Emergency Missed Pre Boil Gravity

Ok I missed my gravity preboil I was supposed to have 12.5 gallons of 1.053 and I ended up with 13.5 gallons of 1.030.

here is my recipe.

I have a pound of Pale dry malt thats it. What now

any help would be great thank I just started the boil not going as of yet

HELP

Annie's Hefe
Weizen/Weissbier


Type: All Grain
Date: 8/11/2007
Batch Size: 10.00 gal
Brewer: Tony Ey Two Dog's Brewing
Boil Size: 12.55 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (15 Gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (10 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
1 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 4.1 %
14 lbs Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 57.1 %
8 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 32.7 %
1 lbs Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.1 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 2.0 %
1.50 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00%] (45 min) Hops 9.2 IBU
0.50 oz Hallertauer Hersbrucker [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 1.7 IBU
2 Pkgs Hefeweizen IV Ale (White Labs #WLP380) Yeast-Wheat



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.067 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.8 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.6 %
Bitterness: 10.9 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.9 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 24.50 lb
Sparge Water: 8.63 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 7.66 gal of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F 60 min



Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2) Volumes of CO2: 2.6
Pressure/Weight: 13.4 PSI Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 40.0 F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

Notes

I hope you don't mind if I throw some questions at you. I myself won't have all the answers but I can help you bump it and zero in on the correct info.

How did your mash go? Did you hit the 154*F right away and keep it within a couple degrees for 60 min?

Any reason to doubt your thermometer or hydrometer?

What temp did you take the 1.030 hydrometer reading at, and did you normalize that reading to 60*?

Who cracked your grains, yourself or your LHBS? Was there a lot of flour-like powder in the bag or maybe significant amount of uncracked grains? Did you have any trouble with the sparge sticking at all?

Like I say, I may not be able to answer you, but these are the kinds of questions I was asked when I had this happen to me recently.

I'm not sure if this is correct because it seems way out of wack but did you mash with only 0.65 Quarts/pound of grain? This seems to be a really really REALLY (did I forget to say really?) thick mash to me... like something along the lines of what you would dough-in with rather than mash with. Did it look like wet grain or did it look like really soggy oatmeal? If it was merely wet grain then it was probably way too thick.

If this was the case, this is more than likely your problem because the enzymes wouldn't have been able to mix around and convert starches very well.

Nostrildamus said:

I'm not sure if this is correct because it seems way out of wack but did you mash with only 0.65 Quarts/pound of grain? This seems to be a really really REALLY (did I forget to say really?) thick mash to me...

Click to expand...

The recipe data says that 24.5 lbs. of grain was mashed with 7.66 gallons (30.64 qts.) of water. That is 1.25 qts. per pound of grain - so that's ok. First runoff would be about 4.66 gallons (assuming the grain absorbs 1 pt. (.125 gallons) per pound. Sparge was 8.66 gallons. Total runoff should be 13.3 gallons according to the numbers. No obvious reason for the gravity to be so low.

What say you, Two Dogs? Perhaps you will be enjoying some light beer?

Well now that the fiasco is over and I am at work, I can provide more info

Thanks to everyone for their speedy replies I know there's nothing anyone can do but it makes me feel better to be able to reach out.

First here is an up to date report.

Two carboys are filled with a little over 5 gallons each, pitched the yeast at 78 (was in a hurry HAD to get to work)

The garage is a wreck but I can clean tomorrow.

Ok yes I was able to hit the mash temp of 153 right away. I only lost a degree and a half in the 60 min mash. This cooler is amazing. The sparge was great I thought I was stuck solid but the SS 90 fitting I had on the SS outlet valve was not a full flow fitting I removed it no probs at all. The mash looked perfect easy to stir not a problem there

I doubt it’s the thermometer it’s a traceable digital with a long probe. I had it set up in the kegerator and it seemed to be right on. The hydrometer?? Can they go bad? Now for the "******* AWARD" the 1.030 reading was when all the wort was collected. I know I just answered my own question didn’t I assume the temp was around 150 degrees. I just put the hydrometer in the keggle... I must have had a stroke..........

Now I am just embarrassed

I suspect my grain was not sufficiently crushed. I did notice quite a bit of uncrushed grain. I was not there when it was crushed. I emailed the LHBS ahead of time because I was pressed for time (daughters "Sweet 16")

Ok so what do you guys think the hydro reading actually was? Corrected down from 160 degrees.

I added a pound of pale DME I can’t believe I panicked so badly. I bet I was closer than I think.

Ok I am prepared for my flogging.........

Brewsmith show 1.030 at 160F is 1.052 so it looks like you're fine right now.

1.052 at 13.5 gallons would be around 1.056 once you get it down to 12.5 gallons. If you take it all the way down to 10 gallons it would yield approx 1.070

Sounds like you did pretty well but I've found that hydro's are pretty inaccurate at such high temps.

Missed the extra pound of DME...

that would have brought your OG up to 1.055 at 13.5 gallons. At 12.5 gallons about 1.059 and if you boiled it all the way to 10 gallons it would yield about 1.074

Thanks Dantodd.

I hate hydrometers. I think I boiled it down to maybe 11.5 gallons. so I think int will be alright I wonder what the pale DME will do to the finished product. I didnt add exactly a pound it was a little less I used some of the one pound bag on a starter a while ago. The DME did darken the beer. It was areally nice straw color when I sparged Oh well. I always miss one little thing better luck next time. Makes me want to brew again tomorrow to fix my mistakes.

Update from SWMBO: No activity in the carboys yet.

Thanks again, just got your second post. Now its not "Wheat Lite" after all

11.5 gallons should be about 1.065 so no, it's not a lite beer. You probably would have darkened up a bit boiling from 13.5 to 11.5 gallons anyway. I doubt the 1 pound of DME will make much difference in your final result. The only thing you might be a little worried about is that most wheat beers are low IBU and the higher OG might make it be a bit more malty/sweet than intended.

There's two different SG readings you want, one when you collect all the wort pre-boil, and another when you're done boiling and cooling and are just about to pitch the yeast. The pre-boil SG reading will help you determine your efficiency for the batch, but the post-boil SG is your Original Gravity for the beer and is used to determine the ABV. Extract brewers only measure the post-boil because the extract has 100% efficiency in dissolving into the brew water.

Sorry I was trying to figure out your efficiency myself but I really have to get to work now. Here's a couple links that will help: http://www.moorescott.net/marc/homebrew.htm
http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-3.html <-- Ch 12-3 through 12-5

Cheers!

Actually it shouldn't make a difference for determining efficiency. Efficiency can be determined for any volume. The reason you need pre-boil SG is to know if you need to adjust your boil time or add extract to hit your planned OG at pitching time.

Palmer's a great source.

Glad to hear that the brew came out ok.