OG was way off - missing wort volume

Hello,

Another batch with a new problem. This was my 6th mini mash batch and until this one, i've never had a problem with the OG. The estimate was 1.047 and my final OG turned out to be 1.037. I noticed with this batch was that the volume of wort i poured into the carboy was about a gallon less than i expected.

I used two gallons for the mash water and an additional gallon for the sparge water. So I should have ended up with a little under 3 gallons after absorption and evaporation. Is it possible to have lost an entire gallon to evaporation? Where the hell did that gallon of water go? I've never had this happen in the past and didn't run the process anything differently. The only major difference with this batch was the amount of hops added (4oz)

Thanks!

If you used three gallons of water, keep in mind that the grains themselves absorb water. In my case, .1 gallons/ pound of grain, but I've heard others say .2 gallons/pound of grain. So, if you had 4 pounds of grain, you could have lost 1/2 gallon right there in absorption.

Didn't get much feedback on the Full/Partial Mash section so i will try again here:

Another batch with a new problem. This was my 6th mini mash batch and until this one, i've never had a problem with the OG. The estimate was 1.047 and my final OG turned out to be 1.037. I noticed with this batch was that the volume of wort i poured into the carboy was about a gallon less than i expected.

I used two gallons for the mash water and an additional gallon for the sparge water. So I should have ended up with a little under 3 gallons after absorption and evaporation. Is it possible to have lost an entire gallon to evaporation? Where the hell did that gallon of water go? I've never had this happen in the past and didn't run the process differently. The only major difference with this batch was the amount of hops added (4oz)

Thanks!

The loss of water through evaporation or otherwise will actually cause your specific gravity to go up instead of down. This is due to a greater concentration of sugars in a lesser volume of wort. You may have had an efficiency problem as well.

What you're saying it contradictory. Your recipe indicated an OG gravity of 1.047 and you actually ended up with less than that. If that is the case, then you have too much water or you didn't add enough sugars.

But you're saying that you have too little in the carboy. So assuming you have the right amount of sugars, then by definition your OG would have to be *higher* than expected because you have less water to dilute the sugars.

So you have too little water and WAY too little sugars. Something is very wrong here.

We need the entire recipe.

What was your mash temp and mash time? How many pounds of grain were you working with? 8 pounds of grain will absorb about a gallon of water.

Thanks for the responses.

I added water to the carboy until it reached five gallons (unintentionally diluting the beer to lower the OG). The problem was that my wort (originally 3 gallons) ended up at 2 gallons after the final boil. I know this would be higher gravity but i did not intend on this happening and continued to make a five gallon batch

I was using 3.5 lbs of grain. Mash temp was 155-157 for 45 minutes. I'll check the LE weight when i get home.

Rafae said:

Thanks for the responses.

I added water to the carboy until it reached five gallons (unintentionally diluting the beer to lower the OG). The problem was that my wort (originally 3 gallons) ended up at 2 gallons after the final boil. I know this would be higher gravity but i did not intend on this happening and continued to make a five gallon batch

I was using 3.5 lbs of grain. Mash temp was 155-157 for 45 minutes. I'll check the LE weight when i get home.

Click to expand...

I think you didn't get much conversion. For 3.5 pounds of grain, you should use no more than 7 quarts of water for the mash, and up to 1.75 gallons for the sparge. Even that is a bit much.

I have a feeling that your OG is fine, and you just didn't take a good reading after you added the top off water. It's really hard to mix up the wort and top off water well and get an accurate reading out of a carboy.

If you used extract, your fermentables come from the extract and not 3.5 pounds of grain. 3.5 pounds of grain would be nearly negligible in a 5 gallon batch, as you could expect a maximum of about .018 pounds if you did it perfectly.

I shook the hell out of the carboy but it is possible that it's a bad reading. I was surprised to see how much water i needed to add to the carboy. Almost a gallon more than usual.