Yay...brewed first Mini-Mash. Only missed OG my .2 !!!!!

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.

bigben

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2006
Messages
522
Reaction score
1
Location
My House
wtf...o well. It's my first mini mash and the OG read 1.36. The recipe calls for 1.56. I hope my hydrometer is broke. O well, at least I got to drink a few sam adams boston ales.:ban:

Next batch I make I am definitely getting a cooler. My freakin mash temps were all over the place..which is why my OG is low I guess. Now the only question is...do I go all grain and get a 10 gal cooler + turkey fryer set or, just get a 3-5gallon cooler for some more mini mashes....
 
bigben said:
Now the only question is...do I go all grain and get a 10 gal cooler + turkey fryer set or, just get a 3-5gallon cooler for some more mini mashes....

If you're thinking about the 5gal round cooler. Spend a few bucks more for the 10gal. When you go all grain, no anxieties should you do a big beer. 5 gal coolers at Lowes were $23. 10 gal at HD were$39. You'll feel like a pro with those big ugly orange barrels!
 
I'm guessing you mean 1.036 and 1.056 and that you were off by 0.02 - in which case, I agree with Brewsmith, that's way off - you're only at less than 65% of your target gravity.

What % of your recipe was grain, vs. extract? In my case, I only mash about 3 pounds of grain so for many beers I couldn't miss my OG by that much even if I forgot the mash and only used the extract called for in the recipe. So I'm guessing that the grain was a more significant part of your recipe?
 
Yes, sorry... .02 off.

4 lbs of grain and 4 lbs of extract. I dont know if I had enough mash water either. My grains didn't look fully submerged, so I had to add more water...which brought the temp down, and started my temperature roller coaster. They may have been clumped together too.

So you're saying that even if you left out the grains your OG wouldn't be .02 off? What the heck could it be then???!!!

O and about the cooler...I definitely want a 10 gallon. But if Im going to do more mini mashes, I've read that the 10 gallons are too big and will cause a shallow grain bed or something.
 
bigben said:
So you're saying that even if you left out the grains your OG wouldn't be .02 off? What the heck could it be then???!!!
With 3 pounds of grain and like 5-6 pounds of extract, the grains are contributing less than 40% of the OG, so yeah, even if I left them completely out, I'd still be at more than 60% of my target OG.

Since you are using more grain and less extract than I do, your mashing does have more of an effect on your OG. Did you take any measurements of the specific gravity of the wort you got from mashing (prior to adding any extract)?

Unless you forgot to add a couple of pounds of extract or something, it seems like you need to check typical mash problems. I'm no expert here, but I'd suggest: making sure your grain is properly crushed, using a good mash schedule (temperatures and water volumes), making sure the mash is thoroughly mixed, etc.
It's probably not a bad idea to take a SG reading of the wort that you get from the mash, to make sure you're actually extracting something, and I also like to do the iodine test to see if the mashing process actually worked (starch converted to sugar). Tasting that wort is also a simple sanity check - it should be sweet, and not too watery.

I've got a little documentation of my first partial mash, which may give you something to compare to:
http://eegeek.net/content/view/72/39/
The wort I collected after the mash was 1.076 SG and after sparge was 1.068, tasted sweet, and showed no starches with the iodine test
 
Thanks for the help.

I'm pretty sure my mash sucked. O well...the beer should still taste good right? Just won't be as strong alcohol wise??? I hope.

I think Im definitely getting a 5 gal cooler for my next mini-mash. That way I can be sure the grains are not clumped and I can hit my temps a lot better.
 
What style is the beer? 1.036 is still in the 'normal' range where people intentionally set their OG for certain styles, just today I saw someone asking about an english bitter they were making with an OG of 1.035.

I'd expect it to be pretty light, but will probably come out fine - I'd say RDWHAHB!
 
My last batch was an ordinary bitter with an OG of 1.039. There's nothing wrong with lower gravity beers, and even if it's not what you expected to make it'll still be drinkable. Alcohol content and body will be lower, but it's still beer.
 
I assume that if you are looking to buy a turkey fryer you didn't do a full boil. So you topped up with water right? If you took the hydrometer reading without mixing that really well that can lead to low OG readings (the heavier wort sinks to the bottom).

Depending on what type of extract (LME v. DME), you could get almost 1.036 from the extract alone. I am sure you got some sugar from the malt. I think you should re-guess your OG by taking the FG and back-calculating using the yeast average attenuation, I think you will see it is higher. Also, as suggested before, next time take a hydrometer reading of the total wort you get from the grain before you add the extract, that along with the volume will tell you your efficiency.

Any way, I predict good beer.:mug:
 
Thanks for all the info everyone.

Now one more question. I don't think I mixed up the wort enough after I pitched the yeast. Is it ok to open up the primary and give it a good mixin now? It's been about 18 hours as of this posting.

Thanks!
 
I would be surprised if it didn't mix itself pretty well by diffusion already - and if your yeast is active (airlock bubbling) you have nothing to worry about, as all the bubbling will surely get things mixed up.

But, if you're seeing no activity, and/or if you are just worried, a safer method than opening the primary and stirring would be to take out your airlock, temporarily cover the airlock port (like with your thumb, either wearing a glove or with some plastic wrap or something) and just shake the fermenter.

For that matter, that's something that's a very good idea to do when you first put the wort in the fermenter anyway, as it aerates the wort so the yeast has plenty of oxygen to reproduce - I always do this before pitching my yeast.
 
good idea. I took out the blowoff tube and used plastic wrap and gave it a little whirl. I made a ton of pressure in there...and stuff shot out so hopefully it starts bubbling away soon.

Thanks again,

You asked about the style...it's supposed to be a Sierrna Nevada Pale Ale clone...we'll see what it ends up being :)
 
YOu can tell Im a noob cuz I keep posting every little step on these forums...

After giving it a whirl, it is now bubbling steadily!! WOOT.

Now I will stop worrying for about 5 days...then it's into the Secondary.
 
Exciting, isn't it?

Don't worry about being a noob, you learn fast if you try. I've only got about a half dozen batches under my belt, but I've made (and learned from) all sorts of mistakes, and spent a lot of time reading.
 
is it normal for a beer with a 1.036 OG to be completely done bubbling after less than 36 hours after pitching???

It only bubbled for about 12 hours total. I watched it today for about 3 minutes and nothing :(

I want to throw this batch out and start over....after I get a cooler
 
evandude said:
just today I saw someone asking about an english bitter they were making with an OG of 1.035
Ironically, the person who was asking about the 1.035 OG bitter, was asking almost the same question you just asked:
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=75907&hl=bitter

12 hours does seem really short, but it doesn't mean anything until you take a specific gravity reading and see if it really fermented fully or not.
 
Yea interesting.

O well. I just took a gravity reading and it looked like 1.012. My stupid hydrometer won't stop sticking to the sides tho and there was a lot of crud still at the top...I need a turkey baster.

I will take another reading tomorrow and see what it says.

BTW...it tasted ok :)
 

Latest posts

Back
Top