PM Less Than Stellar Results

Well, I did my partial mash today, and it didnt really go as well as I thought. The mash and sparge were fine. I monitored the water temps really carefully and I thought the mash process went really well. I boiled for an hour, adding the hops and 3 pounds of DME. My OG was a paltry 1.042! Whats with that? I would have thought it would have at least been in the 1.050 range. At least I can throw it down fast when its conditioned and ready to drink.

I am not sure what it is that I am doing wrong here. My first AG last weekend came in at 1.053 and it should have been at 1.060. Is there something I could be doing better that I missed? I thought I had been more careful this time, but apparently I need to do some rethinking.

Greg

RDWHAHB. Efficiency depends on a number of things, but you'll get better as you get more batches under your belt. The main thing to watch is the beer you make. Does it taste good? Can you drink it? If so, you have lots of the fundamentals down, especially in the sanitation area. Keep it up, beers keep getting better with each batch.

Stick with the AG. It's worth the extra time.

What was the PM recipe?

Here is the post with the recipe:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com//showthread.php?t=34753

Who crushed your grain? Did you have any flour in it or did you see lots of intact grains? Did you do a starch test on your mash?

Hey Greg - your recipe and method looks fine. If you followed it to the letter, you should have been OK. But it looks like you only got about 50% efficiency on your PM, according to Beersmith. There could be a few reasons for this.

First, as EdWort suggested, you might have had a bad crush on your grains. This is the number one problem behind low efficiencies.

Second, did you stir your grist really well into the water? Did you stir periodically through the mash (once or twice is usually sufficient)? Did you stir your grist after adding the sparge water?

Third, are you CERTAIN that your thermometer is accurate? If you were 10 degrees above or below your mash temp and didn't realize it, then this will also hurt your efficiency. (Also, I am assuming here that you pre-heated your mash tun, right?)

Finally (long shot) do you have really hard, alkaline water? That might affect your mash.

RDWHAHB, honestly man my first and only PM failed, the next weekend i went all grain... And by far All Grain is so worth it...

Thanks for the thoughts fellas. Ed, I appreciate your support, on this one as well as the one last weekend.

Lets see, here are my answers to Flyguy's questions:

1. I had my LHBS crush the grains but I dont have a buch of faith in them. They are the only game in town and I dont always think they know what they are doing. There was some powder in the grains, but it looked to be mostly intact (cracked) grains. I may buy a kit from the Northern Brewer next time and try an all grain to see how that goes.

2. I heated my mash water to about 175, then put it in the MLT and monitored it until it came down to around 165. I used two thermometers throughout the process and feel fairly confident about them. I stirred the grains into the mash really well, making sure there were no dough balls or clumps of dry grain. I did not stir it at all during the mash. I was concerned that I would lose heat through the process and frankly didnt know any better. I sparged with 180 degree water, and measured the temps. Right around 150's. I did stir the grains after adding sparge water and then let that sit for 10 minutes before collecting it.

3. I do not have hard alkaline water. Its pretty run of the mill. Not soft, and not hard.

I did not do a starch test this time. Frankly, I just thought I would give this a shot and see how it went. Next time though I will certainly do that.

Does anyone have any thoughts about a PM or AG kit that I should get to try next? Maybe its about the grain crushing. What thermometers do you guys use? Any help is really appreciated.

Greg

Well, the beer is fermenting like crazy right now.....one long bubble after another, and a sniff of the bubbler smells like beer. I am guessing it will be a bit on the light side, but should be definately drinkable.

Greg

It will probably still be a tasty beer -- but you might have to carbonate it a little less to let the flavour come through.

It sounds to me like your LHBS is giving you a poor crush. The easiest solution is to run the grains through the mill twice. Hopefully they will do this for you, or they will let you do it. Otherwise, yes, order from another 'tried and true' LHBS and see if things change.

It also wouldn't hurt to stir your mash a couple of times -- if you do it quickly, you really won't lose much heat at all.

Anyways, hang in there -- you will get it figured out. Everyone goes through 'growing pains' when they start. The trick is to not let it get you down.

One tip is (may have been mentioned already) is to have some extra DME on hand just in case you undershoot your mash efficiency. If you take a gravity reading before you rack to your fermenter, you can figure out if you need to compensate by adding some concentrated wort.

RE: efficiency - My go to answer is that your reading was done too hot. I like to have a # of honey on hand, just in case so I can throw it into the boil. I was a boy scout you know


EDIT: 1.042 will still be enough for a decent abv, btw.