and it was way low. It should have been 1.069 and i was only getting 1.062. Dammit. I topped of anyhow and checked the OG again and it dropped ( I knew it would) down to 1.050. :( I pitched WLP001 and now it is in a dark room waiting to start the ferment.

1. Why did I lose so much water in the boil? Does that happen to everyone? Should I just start by boiling 7 gallons in my 8 gallon brew pot?

2. Why was my OG so low, even after losing 2 gallons during the boil? I thought that with all that water loss that my OG should have been to high, and then come down to the proper OG when I topped off. :confused:

Here's the recipe:
9 lbs ultralight LME
1.5 lbs Crystal 15L
2 oz Galena
2 oz Columbus
2 oz Columbus
WLP001
 
1. most of us probably average 1.5 gal/hr boil off. I try to have at least 6.5 into the kettle pre-boil.

2. did you temp correct your first reading? Your second reading was likely that much lower because when you added the 1 gallon of water, it likely didn't get mixed thoroughly.
 
Sounds like I need to add a bit more water and boil a little less aggressively.

Any ideas about the OG? That's really the one that has me scratching my head.
 
Fishin-Jay said:
Any ideas about the OG? That's really the one that has me scratching my head.
Click to expand...

how are you measuring volume? You're not using the "pre-marked" labels on the ale pails are you? Those can be really inaccurate.

Like I said before - your first reading wasn't off that much (depending on what temp); and your second reading could have been so low because your wort and top-off water didn't get thoroughly mixed.

Regardless, you've made beer! :rockin:
 
I measured volume by taking 5 one gallon containers of water, pouring it into my carboy, and then taking a sharpie to mark the outside, so I'm pretty sure my measurements are good.


I also adjusted for temp with the OG. It's quite possible that my second measurement was off some due to poor mixing, but even so, 1.050 is way below my target of 1.069.

Considering I was missing 20% of the final volume, am I wrong to believe that my OG should have been high before topping off?

I'm sure the beer will be good, but I'm confused by the inconsistency of what I made vs what the recipe says I should have ended up with. Thanks for the help so far!
 
Fishin-Jay said:
I measured volume by taking 5 one gallon containers of water, pouring it into my carboy, and then taking a sharpie to mark the outside, so I'm pretty sure my measurements are good.
Click to expand...

correct. your volume measurements should be fine

Fishin-Jay said:
I also adjusted for temp with the OG. It's quite possible that my second measurement was off some due to poor mixing, but even so, 1.050 is way below my target of 1.069.

Considering I was missing 20% of the final volume, am I wrong to believe that my OG should have been high before topping off?
Click to expand...

Correct - You should have been above your expected 1.069 with your lower volume. hmmmm. Is is possible you left a gallon or so of LME in the container? :D

I can't think of anything else. Usually, extract recipes only "miss" their OG if there are data collection errors, but it sounds like your volume and gravity measurements are accurate.

Are your thermometers and hydrometers calibrated? That's the only other thing I can think of.
 
I just double checked my temp adjustments based upon "How to Brew" and I'm still getting the same answers.

Thanks for walking me through the process again. It at least verifies that I understand how things should be. Now I just need to figure out why it didn't turn out that way.

BTW, Pinetop is beautiful. My wife and I used to live in Snowflake and worked at a summer camp for disabled children there in Pinetop. We miss it!

Anybody else have a theory?
 
Fishin-Jay said:
BTW, Pinetop is beautiful. My wife and I used to live in Snowflake and worked at a summer camp for disabled children there in Pinetop. We miss it!
Click to expand...

when's the last time you've been to the White Mountains? I've only been up here 3.5 years, but the locals talk about how much it's changed (progress? :D) in the last 10.

Fishin-Jay said:
Anybody else have a theory?
Click to expand...

I can't think of anything else, other than you got short changed on LME maybe?
 
AZ_IPA said:
when's the last time you've been to the White Mountains? I've only been up here 3.5 years, but the locals talk about how much it's changed (progress? :D) in the last 10.
Click to expand...

