Need some advice

In the boil session of my 3r AG brew, this one is APA. I must be missing some important part of the process, or I am a candidate for remedial brewing. Missed the OG target by 15 pts, previous times 20 and 25 pts, I guess the good news is that I am improving.

Equipment:
10 gl Igloo MLT
15 gl boilermaker

Process

Pre Heat MLT with 168 water for 45 mins, ambient temp 80 degrees.
Dough in at 165, with 3.25 gallons on 9.5 lbs of grain. Stir, temp perfect 153.
Temp at 30 mins in the MLT 152.4, temp at 60 mins.

Batch Sparge
2.5 Gallons of 175 water, stir 5 mins, let set 5 mins, drain 2 qts, recirculate.

Drain MLT, get 3.75 gallons.

Batch Sparge
2.5 gallons of 175 water, stir 5 mins, let sit 5 mins, drain total of 6.5 gallons.

What am I missing?

How does your crush look? I am thinking that might be your problem.

Also, do you have any way to check or stabilize your mash pH? It is possible that your water is not great for brewing pale ales.

You didn't use one of those new Blichmann boil pots did you?

I heard you get terrible results with those.










J/K

Can you post your pre boil readings?
are you trying to hit 1.052 as a OG for example? And what are you hitting? 1.030?

Your process seems ok. I agree with the grain crush comment as well? How are you milling your grain?

T

1. Bad Crush

2. Bad Crush

3. Bad Crush

4. Not adjusting SG for temp

5. Inadequate Calcium

6. pH problems

BierMuncher said:

You didn't use one of those new Blichmann boil pots did you?

I heard you get terrible results with those.










J/K

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oh BM you are truly king. hehehe

Did you compensate for temperature when taking the gravity reading? What was the temperature? Temperature compensation is not very reliable at temperature over about 100 F.
Did you stir really well before taking the gravity? If not, you could have heavy wort at the bottom of the kettle, and lighter wort at the top (where you took the sample from).
To help diagnose the problem, you may want to take the gravity from the second sparge, and measure it's gravity (after cooling). Ideally, it should be about 1.010. If it is much above 1.020, then you need to look to your sparge as part of the problem. If below 1.020, then any problem is probably in the mash - bad crush, bad pH etc.
Have you calibrated your thermometer and hydrometer? If they are inaccurate, they can give poor efficiency or false results.
You could try a thicker mash (down to 1 qt per lb) which would leave allow for a little more sparge water. This may improve your efficiency a little, but will probably result in a more dextrinous wort.
On the other hand, as your efficiency is increasing with each brew, you could just wait for another few brews and see what happens.

-a.

xamers said:

4. Not adjusting SG for temp

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Not very bright on my part, killed it once temp adjusted. Thanks guys.