Increase gravity and keep it..

What is the best technique to maintain a steady gravity..

I was targeting 1.050 OG and wound up with 1.040 OG... Not too far off but is there really anyway to reach your gravity every time or is just practice and feeling the brewing process out?

Need more info.

Recipe? Are you mashing, or using malt extract, or both?

I used 3 lbs DME and then 4 lbs of Grains. and 3 oz hops

did you mash the grains?

I'll just tell you exactly what i did..

I ground up the grains and then steeped them for about 35 minutes @ a rolling boil..
Added the DME until it went through the hot break...
Added hops at 60.. 30.. 15 minute intervals.
Cooled and transferred from the pot to a bucket, added yeast and then siphoned into a carboy and airlocked.

Did you steep the grains in boiling water?

Yeah, there's yer problem. You shouldn't be boiling the grains. If you're merely steeping them (which means you're just trying to get flavor and color, but not sugar, out of them), then you should steep at 160f or so for 30 minutes.

On the other hand, if you're mashing (which means you're expecting to get some sugar from the grains), then you need to be a lot more careful about your mashing technique. Standard issue is 149f-155f for 60 minutes, then drain the liquid from the grains, add more hot water, stir, drain again.

But boiling the grains can extract tannins and be very detrimental to your beer---not to mention the lack of sugar that you extract by boiling.

Boil? reaching gravity wont be the only problem!

You just didn't stir your wort/top off water well enough to equilized the sugar content before you measured your OG.

So when i steep my grains for 30 minutes, i'm not getting any usable sugars out of them at all? or just very little?

So i should stick to DME until i have the capablilities to mash?

Steeping grains will not add sugar, but they will help with color and flavor. They will have an impact on your brew.

So that is why my gravity was low.. I only steeped.

Making my extract totally really only 3 lbs.. as opposed to what i thougth would be seven..

Thank god for this forum..

Steeping specialty grains like crystal malts will extract some sugars but at a lower efficiency than you would if mashing. If you steep base grains like pale malt you won't get any significant sugars from the grains.
The extract is your primary source of sugar for extract based beers and you can estimate your OG based on the sugars from the extract. Speciality grains are still an important part of your brew in that they add flavor, aroma and mouth feel.

Craig

dumptrucksally said:

So that is why my gravity was low.. I only steeped.

Making my extract totally really only 3 lbs.. as opposed to what i thougth would be seven..

Thank god for this forum..

Click to expand...

Dumptrucksally, just to clear (and echoing other's comments)...you DID NOT steep your grains, you BOILED the bejeepers out of them! This is NOT what you want to do, under any circumstances that I can think of.

Boiling whole grains will extract large amounts of tannins form the husks, and give your beer an astringent, bitter taste. I fear the beer you made might be undrinkable...you'll have to check it and see.

As others have pointed out, you want to steep your grains by adding them to 160deg water for 30 minutes or so...similiar to how you would make tea. By boiling them, you are exposing them to 212 deg water.

Depending on the grains you are using, steeping grain provides primarily flavor and color componets to your beer/wort, and sometimes limited amounts of sugar. For the most part, you aren't going to get much fermentables from steeping grains.

Sorry to go off the handle on you like this, but I've seen numerous posts of people who have made the mistake of boiling grains and thought they were steeping them. I don't know where people pick this idea up, but you might want to check out this chapter of John Palmer's ebook:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter13.html

Good luck!

dumptrucksally said:

So that is why my gravity was low.. I only steeped.

Making my extract totally really only 3 lbs.. as opposed to what i thougth would be seven..

Click to expand...

I would say NO. Steeping grains does extract various starches, proteins, sugars, etc (depending on the particular grains) which WILL raise your OG, even if it may not add much fermentable sugar. Even though you BOILED your grains when you shouldn't have, they still contributed to your OG.

As Bobby_M indicated, your problem is very likely to be that you failed to properly stir the wort after adding the top-off water, which would mean that your OG reading would seem low even if the actual overall OG was dead on.

As others have said, if you want to use grains you need to use the proper technique. If you feel mashing them is a bit beyond your ability at present, then you can easily steep them, however you need to use the right temperature, and pick your grains wisely because not all grains are suitable for steeping. I would guess that if you were attempting to steep 4 pounds of grain you were using some inappropriate grain, because steeping grains only generally add some color/flavor/body, but not fermentables, and such 'character' grains usually only appear in smaller amounts, like a total of a pound or two.

dumptrucksally said:

So i should stick to DME until i have the capablilities to mash?

Click to expand...

http://byo.com/feature/1536.html
BYO - Countertop Partial Mashing

Try this method out, its super easy and my brews have been much better than with extract and steeping grains