Couple Q's

Hey, I've been brewing for a while now, but have a couple questions...

After boiling, should I dump the entire wort collection into the fermenter? or try to leave out the crap on the bottom?

Also, my BG reading have been extremely low... 1.026 for my last brown ale (All grain) and 1.035 for a porter (All Grain). I use a modified 10g cooler for a single temp infusion at around 155F for 1 hour. I'm thinking maybe i'm not cracking the grain fine enough. What do you think?

The beer tastes good, just not too alcoholic.

The crap on the bottom will eventually settle out, but it's best to leave it behind if you can. For the second question, post your recipes for us to better answer your question. Maybe you are taking your readings hot and not correcting them... amongst other possibilities.

Are you doing a sparge?

Yeah... i've been sparging, but only for about 5 min instead of the 15. Are many more sugars extracted during this stage?

strahmhv said:

Yeah... i've been sparging, but only for about 5 min instead of the 15. Are many more sugars extracted during this stage?

Click to expand...

How do you sparge? I fly sparge, and make sure it takes around 45 minutes, to rinse the sugars well. A good sparge can make a HUGE difference in your efficiency.

Yeah... I guess so. I just did an IPA today and ended up with an OG of 1.063

I tightened up my mill a bit and got a better crack on the grain, and sparged for a full 15 minutes at around 170.