irwinben
Active Member
I have been experiencing very low original gravity / efficiencies recently. I switched to a converted keg with a homemade false bottom (see pics attached) made of a splatter guard. The false bottom is basically a screen and effectively allows wort to filter througout the entire area, rather than a purchased screen that has holes or perforations in approx 50% or less of the surface area.
The low OG readings could potentially be coming from the nature of the false bottom (thoughts?) or may be coming from errant calculations. I have been using Beercalculus as a decent free tool to formulate recipes. I typically boil 7 gallons in order to be able to leave break material in the kettle and still end up with 5 to 5 1/2 gals for the primary. Is the batch size actually 7 gallons and not 5???
If I am not picking up enough sugar from the sparge process, is it possible to re-sparge with the wort (as in pass it through the grain bed twice)? Or should I try to slow the sparge process down significantly? The other option is to scrap the keg / false bottom and go back to the cooler method.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
The low OG readings could potentially be coming from the nature of the false bottom (thoughts?) or may be coming from errant calculations. I have been using Beercalculus as a decent free tool to formulate recipes. I typically boil 7 gallons in order to be able to leave break material in the kettle and still end up with 5 to 5 1/2 gals for the primary. Is the batch size actually 7 gallons and not 5???
If I am not picking up enough sugar from the sparge process, is it possible to re-sparge with the wort (as in pass it through the grain bed twice)? Or should I try to slow the sparge process down significantly? The other option is to scrap the keg / false bottom and go back to the cooler method.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
