2nd All grain OG question

So I just boiled up my second all grain. I tried Lil Sparky's Nut brown

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Nottingham
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.054
Final Gravity: 1.012
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
IBU: 22.7
Color: 16.3 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14


If you like nut browns, you'll love this one!

Ingredients
Amount Item Type % or IBU
9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.6 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.5 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 8.5 %
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.3 %
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.1 %
1.00 oz Fuggles [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 14.7 IBU Subbed Willemette
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 8.1 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale
Added 1/2 rice hulls

Mash Profile
Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Mash Grain Weight: 11.75 lb
Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F
Sparge Water: 4.21 gal

Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 14.69 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F 60 min

Eveything went according to plan from what I can tell...I ended up with 6.5 gallons in to the kettle @ 1.048 like it says in BEERsmith which puts my eff @ 74% into the kettle. I lost about 1 3/8 gallons do to boil off so I topped off to 5.5 like Beersmith indicated but then my OG was only 1.044 which puts my eff @ like 57%....then pitched yeast.

Ok so I got a couple of questions to help me figure out what I did wrong:

1) Is it possible for my efficiency to suffer so much during the boil since it was spot on pre-boil?

2) Is it possible I was supposed to take my OG reading after pitching yeast (not before) like it says in BEERsmith?

3)Is it possible that my hydrometer was broken becasue after taking my OG i removed it from the thief it cracked right in half?

4) Isit possible my Eff just sucked

BTW this was my 1st crush with a Corona

There's a chance that your samples weren't fully combined. Where did you take your preboil OG sample from? Are you sure it wasn't stratified from the different gravities of the runnings? The same thing could have happened when you topped off.

Note: the sparge temp is way too low. Go with 180 next time and break it into two half sized infusions with runoff in between for higher efficiency.

The pre-boil OG was taken form the kettle....I stirred both runnings together but there is a possibility that they weren't stirred...I'm pretty sure the postboil OG was stirred pretty well....unfortunately now that my hydro is broken I can't double check them since I pitched.

Bobby_M said:

There's a chance that your samples weren't fully combined. Where did you take your preboil OG sample from? Are you sure it wasn't stratified from the different gravities of the runnings? The same thing could have happened when you topped off.

Note: the sparge temp is way too low. Go with 180 next time and break it into two half sized infusions with runoff in between for higher efficiency.

Click to expand...

Basically after the 60 mash was done I added 1gall @ 168....runoff....then added about 3 3/4 gallons @ 168..runoff...this got me to 6.5 gallons.

I pretty much followed the software. Are you suggesting I deviate in this case since it's perceived that my eff is too low? If my setup yeilded a better eff could I just stick to the recipe?

1) If you started with an OG of 1.048 @ 6.5Gal, then boiled and adjusted to 5.5Gal. , you OG should have increased rather than decreased.

2) I have never heard of taking a reading AFTER the yeast was pitched, and wouldn't recommend it due to the risk of contaminating your yeast.

3) If your hydrometer was cracked in half when you took it out of the theif, then it must have cracked in the theif when it was introduced to the hot wort, I usually cool my samples down a bit and preheat my hydrometer.

4) Eff. doesn't sound too bad. Corona mills are tricky, but once you have it set up the way you want it, don't ever adjust it again and they will give you a good and consistant crush.

Yeah my pre-boil measurement may have not been mixed as well as it should have been....I think I'll get a new hydrometer and see where I'm at in about a week.

My 1st AG I think was about 70% with LHBS crush so it may be the corona although the crush looked pretty good to me

I have enough ingredients to brew this one again...I think I may lower my efficiency and increase my base malt (2row) but keep the rest of my technique the same to see if I can get consistent results (efficiency wise) but acheive the desired garvity.

I had the same thing happen two hydrometers ago. The pre-boil was spot on, and the OG after the boil was way low. I looked closely at my hydrometer and there was a crack running around the circumference right at the lead weight. Before taking the last sample I had dropped the hydrometer the last inch or so into the tube.

If only I could get hydrometers to last more than 6 months I would be a happy man.

Wables said:

I had the same thing happen two hydrometers ago. The pre-boil was spot on, and the OG after the boil was way low. I looked closely at my hydrometer and there was a crack running around the circumference right at the lead weight. Before taking the last sample I had dropped the hydrometer the last inch or so into the tube.

If only I could get hydrometers to last more than 6 months I would be a happy man.

Click to expand...

Tell me about it...I've broken 4 hydrometers in a little over a year or so...I need to buy stock or try and invent a rubber hydrometer

Diablotastic said:

Basically after the 60 mash was done I added 1gall @ 168....runoff....then added about 3 3/4 gallons @ 168..runoff...this got me to 6.5 gallons.

I pretty much followed the software. Are you suggesting I deviate in this case since it's perceived that my eff is too low? If my setup yeilded a better eff could I just stick to the recipe?

Click to expand...

The software just defaults to 168F sparge because that's a typical fly sparge temp. You'll see an increase of about 3-5% efficiency if you use 180-185F sparge water. You'll see even more if you run off the mash prior to adding any more sparge, then adde the sparge in two discrete half infusions. Read my all grain primer for details.

Great read Bobby....I'm gonna print it out and use your sparging techniques/temps with this exact recipe and see where I'm at.

I'm thinking I should still dial my eff down (adding more base malt) just to make sure I hit my target gravity...I could always add water post boil right?

wanted to re-post this question for some opinions

If I was to brew the same recipe again but utilize Bobby M's batch sparging method to try and improve my efficiency...I think i would still like to lower my efficiency number in beersmith as a bit of insurance to hit target garvity readings....I'm figuring if my efficiency substantially jumps I could always add a little water in the end to offset

My initial question is that if I wanted to up my grain bill to account for the lack sugras I extracted what would I increase....would it be just the base malt 2 row?

My eff # was about 57% I think....I'm considering lowering it from the default 75% to like 60-65%

what do you guys think

That's what I would do with almost every recipe: up the base malt. I would always get around 65% efficiency which wasn't horrible but I would always have to adjust my grain bill. Now that I changed my system and got my efficiency up to 75-80% I can brew a 1.062 beer with just 11 lbs of malt.

Definitely raise your sparge temp especially if you're not doing a mash out. I heat my sparge water to about 190F and after I pour it into my cooler it settles to around 175-180F. By the time the water actually hits the grain bed it probably drops even lower so I don't worry about being too high (+175F). I also keep the mash cooler covered with a towel while sparging to help minimize temps dropping even lower.