What can cause you to miss OG?

I did my 2nd Ag last nite...

AHS Hefeweizen kit

I hit my temp on mash in 156,

1 hr, drained, then batch sparged 10 min at 175..

Did my 1 hr boil with

.75 spalt 60 min
.25 Spalt 5 min

Boiled down to just over 5 gal. wort


However OG is only 1.034 instead of around 1.050

I did however add the alcohol boost to this recipe, first time I have ever used this.....


Would this be a cause for the OG to be low?

What else could have caused this.....

The crush of the grains may not have been good. I always split my sparges into two equal amounts, it seems to have upped my efficiency.

It sounds like lower than expected efficiency is the cause. Basically, you didn't extract as much sugar from the grain as the recipe assumed you would. Adding the 1% alcohol boost would have increased the OG some, not decreased it.

Did you stir well after adding the sparge water and before vorlaufing? That will make a substantial difference in efficiency.

-a.

Yes, I stirred and made sure there were no clumps of grain, let settle, then checked temp.

I write everything down and check it off as I do it.....otherwise I might leave out an important step, like adding grain or hops...


Everything looked good until the boil was over, and I cooled it down and check the OG.


So who knows, maybe it was a fluke....

It will just end up being a "Lite" beer probably after fermentation....still drinkable I would think though....

Did you do one sparge or two? I've found that splitting the sparge water into two equal batches makes a large difference in efficiency.

david_42 said:

Did you do one sparge or two? I've found that splitting the sparge water into two equal batches makes a large difference in efficiency.

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Is there an echo in here?

Given the information that you have provided, I can't think of anything that would cause this other than poor efficiency (echo, echo, echo).

david_42 said:

Did you do one sparge or two? I've found that splitting the sparge water into two equal batches makes a large difference in efficiency.

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So I would do 2 sparges of 2 gallons instead of 1 sparge of 4 gallons?

How does this improve efficiency?

Double Sparge - If you need to sparge with say 4 gallons to reach your desired pre boil volume, instead of adding 4 gallons at once, add half, stir, vorlauf and drain. Then do it again with the remaining 2 gallons. Think of washing a glass in the sink. Which gets more soap off; filling it all the way, swishing it then dumping or filling it half way, swishing, dumping and repeating? Goofy analogy but it really works. Now, if you'd like to read a little more on why I think this happens, wikipedia has an article on diffusion (which is the principal at work in sparging).

Someone asked if you stirred after you added your sparge water and you said yes, but then you made it sound like you were actually talking about the intial mixing of grain and water.

After you drained the first runnings and added your sparge water, you did RE-stir right?

Yes, I did re-stir....

Thanks for everyone's help....

It has been a good learning experience..

I have had some efficiency issues in the past. Taking a pre-boil gravity reading will can help you figure out how your looking in the middle of the batch. I try to keep some DME on hand and if my efficiency is way off then you can supplement with a late DME addition to your boil and at least get your OG back to where you originally wanted it.

idk... only 34 and you added the "boost"? Sounds like REAL REAL bad efficiency or AHS didnt crush the grain or something. Do you have the recipe? How many pounds of grain did it include? If it doesn't tell you, how many quarts of water did you add for your mash?

10.5 lbs total grain
mash in with 13.3 qt's water
60 minutes
empty
batch with 5 gallons

boil down while addding hops to 5 gallons ....yada yada yada...


However it is going like crazy and smelling up the garage.....


yeah, I must have screwed up somewhere, I just can't figure out where

The grains were crushed, there was the flower dust residue in the bag....so who knows...

Tradeforcash said:

So I would do 2 sparges of 2 gallons instead of 1 sparge of 4 gallons?

How does this improve efficiency?

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you rinse more sugar from the grain basically. when you wash your car, to rinse the soap, do you dump a 10 gallon bucket on it and call it done? or do you spray 10 gallons of water on it over the course of a few minutes and call it done?

same sort of concept, and a lot of us have switched to double or even triple batch sparges to increase our efficiency.

some guys are consistently exceeding 80%, and rubbing fly spargers faces in it

Starting on the Centennial Blonde as I type.....