20 point differene in OG what happened?

I brewed yesturday recreating my favorite recipe i take rediculous notes so i know that my process was exactly the same and the mash times and temperatures were all the same as well as boil time ect. However, i got an OG reading of 1.054 (not the 1.072 i got last time and was looking for). My only concern is that the milled grain we used sat at my house for over a month. We were going to use it before that but work got in the way. Could this affect the solubility of the sugars in the malts and lose enough of the enzymes that i would have a 20 point difference?

I checked the calibration on the hydraumeter and it was dead on in a glass of water at 60 degrees.
I checked the calibration of my thermometer and it was on as well + or - 1 degree so temperature chart should be ok.
I stired in 1 gallon of water to get to 5 gallon batch and stirred in well for about 3 minutes just incase the water sat at the top (so this is not the reason for the difference).

Anyone got any insight into this?

Maybe you sparged differently? Temperature? Speed? Number/size of batches?

Did you have to add a gallon of water last time? Maybe you didn't collect enough volume from your mash tun?

Looks like you got 60% efficiency when you were expecting 80%? Do you normally get 80%? Maybe last time you made this recipe it was just a fluke efficiency spike?

I took very specific notes the last time i brewed this. Last time we brewed we actually did not sparge at all we use the 2.5 gallons we collected out of the mash tun then added water after the boild to get to 5.5 so in theory since we sparged this time we should have been far more efficient and collected alot more soluable sugars. I just can't figure out what went wrong to lose 20 points off this batch. Temperatures were all the same mash in was the same mash rest was the same the only difference is we actually sparged out for this batch which as i said should have given us a much better efficiency.

Are you sure the 1.072 measurement from last time wasn't the 2.5 gallons of concentrated wort prior to adding water?

Is there any reason you're not sparging to your desired volume? Topping up with water on an all grain batch is not efficient at all.

First, post the recipe so we can see what the estimated OG should have been.

Second, what volume mash, sparge and final?

Third, could you have mis-measured the grain either the first batch, the second batch or both?

I can't post the recipe because it was created by a buddy of mine who does not like sharing however, i can tell you that the previous batch as with all batchs i do i take the gravity ready right before i throw in the yeast, which is after topping off with water to get to the desired batch size. Also, the scale we use to measure the malts its calibrated on a monthly basis and there is a very slim chance that we measured wrong, however human error is always a factor. On that note to answer Henry's questions we mash in with 4 gallons 2 cups. then spage with 3 gallons to come out with 5 gallons after 60 minute boil we typically have 4 gallons (we lose 1 gallon an hour at boil). This is the typical loss on most of our batches. This is also exactly what my notes say for the last batch, with the exception of the 3 gallon sparge out, since we didn't sparge the previous batch (btw Bobby we know that is completely inefficient we just had a massive brain fart :cross. Also i use beer tools pro ( i just got this after doing all the calcs by hand for the first batch), and beer tools pro as well as my hand calcs determined the OG should be 1.074 so the last batch @ 1.072 was pretty on, i can't phathom what went wrong with this batch.

Did you stir your wort well before taking your sample? If not, the sugars would have been on the bottom and your reading would not have been accurate.

dlittle29 said:

I stired in 1 gallon of water to get to 5 gallon batch and stirred in well for about 3 minutes just incase the water sat at the top (so this is not the reason for the difference).

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Yes i noticed this on alot of different sites i have been to just to make sure but we always stir well just to make sure.

dlittle29 said:

My only concern is that the milled grain we used sat at my house for over a month. We were going to use it before that but work got in the way. Could this affect the solubility of the sugars in the malts and lose enough of the enzymes that i would have a 20 point difference?

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Can someone answer this please? I'm curious what the effects are on milled grain and not being used for a few months.

BryanJ said:

Can someone answer this please? I'm curious what the effects are on milled grain and not being used for a few months.

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Not likely, unless they were in your car the whole time, or got wet.

BryanJ said:

Can someone answer this please? I'm curious what the effects are on milled grain and not being used for a few months.

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It should have no effect. It's not like starch evaporates.

I cannot answer why you had such a difference in the two batches, but I would advise increasing the amount of volume of water in your mash and sparge to avoid having to top off future batches. If you are usually 1 gallon short, add a half gallon of water to the mash and sparge and you will be alot better off.

BryanJ said:

Can someone answer this please? I'm curious what the effects are on milled grain and not being used for a few months.

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Enzymes aren't alive -- they will not die from having the grain premilled for a month. I've brewed many times with milled grain that sat around for over a month and it hasn't affected my conversion. Only high temperature will denature your enzymes (greater than 160F).

Could it be a difference in the milling?