Barleywine OG

I brewed a Barleywine with this recipe:

18 lbs. US 2-Row
1 lb. Light Munich malt
1 lb. Light Crystal malt
1 oz. Columbus hops (bittering) - 45 Min
1 oz. Centennial hops (flavoring) - 10 Min
1 oz. Willamette hops (finishing)
1 cup light brown sugar (end of boil)
1 pkg. High Gravity Yeast

I ended up with an OG of 1.060. As I was hoping for a beer that would have 10%+ ABV after a year of aging, the OG was fairly disappointing.

I think I did everything right, but this was just my second AG batch. My first AG batch, a Rauchbier, also turned out a little below expectations ABV wise. Am I being overparanoid, or is there something I've been messing up?

Your OG should have been alot higher than that. Your effeciency must be really low. How are you mashing? With 70% you should have been in the mid 80's.

Per the instructions from Defalco's, I striked with 6 gallons @ 168 degrees. The temperature maintained around 153 for an hour. Using a two liter pitcher, I recirculated the wort 5 times and sparged, collecting around 6.5 gallons in my 7.5 gallon kettle.

Although I think I've got most of All-Grain figured out, the only two areas that I'm not certain that I'm doing right are the vorlauf and the sparging. If anyone has some tips on those areas, I'd greatly appreciate it. Specifically, how much of the wort do I need to recirculate before sparging? Also, when exactly do you sparge - and with how much water at what temperature?

I know the answer is "it depends", but if anyone can explain those two things for my barleywine, it'll certainly help me in future batches.

just to rule out absent-minded mistakes, this was temp-adjusted right? i have a hard time believing your efficiency could possibly be that low

The OG was measured when the wort was at 70 degrees. I had to add around 1 gallon of water to get the total volume up to 5 gallons. I mixed it in well and did not take a diluted sample.

Is there anything I can do to boost the ABV of this thing? I highly doubt that I'll be able to, but thought it was worth asking. Is this batch even worth saving, or should I just dump it out and give it another go next weekend?

INWarner413 said:

. I had to add around 1 gallon of water to get the total volume up to 5 gallons. I mixed it in well and did not take a diluted sample.

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Thats more than likely your issue there. No matter how well you mixed it, chances are it wasn't mixed enough. Not a knock on you, its just very difficult to mix it well enough (even more so at higher OGs) to get an accurate reading.

Once you're sure about your SG readings, you can add DME to bump up the OG.

INWarner413 said:

The OG was measured when the wort was at 70 degrees. I had to add around 1 gallon of water to get the total volume up to 5 gallons. I mixed it in well and did not take a diluted sample.

Is there anything I can do to boost the ABV of this thing? I highly doubt that I'll be able to, but thought it was worth asking. Is this batch even worth saving, or should I just dump it out and give it another go next weekend?

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Are you batch sparging? It's by far the easiest. Simply take your first runnings and subtract that from your pre-boil total. Divide by two and you have your sparge amounts.

Hammy71 said:

Are you batch sparging? It's by far the easiest. Simply take your first runnings and subtract that from your pre-boil total. Divide by two and you have your sparge amounts.

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I'm not sure what exactly I've been doing, lol. Hopefully I figure this stuff out before my next batch, because I'm tired of suffering from AG failure.

Let me see if I correctly understand batch sparging:

-Let's say at the end of my hour long mash, after recirculating the wort, I yield 4 gallons of wort before the draining stops. Is that the "first runnings"?

-Let's say I was shooting for a pre-boil volume of 6.5 gallons. I need 2.5 more gallons. I divide that figure in two, getting 1.25. I then sparge @~168, and that should get me to 6.5 pre-boil gallons?

Sorry if I sound like an idiot, but when it comes to this stuff, I truly am...for now.

Pretty much. I use this calculator...helps alot.

http://www.brewheads.com/batch.php