What went wrong?

I brewed a wheat last night (my 5th batch) and the OG came out way lower than the recipe had for an estimate. It seems like every batch I'm messing something up that seems major to me. Anyhow, here is the recipe and the extras I added. I got the recipe out of the book "Radical Brewing" if that is of any help.

Amazing Daze American Wheat Ale

.5 lb Munich Malt
4 lb Liquid Wheat Extract

.75 oz Cascade 60 min.
1 oz Tettnang 15 min.

White Labs California V yeast

My 'extras' I added:
1 tsp Gypsum 60 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss 15 min.
1 yeast nutrient tablet 15 min.
.5 lb kicker malt extract (as far as I can tell, its just a .5lb can of extract)

I mashed @155-160 (tried to keep it as close to 155 as possible)

The recipe says the gravity shoutld be 1.049 and mine came out at 1.032

The only thing I can think that might be the reason would be that I didn't use any DME. But then again, there is none called for in the recipe. I don't know if its assumed that DME will be used or not. If I hadn't used that kicker extract, the gravity would have been even lower...

Another quick question I have is that it seems like the California V yeast ends up getting me gravities @ 1.015-1.020 (I've used it on 2 other batches). I have a couple packets of Notty in the fridge. Should I pitch one of them into the fermenter to get a lower gravity, or will the California be fine by itself? I'm worried that with the lower OG that my ABV will be really really weak the way it stands right now.

How long did you mash the grain? Was it only a 20-30 minute steep? I'm assuming that with only 1/2 pound of grain, you just steeped it....

By my calculations, with 4LB of liquid wheat, and 1/2 pound of liquid malt kicker and using the grains as steeping grains, I get that your OG should be 1.035....which is close to what you got. With extract brewing, it is pretty hard to miss your OG, and when you do, it is usually that you either a) added too much top off water, or b) didn't get it mixed up well enough. Since your measured OG is close to what I calculate using the Beer Recipator, I think you should be fine (assuming that my calculation is correct).

When I was doing extract, I'd never get accurate gravity readings. More then likely, you just have an uneven solution: where the gravity on top of the wort is less then the bottom. For your next batch, you can try stirring the wort more to see if that changes the SG. The California yeast should be fine to use.

I steeped for about 20-30 mins.

As far as top off water, I bought 5 gal. of distilled and added 1 1/2 bottles of tap to the boil (to account for evaporation, stuff left in the bucket, etc...)

There is an all grain version of the recipe and an extract version, so that 1.049 could be for the all grain. I just assumed that the gravity would be pretty close to the same for both versions.

Its a big relief to know that you got an estimated gravity close to what I ended up with.

Since I just brewed it yesterday, would it be safe to give it a good stir real quick, or should I just leave it be. I thought I stirred it pretty good when I topped it off, but maybe not.

Leave 'er alone! ;0) With that amount of extract your gravity is right about where it should be. With a partial boil, you'll never get an accurate OG reading anyway.

Also just let that Cali Ale Yeast do it's thing for about 3 weeks, that'll give you a nice compact yeast cake to rack off of when you bottle/keg.

This is going to be a light brew, but then again most wheats are. It doesn't matter how much alcohol is in there, it only matters if YOU like the beer you brew.

Good Point wyzazz. I tend to like my beer a little stronger, but they can't all be super strong. From my rough calculations, I keep coming up with an ABV of around 1.5-2%. I know its not an exact formula and I need to have my actual FG, but I'm taking the OG - FG and multiplying that by 131.25. This recipe says the ABV is 4.1-4.7% but I'm starting to think that would be the all grain version. Either way, I was really hoping to be closer to 3%. I guss all I can do now is wait it out...

iron_city_ap said:

Amazing Daze American Wheat Ale

.5 lb Munich Malt
4 lb Liquid Wheat Extract

.75 oz Cascade 60 min.
1 oz Tettnang 15 min.

White Labs California V yeast

My 'extras' I added:
1 tsp Gypsum 60 min.
1 tsp. Irish Moss 15 min.
1 yeast nutrient tablet 15 min.
.5 lb kicker malt extract (as far as I can tell, its just a .5lb can of extract)

.

Click to expand...

This free recipe calculator can tell you what the gravity should
be:
http://hbd.org/recipator/

There is a misprint somewhere, either in the book, what you read,
or what you typed. If you leave everything the same but change
4 pounds wheat extract to 6 pounds wheat extract, that gives
a gravity of 1.050, which is very close to what the recipe says the
initial gravity should be.
Jim

Did the original recipe call for DME or LME? If it called for 4lbs of DME that could explain the difference in gravity. DME and LME are not interchangeable at a 1 to 1 ratio.

From YooperBrew: "A handy way to think of grain/DME/LME is this: 1 lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME"

Good Luck and hang in there.

In BeerSmith I get:
OG Estimate 1.033
FG Estimate 1.009
ABV Estimate 3.12%

You should be right around 3% as near as I can figure, if you want it to be stronger you could pick up a pound or two of Extra Light DME and boil that in a little bit of water for 20mins, cool it, and gently pour it in to the fermenter.

2lbs would probably bring you to around 4.5% with the water you add.

Temperature of your wort, and accuracy of you hydrometer can play on your #'s too. Wort temp reading(for accuracy purposes) should be 60 deg F.

Glad this topic came up I never seem to hit my OG on an extract brew. Then again I only have 5 brews under my belt.

jdc2, Not a misprint at all. The recipe says "Gravity: 1.049 (12 P). Its the only mention of gravity in the entire recipe.

Billy Beer, It only calls for Liquid extract.

wyzazz, Thanks for running it through beer smith for me. The numbers you came up with give me some confidence that it will be okay.

C2H5OH, Thanks. The temp was @70 when I took it. I'm just using the old floating hydrometer, so I know it isn't extremely accurate.

silver02ws6, Its a recurring issue for me too. Usually I messed something up that causes the low number, but you definately aren't alone.

I think lme has a ppg of 36 and dme is 42 so your OG looks right. You might of put a little bit too much water

4 lbs of extract probably won't get you to 1.049...
in my extract days, I usually was in the 6lbs range for my mid-range beers.

iron_city_ap said:

jdc2, Not a misprint at all. The recipe says "Gravity: 1.049 (12 P). Its the only mention of gravity in the entire recipe.

Click to expand...

I meant a misprint in the amount of wheat extract. 4 pounds plus
.5 pound munich plus .5 lb kicker won't get you to 1.049 (it can't unless
you use less water),
but 6 pounds of wheat extract and leaving the others the same will.
Jim

jdc2 said:

I meant a misprint in the amount of wheat extract. 4 pounds plus
.5 pound munich plus .5 lb kicker won't get you to 1.049 (it can't unless
you use less water),
but 6 pounds of wheat extract and leaving the others the same will.
Jim

Click to expand...

Cool. I hadn't really thought of that. Good point.