Measure twice, mash once...

Last week I had a double brew day and the first brew did not go so well.

I measured out the grain in 4 pound increments and needed 16 pounds of 2-row. I thought I had it.
When I mashed in I missed my temp by 6* on the high side. I thought that was strange but I brought it down with some bottles of ice. Mash and sparge went fine and so did the boil. When I checked the OG in the fermenter I missed the gravity by 10 points to the low side. WTF....

We went onto the next brew, my buddy noted that the bucket of grain felt heavier then the first and I said "no it's not, it's one pound lighter".
That brew went well all the way thru and hit all the numbers.

The next day I got thinking about it and thought, "if I only had 12 pounds of 2-row and not 16 would that caused my problems"?. So I went into beersmith and changed some numbers and what do you know, the numbers it said is what I got.

Crap, looks like my pale is going to be a little light on the malt and high in the IBU's.

So, make sure you weigh the grain right before crushing and mashing, even if you have to do it twice.

FSR402 said:

So, make sure you weigh the grain right before crushing and mashing, even if you have to do it twice.

Click to expand...

This is why I right down my grain additions as I weigh them.



That and I never drink whilst weighing grains or measuring hops.

Nope no drinking on this one. It was 9am and I'm not that big of a drunk I waited until 11.

FSR402 said:

Nope no drinking on this one. It was 9am and I'm not that big of a drunk I waited until 11.

Click to expand...

There's your answer...drink more. Obviously you measured better when you had beer helping your brain function more efficiently by cutting down on the
cells up there.