Hi,
I've made four beers (two partial mash and two all grain) that have all had original gravities between .019 and .013 below target. I am having a hard time figuring out what I'm doing wrong! I'll outline what I think are the important details about each beer to see if anyone has any insight:
1) Red Ale - TG 1.050, OG - 1.031
-1.5lbs carapils, 1 lb maris otter, 2oz chocolate malt, 3.3 lbs malt extract
-I mashed on a stove top around 160 degrees with 3.5qts, not realizing importance of temperature
-sloppy/fast sparge with 2 qts 170 F H2O
Despite my errors, I was surprised the OG was so low because seems like most of the sugars would have been in the extract?
2) Brown Ale - TG 1.048, OG - 1.031
-1lb maris otter, 1lb c120, 8oz brown malt, 3.3 lbs extract
-almost the same procedure as before except i kept the temperature around 154
Then I did a lot of reading, bought a cooler/mashtun/lautertun and wrote my own recipes.
3) Porter - TG 1.061 (I calculated this myself - def could have made mistakes. Also assumed 68% efficiency) OG - 1.047
-5lbs smoked malt, 4 lbs 2-row, 2.5 specialty
-combined 2.75g water at 168 degrees with the grain in the cooler for an hour, (settled at 153 degrees), tested with iodine before sparging
-sparged with 2.25g of 170 degree water - the first few cups i poured back in. only took about ten minutes because i don't really understand how to go slower or why. I have that bazooka spigot thing, do i just open the valve a tiny bit and then pour water very slowly in the top of my pot? what's the point of going so slow?
-after putting all in the carboy, I realized I totally miscalculated my water usage throughout so i added a gallon and a half of water at the very end.
-all water used is NYC tap water, untreated by me
4)Porter redo TG 1.053 (again, calculated by me assuming 68% efficiency), OG 1.040
10 lbs total grain, 4.5 lbs amber, 3 lbs two row, 2 lbs crystal, 8oz chocolate
-combined 3g water at 168 degrees with grain in cooler, gave it a good stir (maybe 5 rotations?) but I was worried about losing heat because my thermometer looked to only be at 149 degrees so i stuck the lid on and let it sit for the hour, tested with iodine before sparging.
-sparged with 1 gallon of 180 degree water - i put that gallon in my lauter tun first to get to the level of the bazooka, then i put in the grain, then i poured 4 gallons of 170 degree water over top. the first cups i poured back in, the rest i ladled over the top. the entire process only took ten minutes.
I read another thread of a guy with a similar problem where it seems like people are recommending stirring more and messing with the pH. does it seem like that's my problem as well? Does anyone know if NYC water would be the problem? And can stirring a bit more really bring my OG up by .013, which even still only gets me to 68% efficiency? And are there any really good videos about sparging? I've read both papazian's basic books, howtobrew.com, couple books by daniels, and I still don't understand why you have to sparge slowly or really how to sparge slowly.
Thanks for the help!
I've made four beers (two partial mash and two all grain) that have all had original gravities between .019 and .013 below target. I am having a hard time figuring out what I'm doing wrong! I'll outline what I think are the important details about each beer to see if anyone has any insight:
1) Red Ale - TG 1.050, OG - 1.031
-1.5lbs carapils, 1 lb maris otter, 2oz chocolate malt, 3.3 lbs malt extract
-I mashed on a stove top around 160 degrees with 3.5qts, not realizing importance of temperature
-sloppy/fast sparge with 2 qts 170 F H2O
Despite my errors, I was surprised the OG was so low because seems like most of the sugars would have been in the extract?
2) Brown Ale - TG 1.048, OG - 1.031
-1lb maris otter, 1lb c120, 8oz brown malt, 3.3 lbs extract
-almost the same procedure as before except i kept the temperature around 154
Then I did a lot of reading, bought a cooler/mashtun/lautertun and wrote my own recipes.
3) Porter - TG 1.061 (I calculated this myself - def could have made mistakes. Also assumed 68% efficiency) OG - 1.047
-5lbs smoked malt, 4 lbs 2-row, 2.5 specialty
-combined 2.75g water at 168 degrees with the grain in the cooler for an hour, (settled at 153 degrees), tested with iodine before sparging
-sparged with 2.25g of 170 degree water - the first few cups i poured back in. only took about ten minutes because i don't really understand how to go slower or why. I have that bazooka spigot thing, do i just open the valve a tiny bit and then pour water very slowly in the top of my pot? what's the point of going so slow?
-after putting all in the carboy, I realized I totally miscalculated my water usage throughout so i added a gallon and a half of water at the very end.
-all water used is NYC tap water, untreated by me
4)Porter redo TG 1.053 (again, calculated by me assuming 68% efficiency), OG 1.040
10 lbs total grain, 4.5 lbs amber, 3 lbs two row, 2 lbs crystal, 8oz chocolate
-combined 3g water at 168 degrees with grain in cooler, gave it a good stir (maybe 5 rotations?) but I was worried about losing heat because my thermometer looked to only be at 149 degrees so i stuck the lid on and let it sit for the hour, tested with iodine before sparging.
-sparged with 1 gallon of 180 degree water - i put that gallon in my lauter tun first to get to the level of the bazooka, then i put in the grain, then i poured 4 gallons of 170 degree water over top. the first cups i poured back in, the rest i ladled over the top. the entire process only took ten minutes.
I read another thread of a guy with a similar problem where it seems like people are recommending stirring more and messing with the pH. does it seem like that's my problem as well? Does anyone know if NYC water would be the problem? And can stirring a bit more really bring my OG up by .013, which even still only gets me to 68% efficiency? And are there any really good videos about sparging? I've read both papazian's basic books, howtobrew.com, couple books by daniels, and I still don't understand why you have to sparge slowly or really how to sparge slowly.
Thanks for the help!