Missed my OG by 13 points!

Hey everyone. To start, I'm only on my third all grain batch. Here is the recipe I used today:

6lbs wheat malt
4lbs munich
.25 lbs chocolate
1 oz hallertauer @60
.25 oz hallertauer @15
WLP300

I mashed in at 155 for about 70 minutes with 15qts. of water then batched sparged with 4.75 gallon of water at about 170-172. I did my first runnings, then added the sparge water and stirred for about a minute then drained into the kettle.

Beersmith said my pre-boil OG should be 1.045, but I got 1.033 after temperature adjustment. It also said my estimated OG gravity should be 1.055, but I only got 1.042. What the hell happened??

My last brew I did (all grain) came to within 3 points of my target OG.

Please help!

wheat malt has smaller kernels, so if the grain mill wasn't adjusted, its possible your wheat malt had a poor crush....

First thing that comes to mind is that you had a bad grain crush. One other thing that it might be is that your thermometer isn't correct and that you mashed at a temp that didn't yield much extract. But most likely it is your crush.

I'm not positive but if you're using wheat malt you might consider double crushing it if you can't adjust the gap.

My guess is your crush as others have mentioned or your sparge. Easy remedy is get a pound of wheat dme and a half pound of extra light or light dme and do a mini boil with a half gallon of water or less if you don't have much room in the fementer for 15 min. Cool then add it in. This will get you close to where you wanted your OG plus.

Thanks for the help everyone. My LHBS milled the grains for me so I don't know anything about the setting or size he used, but not crushing the wheat malt enough sounds about right.

I only have about half a pound of dark DME so I'm not sure if that will really make a difference, or will it?

How can I prevent this in the future when using what malt? Ask him to mill it twice next time around?

Thanks for all the help!

So I think I may have time today to swing by the lhbs and purchase some wheat dme. Will one pound be enough?

Boil for a few mins., then open fermenter and slowly add or add it quickly?

Thanks for the help! I really think it's the crush because my previous AG batch came out real close following the same batch technique.

If fermentation has really taken off I would add it in via a bottle wand or transfer in via tubing from the bottom up using a bottling bucket to minimize oxidation. If you secondary you could always rack on top of it

Toga said:

If fermentation has really taken off I would add it in via a bottle wand or transfer in via tubing from the bottom up using a bottling bucket to minimize oxidation. If you secondary you could always rack on top of it

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It just started bubbling this morning. I was thinking I could remove the top, then slowly pour my boiled and cooled extract addition along the side of the bucket to help reduce the introduction of oxygen. I'm trying to avoid having to mix up a batch of starsan, etc. and keep it simple.

Will this lazy methed work?