Nealie
Active Member
not an unmitigated disaster, mind you, just more problems than i'd want in a first AG. had a tough time making a yeast starter last night and couldn't figure out if i'd have sufficiently viable yeast to pitch (fingers crossed). i decided to go ahead and brew at about 8:30-9ish, got my gear together, strapped on my headlamp and trucked outside. hit my mash temps spot on. sparged as directed (drain with vorlauf, add sparge water, stir, wait 5, drain) and fired up the burner on about 5.5gals. turned on the headlamp to discover i was well off my target color, 25+ L, and was probably in the low 20s. after boiling and cooling (which actually went really well with the help of a 200gpm fountain pump), i found that the OG is about 10points low (1.042, not 1.055). so it appears my oatmeal stout has turned itself into an oatmeal porter. and i'm never brewing in the dark again. any advice for pulling my efficiency out of the 60% neighborhood?