missed my OG but will get the ABV that I wanted??

Ive done this recipe last week a Double Red IPA and beer smith was giving me a OG of 1.090 and FG of 1.025 for a 8.6% so when I checked my OG I was only at 1.075 so I was F**K missed my OG again but just did a gravity test today after primary and its at 1.014 so I will be close to 1.010 when bottling or kegging or close. Its only been fermenting for 4 days. Im using Wyeast Ringwood ale btw.

Can someone help me find out what happened here? In both case this is giving what I wanted but trying to figure out what I've done wrong.

1.090 - 1.025 = 1.065
1.075 - 1.010 = 1.065

The recipie and an explanation of your process would make it much easier to answer your questions

Well, if your goal was to get the correct ABV, you accomplished that.

Avb will be correct but flavor profile will be different. Enjoy!

cannman said:

Avb will be correct but flavor profile will be different. Enjoy!

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missed my OG by 20 but Im yielding much lower than BS was estimating. what did I do wrong here?

Like I said before, without more info on your process and the recipie you were using there is no way to answer your question. Extract or all grain?

Pdaigle said:

missed my OG by 20 but Im yielding much lower than BS was estimating. what did I do wrong here?

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Like @nettekdl said, we need your data to know

nettekdl said:

Like I said before, without more info on your process and the recipie you were using there is no way to answer your question. Extract or all grain?

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K, im using all grain, mash in at about 152f for an hour. A 6 gallon batch and used almost 20 pounds of grain. Boiled for an hour.

Check your thermometer. If you actually had a mash temperature below 150 it might have given you a more fermentable wort, thus the lower FG.

The other thing is volume. If you really had more volume than BS was expecting you would get the lower OG and probably a more fermentable wort and lower FG.

Also 1.014 might be as low as it goes making the difference larger.

kh54s10 said:

Check your thermometer. If you actually had a mash temperature below 150 it might have given you a more fermentable wort, thus the lower FG.

The other thing is volume. If you really had more volume than BS was expecting you would get the lower OG and probably a more fermentable wort and lower FG.

Also 1.014 might be as low as it goes making the difference larger.

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so mash temp can only affect FG not OG?

Pdaigle said:

so mash temp can only affect FG not OG?

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It will affect FG for sure. A low temperature will give a more fermentable wort a lower FG and a drier beer. A higher temperature will give a less fermentable wort, a higher FG and a sweeter/maltier beer.

I guess it would have some affect on OG, but that is not what is most noticeable in the finished beer.

Another thing to consider is your calculation of the amount of water you used. If you were not 100% accurate , your numbers will be off too. Lets say you added just a half gallon more of water not originally figured for in a 5 gallon batch. That's going to dilute your final number 10%. So if you expected 1.090, that is already going to drop you to 1.081. And then there's the mash temp errors etc etc. So there's a whole process thing.

(BTW, I don't think the real number is 10%, I think it's more like 8.xx% but I'm not in the mood to figure it out exactly. The POINT of the matter is: deviation in accuracy will change your numbers. Collectively, this could be a big number.

Also, how what is your grain crush like? And how well did you stir the mash, eliminating dough balls

Pdaigle said:

Ive done this recipe last week a Double Red IPA and beer smith was giving me a OG of 1.090 and FG of 1.025 for a 8.6% so when I checked my OG I was only at 1.075 so I was F**K missed my OG again but just did a gravity test today after primary and its at 1.014 so I will be close to 1.010 when bottling or kegging or close. Its only been fermenting for 4 days. Im using Wyeast Ringwood ale btw.

Can someone help me find out what happened here? In both case this is giving what I wanted but trying to figure out what I've done wrong.

1.090 - 1.025 = 1.065
1.075 - 1.010 = 1.065

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IPA, even a double IPA, should NEVER be finishing at 1.025. It should generally be very dry - closer to 1.010. Your beer smith estimate of FG is probably way off. What was the recipe (is it a secret?!)

I think you simply missed your OG by 15 points (volume measurements are important - how do you measure it? How do you measure gravity?).

55x11 said:

IPA, even a double IPA, should NEVER be finishing at 1.025. It should generally be very dry - closer to 1.010. Your beer smith estimate of FG is probably way off. What was the recipe (is it a secret?!)

I think you simply missed your OG by 15 points (volume measurements are important - how do you measure it? How do you measure gravity?).

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For what it's worth, the upper threshold is 1.018 BJCP

55x11 said:

IPA, even a double IPA, should NEVER be finishing at 1.025. It should generally be very dry - closer to 1.010. Your beer smith estimate of FG is probably way off. What was the recipe (is it a secret?!)

I think you simply missed your OG by 15 points (volume measurements are important - how do you measure it? How do you measure gravity?).

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I thought it was high too and BS was set to Double IPA. Its not a secret recipe and I had about 14lbs of MO along with CaraRed, some crystal 60L and 120L.

mash temp in BS was set a 152. I find it wierd it was yielding at 1025

nettekdl said:

Also, how what is your grain crush like? And how well did you stir the mash, eliminating dough balls

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my last batch was OK but I had issues in previous one. Started crushing with a Corona Mill but I don't like it. Lots of factor here that could screw up my OG so its hard to say when I think of that brew day. thx

Once suggestion, take a pre-boil gravity reading after you have mashed and sparged. If that is low, then you know your OG will be low and you can adjust by adding DME or other sugars or by boiling longer to hit the right OG, but have less final volume. My last brew, I was way off on pre-boil, got 1.035 when it should have been 1.048. I traced it back to a change in my mill settings...but since I took the pre-boil reading I knew my OG would be off and was able to adjust by adding 2.36 lbs of DME. Thus post boil, my OG and gallons left were spot on.

Pdaigle said:

I thought it was high too and BS was set to Double IPA. Its not a secret recipe and I had about 14lbs of MO along with CaraRed, some crystal 60L and 120L.

mash temp in BS was set a 152. I find it wierd it was yielding at 1025

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If you had 6 pounds of crystal malts in your beer, that is extraordinarily high - 30% of the grain bill...(you said 20 pounds and 14 pounds were MO......)

When you start brewing beers above 1.06 or so, I always notice a decrease in efficiency from beers below that. A beer in the 1.090 range is going to see a decrease in efficiency in my opinion.

A better crush is almost always the #1 issue with efficiency. From there it is amount of mash water, temps, pH, etc..... They all play a role.

When I brew a bigger beer, I always keep a few 1 pound bags of DME on hand and take a gravity reading pre-boil to see where I am at. I add a pound or two of DME if I know I need to bump gravity.

For what it is worth - ABV should very rarely be the goal if you are trying to make good beer. Taste, balance, etc. is what you are shooting for - that is why OG and FG matter - not because of the ABV #.