Low OG. Is this what I did wrong?

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rtrevino

rtrevino

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I brewed batch of the AHS Honey Hibiscus Wit yesterday and I think I made a few errors that caused me to getter a lower than expected OG.

1. I held my mash at 150F for 1 hour then sparged at 160F but the recipe called for 175F sparge water.

2. My pre boil volume was near 1/2 to 1 gallon too much

3. After my 1 Hr boil I ended with over 6 gallons of wort

4. I measured the OG after it was in the fermenter with the yeast added and I got 1.034

I think I did not extract all off the sugars I my sparge and then I over sparged diluting the wort even further. Is this a good assumption and how will this affect th final beer?
 
That is a good assumption. Your beer is going to be a lot "lighter" then what you thought it would be. You could of boiled off some water before you added your hops, the problem with this is it will turn you beer darker. Another thing you should do to fix this beer is add DME to your wort to boost up the gravity to what you want it to be. Beersmith and several links on the internet will be able to tell you how much to add.
 
You have extradite most of the sugars, qhat kind of efficiency do you usually get? What was the target OG? Next time just boil the wort until you get to your normal preboil volume, them continue as usual.
 
I say take it as an experience and have a mild beer for hot days
I mean it can be nice to start drinking at noon one day and not pass out on the bathroom
 
Did you take a preboil og? That would tell you how much sugar you extract from your runnings. I use a refractometer and take a sample from each running and then I mix the crap out of it before getting a final reading. Can't fix it if you don't know it's broken.
 
I was so concentrated on the function of my new system that I did not get a pre boil OG. I may just take it as a lesson and have a low alcohol beverage for these hot Texas summer days
 
rtrevino said:
I brewed batch of the AHS Honey Hibiscus Wit yesterday and I think I made a few errors that caused me to getter a lower than expected OG.

1. I held my mash at 150F for 1 hour then sparged at 160F but the recipe called for 175F sparge water.

2. My pre boil volume was near 1/2 to 1 gallon too much

3. After my 1 Hr boil I ended with over 6 gallons of wort

4. I measured the OG after it was in the fermenter with the yeast added and I got 1.034

I think I did not extract all off the sugars I my sparge and then I over sparged diluting the wort even further. Is this a good assumption and how will this affect th final beer?
Click to expand...

You are right.

You could boil until you hit preboil gravity then start the clock for 60 min boil.

Or as others said add DME, using an online calculator like BS2 etc. to make up the low gravity. If you have too much water and you know that, I would boil down to the right preboil gravity though.
 
What about drawing some of the wort, now in the fermenter, add the dme, cool it and pitch it again?
 

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