I haven't been back in about 5 years, but my wife passed through this last summer. She confirmed the changes. When I first started spending time up in the area about 15 years ago it was still pretty backwoods, but I thought that was nice. Now I guess there's a 4 lane highway all the way from Phoenix up to Show Low.
 
There's a number of things could be going on here.
First, as has already been said, you started the boil with too little wort which is one reason that you ended up with < 5g in the fermenter.
Next, you said that you whilrlpooled. Nothing wrong with that, but there's no point in whirlpooling if you're transferring everything into the fermenter. I suspect you left the trub and hop residue in the kettle. Again, nothing wrong with that, but that residue will contain a considerable amount of sugar, so you will lose some fermentables to the sludge remaining in the kettle.
You used 6 oz hops. Even if they are pellets, they will absorb some wort, but if they were leaf hops, they would absorb even more.
Then you said you used LME. Did you thoroughly rinse the LME containers with hot water to ensure that all the LME got transferred to the boil? If you don't rinse, you can leave a lot of LME behind in the container.
You said you temperature compensated your hydrometer reading. Even after applying temperature compensation, hydrometer readings can be very inaccurate at temps over 100 F.
Adding an extra gallon of water to 4 gallons of 1.062 wort should result in a gravity of 1.050, so that looks good.
Finally, have you calibrated your hydrometer? It is not unusual for them to read several points off. If it doesn't read 1.000 at the calibration temperature in pure water, then add the difference to every reading to compensate.

-a.
 
ajf said:
There's a number of things could be going on here.
First, as has already been said, you started the boil with too little wort which is one reason that you ended up with < 5g in the fermenter.
Next, you said that you whilrlpooled. Nothing wrong with that, but there's no point in whirlpooling if you're transferring everything into the fermenter. I suspect you left the trub and hop residue in the kettle. Again, nothing wrong with that, but that residue will contain a considerable amount of sugar, so you will lose some fermentables to the sludge remaining in the kettle.
You used 6 oz hops. Even if they are pellets, they will absorb some wort, but if they were leaf hops, they would absorb even more.
Then you said you used LME. Did you thoroughly rinse the LME containers with hot water to ensure that all the LME got transferred to the boil? If you don't rinse, you can leave a lot of LME behind in the container.
You said you temperature compensated your hydrometer reading. Even after applying temperature compensation, hydrometer readings can be very inaccurate at temps over 100 F.
Adding an extra gallon of water to 4 gallons of 1.062 wort should result in a gravity of 1.050, so that looks good.
Finally, have you calibrated your hydrometer? It is not unusual for them to read several points off. If it doesn't read 1.000 at the calibration temperature in pure water, then add the difference to every reading to compensate.

-a.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. You've raised some questions for me.

My hydrometer is calibrated, and my reading was taken at 75 degrees, so I think I'm good there.

But, you're right to guess that I did not rinse the lme bag to get it all. So that will explain some of it.

Should I be adding the whole brew pot, trub and all into the carboy? I thought I was supposed to leave the trub behind. If I had added the trub I probably could have gained about 1/2 gallon back into my carboy. If this is what I should have done then I think you may have explained it for me.

Should I be pouring every last drop of the brew kettle into the carboy, including the trub? :confused:
 
Fishin-Jay said:
Should I be pouring every last drop of the brew kettle into the carboy, including the trub? :confused:
Click to expand...

ask 8 brewers this and you'll get 10 different answers.

No harm in pouring everything into the carboy/ale pail, IMO, especially if you're using an IC.

With my CFC, I whirlpool to leave behind the break/hops so it doesn't clog my CFC.
 
If the ingredients they sent were the right amounts and you made 5 gallons you probably have a false reading. Extract is pretty fool proof.

9lb of extract = 315 points
1.5lb of specialty grains = 30 points
Total of 345 points divided by 5 (gallons) = 69 or 1.069

So, they shorted you on ingredients (not likely)
You added way too much water (doesnt sound like it)
You have a false reading (bingo)

Forrest
 

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