All Grain Batch TROUBLESHOOTING: Not enough fermentable sugars

[FCiavarra]

Ok, I have only done one other all grain batch and it seemed to turn out ok but not perfect. This batch however I barely got enough fermentable sugars to reach 1.037. What I think happened was that I asked the clerk at the local brew store to crack the grains for me and he said he wouldn't be able to because he was too busy with other orders. So I figured I would crack the grain myself not realizing what a pain in the ass it is to try and crack all that grain using a wine bottle and food processor. Long story short I felt like I didn't crack the grains enough and therefore didn't get enough fermentable sugars extracted from them.
The big question is. In order to salvage the batch can I go to the store and buy some extract today (~ 12 hours from yeast pitching) and boil it into a gallon of water and cool it and add it to the fermenter to raise the sugars? I would boil it into a gallon of water because I ended up with only 4 gallons after the boil and didn't want to top it off with tap water because of the low hydrometer reading. I never seem to gauge the amount of water evaporation and waste properly and end up short of 5 gallons.

 

[jamsomito]

What was your grain bill and mash temp?

 

[FCiavarra]

I let it drop too low to like 145F but I brought the temp back up. Regardless the main thing I'm wondering is if I can add extract now?

 

[yoyostevo]

Yes. No problems adding extract


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[LLBeanJ]

yes. No problems adding extract

+1

 

[feinbera]

...I asked the clerk at the local brew store to crack the grains for me and he said he wouldn't be able to because he was too busy with other orders.

This is BS - crushing grain is an easy, quick, and absolutely essential service for a homebrew shop to provide (as you've found out through hard experience). I don't know how confrontational you are, or if there are other local homebrew stores in your area, but this is akin to being handed a raw pie at the local pizzeria and being told "you can just nuke this, right, brah? we're too busy to throw it in our pizza oven."

 

[FCiavarra]

This is BS - crushing grain is an easy, quick, and absolutely essential service for a homebrew shop to provide (as you've found out through hard experience). I don't know how confrontational you are, or if there are other local homebrew stores in your area, but this is akin to being handed a raw pie at the local pizzeria and being told "you can just nuke this, right, brah? we're too busy to throw it in our pizza oven."

I know right? I think he was trying to encourage me to buy a grain crusher because we were talking about them shortly before. Their "store policy" is that they can't crush more than 1lb. per grain but this is BS because their other store location has done it before for me. I really don't want to buy a grain crusher because I'm still a beginner and I don't think I'm going to be crushing more grain than a 5gal batch here and there.

 

[covers42]

Find another local store. If none are around the mail order stores will ship you crushed grain just make sure you check that option. Bought some nice kits from Midwest and Northern Brewer. Local store we have will crush malt unless it is a bulk order of 50,to 55,lbm bags.

 

[acidrain]

You should at least mention here, to the world, what the name of that low-life HB store is.
That is some of the worst customer service I've ever heard of.
Are you a member of yelp? Do they have a facebook page? They need to me slammed.

 

[Talgrath]

My LHBS let's us mill our own grain on their mill...

 

[wilserbrewer]

A corona mill is only 25 bucks and opens the door to buying inexpensive grain by the sack.

Nice try with the wine bottle crush...I admire your ambition.


Wilserbrewer
Http://biabbags.webs.com/

 

[FCiavarra]

It's the only brew store near me and they are a lot of help and good people but I don't see why he couldn't crush them for me. I will have to look into a corona mill.

UPDATE: Ok, so here is what happened. I went to the store and I bought some Munich liquid malt extract and boiled it, cooled it, added it to the wort. I now have a OG of 1.044. which is great. I also realized that the yeast I bought was a liquid Lager yeast and that's why I didn't see any action from the water lock. This is only my 4th batch of beer and my first All grain so it didn't occur to me at first that this beer was technically a lager. So I bought Lager yeast that can work under higher temperatures and pitched that in as well. Less than 8 hours later I have a rigorously bubbling airlock! SUCCESS!