Low OG problems

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
kypher

kypher

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2009
Messages
86
Reaction score
0
Location
Seattle
Brewed a darker beer and ended up with a low OG...1.038. That's ridiculously low for my grain bill. What did I do wrong?

8 lbs. 2 Row
1 lb. chocolate
.5 lbs. Flaked Oats
.5 lbs. 80L caramel
1 lb. 40L caramel
.5 lbs. black patent
1 lb. flaked wheat

Strike with 3 gallons (Protein rest 122 for 25 minutes). Add 1 3/4 gallons (Sach rest 149 for 65 minutes).

Yielded about 4 gallons (that's pretty high isn't it?) batch sparged 170 to make 6.5 gallons, 60 minute boil, cooled with copper wort chiller.

Is there anything in there that could account for missing my target gravity by >10 points? Is the sach rest too cool? Grains crushed poorly?

Frustrating...any help is appreciated.
 
did you boil with a lid on? would have been nice to loose another .5 to 1 gallon water. that would have helped your OG.

amp
 
No...lid off. I ended up with 5 gallons after losing some to the hops, some to evap etc. I'm good with the amount that I have in the fermenter but with that massive grain bill it should have been at the lowest a 1.045 type beer.
 
What was your temp at the end of the sach rest? I know you said 149 for 65 minutes I assume that was at dough in not at the end.

Did you stir it up good? No dry pockets of grains?

Any chance you took pH reading? Although I doubt you'd have a problem there with the all the dark stuff. Iodine test would have been good.

Strange brew says it shoul be 1.061 starting gravity at 70% efficiency. You got less than 50% efficiency.

Sure your hydrometer is good? Sure your thermometer is good?

You should still end up with a dry beer, but about 2% lower abv.
 
Stirred it up really well, no dough balls...at the end of the sach rest it had dropped about 2 degrees. I know the target is usually between like 152-157 but is that so much of a difference that it'd drop my gravity that drastically?

No pH testing but I did mash in with a tablespoon of that 5.2 stuff from 5-Star, so I thought I'd taken care of the pH problem.

My thermometer is good, but I'm wondering if my hydrometer isn't working the way it ought to. I always seem to come up short on gravity even if I do the rare all-extract batch.
 
I recently encountered some poor efficiency. I hadn't really brewed any this year until a couple months ago and prior to that I was running 88-90% efficiency day in and day out. Got things fired back up, went through my malts I had on hand and started brewing. I took an O.G. reading, 73% efficiency. Once I used up my old base malt and brewed with some fresh product, 88%.

Before I picked up the fresh malt I was at a total loss. I had not changed a thing in 10 months and was racking my brains out.
 
kypher said:
My thermometer is good, but I'm wondering if my hydrometer isn't working the way it ought to. I always seem to come up short on gravity even if I do the rare all-extract batch.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem, so finally dropped my hydrometer in room-temp tap water... 0.992 .. about 8 points lower than actual.

The best test is to use distilled water at 60-F (or 67-F if that is what your hydrometer is rated at). Find out your offset, and then use that in adjustments. And don't forget to temp correct. If you take your reading at 75-F, and your hydrometer is calibrated at 60-F, then you can be off another 1-2 points..

Good luck,
--LexusChris
 
Something must be off, that is around 45% efficiency according to my calculations, you should be in the high 1.05's. Weird. The 4 gallons seems very high, almost like it was one big doughball.
 
Maybe you mashed too thin. At 1.25 quarts per pound you should have only had 3.9 gallons total mash water. That also didn't leave you much for sparging. You may have left a lot of sugars in the grain bed.

ETA, how was the crush on the grain? I just don't see how you got 4 gallons on the first runnings.
 
I'm beginning to wonder if the culprit was the grain crush. I took a look at the 2-row after all was said and done and I'm not entirely sure it was crushed very well. I just crushed it at my LHBS but I might go ahead and invest in a grain mill of my very own. Like all of you, I just don't know how in the blue hell my efficiency was so low. It's happily bubbling away right now though, so there's at least some sugars in there.

Tell me if I'm correct with my suggestions for having lost a few points here or there:

1.) Mashed at too low a temp (149 iF)
2.) Grain not crushed well enough
3.) Hydrometer is off by ~.005
4.) Too much mash water, not enough sparge water.

If you figure a loss of .002 for each of the three, then around .005 for the hydrometer, that sounds about right. That would have left me in the area of 1.05 which is closer to the 70% efficiency we want.
 
1, 2, 3 are all strong possibilities.

4. Not likely. There is no reason to do a protein rest with that grain bill.

Next time, run the grain through the mill twice and mash at 152F.
 
just had a similar issue, very similar grain bill and was supposed to hit 1.050 and hit 1.038. I ended up adding more strike h20 than i wanted as i didnt hit my target mash temp of 152. thus collected more runnings on first go around. Its bubbling like crazy right now though only 15 hours after the flame out so all must not be lost... good luck! Going to test my hydrometer now though, although I think this one is on me.
 
1) 149F for 65 minutes shouldnt' cause you missing pre-boil gravity
2) Grain crush might get you some points, check your pH
3) Not good but now you know
4) I don't think your mash is too thin. I don't use any sparge water at all.
 
kypher said:
I'm beginning to wonder if the culprit was the grain crush. I took a look at the 2-row after all was said and done and I'm not entirely sure it was crushed very well. I just crushed it at my LHBS but I might go ahead and invest in a grain mill of my very own. Like all of you, I just don't know how in the blue hell my efficiency was so low. It's happily bubbling away right now though, so there's at least some sugars in there.

Tell me if I'm correct with my suggestions for having lost a few points here or there:

1.) Mashed at too low a temp (149 iF)
2.) Grain not crushed well enough
3.) Hydrometer is off by ~.005
4.) Too much mash water, not enough sparge water.

If you figure a loss of .002 for each of the three, then around .005 for the hydrometer, that sounds about right. That would have left me in the area of 1.05 which is closer to the 70% efficiency we want.
Click to expand...

And then there is, possibly, the biggest lurking variable, which is measurement of the volume of water pre and post boil.

1. Water expands at higher temperatures (4% or so)
2. The measuring device(s) always have error.
3. There are hops, trub, etc. in the boil.

Relax, don't worry, have a.....
 

Similar threads

F
help me design my next kolsch
Replies
12
Views
672
TheCache
TheCache
F
what grains do i need to turn my straw pilsner into a golden lager
Replies
7
Views
823
hottpeper13
H
Elmo Peach
Too Hugh (the OG not me)
Replies
5
Views
446
Elmo Peach
Elmo Peach
F
BeerSmith vs Brewer's Friend: different OG
Replies
15
Views
633
day_trippr
day_trippr
F
Converting an extract recipe to all grain
Replies
2
Views
321
IslandLizard
IslandLizard

Latest posts

Back
Top