WTF went wrong?

I just brewed an amber ale, or atleast tried to. This is my recipe:
9 pounds american 2 row
1.25 pounds crystal 60l
.50 pounds crystal 40l
.50 munich 10l

mashed at 154 for 60 min

My OG was supposed to be 1.060 but ended up being 1.045.

THATS .015 OFF!

Everythin went great, atleast i thought. I didnt test my extact, and i didnt test my PH, i just used purified water from the store. But i really dont understand how it would effect it that much. The color also looked really lite, almost pale ale color. It will still be good, just not an amber and i cant figure out why it was sooooo far off. PLEASE HELP

Well you held a good mash temp and for long enough so that crosses a mistake there all that is left is a mishap at the boil or carboy mishap or just a incorrect temp reading giving you a Low G reading

Did you take a Hydrometer reading when the wort was very close to 70F (+or- 10F)temp affects readings

1#Did you add water to your boil and possibly not boil enough water off?*

2#maybe added water to your fermenter?

3#Bad mill job leading to bad extraction? *not sure about that one just brainstorming*

color cant be judge right now cause it changes but someone correct me if im wrong cause its all about how light strikes it and pitch black stouts look like brown ales when transferring to my carboy.


Hope something helps if not when every i am off i look back at every step i took and if i rushed at one point or if i did something different that's where i would focus but just my 2 cents i don't give very good info since most of my brewing is done by Guess and Feel

are you comparing pre-boil and post boil by any chance?
any dough balls when you emptied the grain out?

I took my temp at 70, my water calculations were perfect, no water added, and the milling is what it must have been. I got my grains milled at my LHBS. It was either that, or they screwed up my order.

No, dough balls. My pre boil was supposed to be 1051. So that wouldnt even work.

RogueBomber said:

I took my temp at 70, my water calculations were perfect, no water added, and the milling is what it must have been. I got my grains milled at my LHBS. It was either that, or they screwed up my order.

No, dough balls. My pre boil was supposed to be 1051. So that wouldnt even work.

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My LHBS accidentally messed up my grain order and forgot 4 pounds on my grain order and i wouldn't have noticed it if i didn't measure it out since they wrote 12 pounds on the bag and it just looked like a large amount of grain so i always ask for everything separate now and not mixed

What kind of purified water did you use? Are you sure you didn't use distilled? If there are no minerals, your pH might have been high and your conversion off. If you are going to use store water, it is best to use drinking or spring water. If you have the brand, see if you can find a mineral content online and run that through the various spreadsheets to see your expected mash pH.

Are you sure you have 5 gal. of wort and not 6?

RogueBomber said:

I got my grains milled at my LHBS.

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ding ding ding!

My efficiency went from 65% to 85% when I bought my mill.

how did you mash? what kind of tun? sparge technique? HLT water temp?

It looks to me like you were expecting to hit around 75% efficiency and ended up at more like 56%. Crush is probably your main culpret here, but I think your water is also suspect. Purified water is not ideal for mashing as the process depends on the ph of the mash. It doesn't look like you added any gypsum or other minerals back in. If the water from the tap tastes ok, use it. Otherwise, go with the purified water, but add back the minerals that are needed to get decent efficiency.

Also, you could just count on 55% or so and bump the grain bill up to compensate next time. You'd probably want another 3# or so for this recipe. I personally shoot for around 60-65% efficiency and build my recipes with a little extra grain.

Pay attention to your water. My friend did some calculations on our water last we brewed and we made the necessary adjustments. I have always sat between 75-80% eff. When I dialed my water in I 90%, I went a bit over on volume and ended up at 1.058, when I was expecting a slightly lower OG. A good crush is very important but the right water chemistry can make a significant difference as well.

It is hard to believe any LHBS that is still in business would crush grain that badly. I can believe a busy clerk forgetting a pound and a quarter of crystal 60. Did you watch him or give him a list and go look for yeast and hops (I do that). I always weigh the total package when I get home, but never really expect it to be off.

I would suspect a poor crush, another good reason to mill your own grain. I don't yet because AHS does such a great job, on every order, but I am moving that direction.