First Batch: Missed Target OG

So, I brewed my first batch today after receiving my gear from San Francisco Brewcraft. I had brewed a batch with friends before, so I had a basic idea of what was to happen. In the end, I missed the target gravity by .002. I'm not sure if that's a huge miss. I guess my partial mash sparging wasn't thorough enough. Here's the recipe and what I did.

First, I boiled a full pot of water for 30 minutes in my aluminum kettle to oxidize it. I had a good oxidation layer there, so I filled it back up with a rough 3 gallons of water and brought it to 155 F.

1.5 lbs 2-row
.5 lbs Victory
.25 lbs barley flakes

Put my grains in the grain bag and dropped that in my water for 45 minutes. I insulated the pot with a bunch of heavy towels and it only had dropped to 150 when I opened it up. Instructions said to just dip the bag of grains in and out of the water to sparge. I didn't squeeze it out, just let it drain off and then tossed the grains on the compost pile.

Brought everything to boil again, turned off the heat and stirred in my 6 lbs of malt extract. Brought it back to a nice heavy rolling boil for 60 minutes. Added hops according to schedule.

60 min. 1 oz. Cascade (6.3% AA)
30 min. 1 oz. Cascade (6.3% AA)
10 min. .5 oz. Cascade (4.4% AA)
end of boil .5 oz. Cascade (4.4% AA)

30 min. 1 tab whirlfloc

I rehydrated my Windsor yeast according to instructions and started to cool my wort in the ice bath. I got the wort down to 80 F and put 2.5 gallons of filtered water in the primary fermenter (bucket fermenter). Dumped 1/3 of the wort in the primary and it was about 75 degrees. Pitched the yeast and poured in the rest of the wort. Took my plastic spoon and created some aeration in the bucket. Took samples and recorded OG.

Target OG: 1.056
Target FG: 1.012

My OG: 1.054

I popped the lid on the fermenter, put it in my basement where it stays nearly 68-70 all day long. I filled up my airlock and put it in the stopper and there it sits. Labeled it, recorded notes regarding process.

So, critique me, please. How's my process? Is the OG really that off or is it not that big of a deal. That OG is corrected for temperature. The one thing I made sure I did was sanitize EVERYTHING. I kept my sink full of 6 gallons of OneStep solution with a sanitized drying rack on the counter. Everything that went in my wort would go into that bath for 5 minutes then air dry. I'll post some pictures of my makeshift setup later when I get a chance.

For now, I'm just super stoked to have SOMETHING in primary!! I love this hobby. I need some Better Bottles so I can have a few things going!!

Thanks for any help!

Nothing to worry about. 0.002 is well within the error for a hydrometer.

Welcome to homebrewing.
"I filled it back up with a rough 30 gallons of water."
I'm assuming that this is a typo and you meant 3 gallons of water.
Your process looks good, and .002 could simply be a little more water added, or temperature or some other variation. You will not be able to tell with the final product.
All in all, I'm sure your have a fantastic brew, and just keep an eye out for good deals on carboys, buckets etc. You never know what friends and relations may have just sitting forgotten in the basement.

tedski said:

So, critique me, please. How's my process? Is the OG really that off or is it not that big of a deal.

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.002 isn't going to be significant. As the previous poster suggested, your hydrometer isn't a completely accurate instrument anyway. I'd love to be within .002 on all my beers.

For comparison, I brewed an Imperial Stout kit (AG) from MoreBeer last month. I could see that the crush was pretty poor on the grains, but went ahead and brewed it anyway. What was supposed to be ~1.080 came out as 1.063. Now that's missing the mark.

Sounds like you did well.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

"I filled it back up with a rough 30 gallons of water."
I'm assuming that this is a typo and you meant 3 gallons of water.

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Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

All in all, I'm sure your have a fantastic brew, and just keep an eye out for good deals on carboys, buckets etc. You never know what friends and relations may have just sitting forgotten in the basement.

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Yea, a friend had a carboy in his basement that he didn't realize he had. I explained to him what I could use it for and he just bought the rest of the gear and started brewing for himself!

I wouldn't worry about .002 or even .005 either way. As long as you get the attenuation expected you'll be fine.

Woke up this morning to krausen all over the place and the airlock dustcap halfway across the room. I rigged up a blow-off tube for now, we'll see how long it blows off for. There was almost 1.5 gallons of headspace in the bucket fermenter yesterday. I thought that would be enough space for the krausen... guess not. How long is a blow-off rig usually necessary. I leave town tomorrow and I'd really like to get a normal air lock on it before I go. I can just imagine it now, the SWMBO will come home and the cat and dog will be enjoying krausen water out of the blow off jar.

Ha ha. I had an Imperial Stout a couple of weeks ago that was pushing foam out of the airlock. I though to myself, gee, I better put on a blowoff tube before something bad happens. I quickly sanitzed some stuff, went to the carboy, leaned over and loosened the old airlock. As soon as I jiggled it loose the thing blew I had a face full of krausen. Of course the stout stained the ceiling and now I've been tasked to repaint it.

To answer your question, it's hard to say whether you can put a regular airlock back on by tomorrow. You'll simply have to watch it and see it the fermentation slows and the krausen starts to fall. My guess is that with a 1.054 brew like yours (and obvious vigorous fermentation) that by this evening you'll be safe. But you'll simply have to watch. Change the water in the blowoff container frequently so you'll be able to tell when it quits pumping sludge into it. When it's clean for a few hours, you'll be safe.

StunnedMonkey said:

Ha ha. I had an Imperial Stout a couple of weeks ago that was pushing foam out of the airlock. I though to myself, gee, I better put on a blowoff tube before something bad happens. I quickly sanitzed some stuff, went to the carboy, leaned over and loosened the old airlock. As soon as I jiggled it loose the thing blew I had a face full of krausen.

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I had just woken up, standing there in my damn robe to let the dog out. Figured, "ah, what the hell... lets see how she's doin... lets hope its not blowing off". I go down, I can just smell the krausen and I chuckle to myself. I look at the airlock and its bubbling constantly, hissing, burping, foaming, etc. I figure its got enough breather room that this thing isn't gonna puke on me. So, I grab some paper towels and soak up the unsanitary krausen and wort off the lid so it doesn't run back in. I slowly wiggle the stopper out and faceful of krausen, wall covered, humidor covered, everything. Luckily... this isn't a stout, so no stains.

I'm sure the SWMBO wishes she had a camera to see me standing there, airlock in hand, faceful of krausen, wearing a robe and flip flops. Gotta love it!

One more question. Is there a name for the sparging method I used? Just grabbing the grain bag and dipping it in and out of the mash a bunch of times to rinse off the sugars?