First all grain brew, OG only 1.038

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agforest

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Well, I made my first all grain brew last night. I think that I made some mistakes though......

I made a wheat beer. Here is my recipe:

4.25 lbs Belgian Pilsner Malt
5.0 lbs white wheat
1 lb flaked oats
8 oz rice hulls
Cascade 0.25 oz, pellet, 60 minutes
U.S. Golding 0.25 oz, pellet, 60 minutes
U.K. Northdown 0.25 oz, pellet, 5 minutes
Saaz 0.25 oz, pellet, 5 minutes

0.4 oz Coriander seeds @ 15 min
1/2 oz bitter orange peel and California navel orange@ 15 min
WLP 400
Used 3.5 gallons of strike water and 4.5 gallons of sparge water
I mashed at 152 degrees (according to my thermometer) for 60 minutes. I will get a digital after today, my thermometer is a piece o sh**Te.
Then sparged with 170 degree water. I basically just drained my wort into my brew pot then added half my sparge water and stirred and drained and repeated.

after boiling for 60 minutes, I cooled with a wort chiller to 75 degrees and pitched yeast.
I took a sample and my OG is only 1.038?!?!?!!?
CHecked OG at 60 degrees.

My mash pH was 5.6, should I adjust this?

It is starting to show signs of fermentation this morning.

Should I add some DME? If so, should I just sprinkle some into my glass carboy or add a little to some water and heat it up?

I am worried about aeration. Should I sterilize an airstone and aerate to make sure that the yeast have enough O2 to really get started?
 
That is a good first brewed beer.

Now after the dust settles brew another batch and then you won't have to wait when you drink the last beer from the first batch. You can leave the beer in the primary 4 weeks if you don't have bottles or kegs available and it will be fine. Aging = good beer.
 
Aw man, I just finished brewing my second all grain brew a few minutes ago.... I now have a big bowl of beans and corn bread in front of me to eat!!!! llol I love beans and cornbread!! I brewed Bier muncher's Centennial Blonde tonight. I was very methodical in my mashing and I still didn't get good efficiency. I added a pound of LDME towards the end of the boil when I realized that I would not get good efficiency. My starting gravity is 1.47. I think that Austin Home Brew might not crush their grain that well. I will have to invest in a grain crusher. I have been drinking homemade beers all night.....partial mash. 2 black dog clones, 3 hefeweizens and 3 belgian wits. now I need food!!! and sleep...lol
 
What is your efficiency? What is your mashtun like? False bottom, manifold? Size, shape? Grain bed depth?
 
Sounds to me like you need to invest in a new thermometer. I regularly get over 75% with AHB crush. What was your process?
 
I have a 5 gallon rubber maid cooler. I used a 5 foot stainless steel braid coiled up as a filter..... no need to worry about a stuck mash with 5 foot of braid. I used 3.2 gallons of strike water, kept at 152 degrees for 1 hour (checked with 2 thermometers) then added 4 gallons of sparge water that was 170 degrees, recirculated a gallon. I checked SG at end of boil. It was 1.040 at 80 degrees and I had 5.3 gallons of wort to ferment.
 
That sounds extremely low. What was your sparge temp.
Edit: Nevermind did not read through. Try hotter sparge water? It helped me some. What was your boil volume?
 
Put some wort from your MLT on a white plate and add a drop of iodine. If it turns black you have yet to convert your starches to sugar.
 
I added a pound of LDME towards the end of the boil when I realized that I would not get good efficiency. My starting gravity is 1.47. I think that Austin Home Brew might not crush their grain that well. I will have to invest in a grain crusher.

LDME = liquid dry malt extract? ;)

I also get about 75% with the AHB crush, and that's just because I need a bigger kettle, would probably be getting around 80%. +1 on the hotter sparge water, you want the grain to be 170, the water needs to be hotter to be able to raise the temp of the grain.
 
The only thing I can think of is raising your sparge water temp to about 180F but think that would only be worth 5% or so. You can do the conversion test but 60 minutes of mashing in the 150F+ area is plenty. Continue breaking the sparge into two half infusions. I know it helps.
 
Aw man, I just finished brewing my second all grain brew a few minutes ago.... I now have a big bowl of beans and corn bread in front of me to eat!!!! llol I love beans and cornbread!!


Beans and Cornbread is a meal in itself! You can live on that stuff...well, that and homebrew! Life is good brother! :mug:
 
Heres my guess. European pilsner malt has generally low modification, i.e less starch readily convertable in the mash. What this means is you probably need to mash longer. I would mash euro pils malt for at least 90 mins to get full conversion. Plus hotter sparge water will make a big diff as well.
 
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