small beer 1.012 OG

I was attempting to make a small beer from the grains from an amber ale. The amber had an OG of 1.054 which was pretty much right on the recipe. I steeped the grains, then 2 rounds of batch sparging with 2.2 gallons each for the amber ale. I then did 2 sparges for the small ale to get ~3 gallons, which I forgot to take a reading of the gravity pre-boil. Post boil, the OG was 1.012. I am guessing that it would be a waste of time to ferment it, but wanted to ask first.

Also, is it likely technique that cause the low OG, or is a 1.054 og amber ale just not the kind of thing you can get a 2nd batch from?

woodwardj said:

Also, is it likely technique that cause the low OG, or is a 1.054 og amber ale just not the kind of thing you can get a 2nd batch from?

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The latter.

Look up "partigyle". When people try this, the first beer is usually a BIG one.

The second beer you got from this will probably be very bitter. You have probably over sparged, and extracted tannins from the grain. Also, even if it ferments to 1.000, it will only be around 1.5 % ABV. But since you have it, ferment anyway!

Another option would have been to use the mash liquid and first sparge to create a 3 +\- gallon big beer and a second and third sparge to make another 2.5 gallon small beer.

As suggested look up partigyle - there is more than one way to do a partigyle, but Randy Mosher gives a good overview in Radical Brewing.

Cheers!

In order to get a second or third beer, you have to mash bigger. If you extracted 75% of the sugars from a mash for the first beer, that doesn't leave much for the second.

1-2% beers were quite common as table beers where the water wasn't safe to drink. Pre-industrialization, that was just about anywhere that used wells and ever had a war.

You could have possibly added 1 gal or so of the original brew to the second to get your second batch OG up. I personally wouldn't bother fermenting a batch that will only get to about 1% alcohol but if you have nothing else to do, go for it.