OG gravity help

[allen3436]

Hello, So i am new to home brewing. Ive done mostly kits that have turned out delicious but i wanted to try a recipe. I tried a extract recipe i found on brewgr.com. When ive used several calculators i should have a OG anywhere from 1.050-1.056. However when i used my hydrometer i am getting a reading of 1.036 (this is when my sample was cooled off to 60 degrees). Im not sure what I've done wrong in my process to not yield close to the calculators.

First off here's my recipe for the full boil. Boil size 4 gal, batch size 3 gallon (by time i finished my 60 min boil it was like a hair under 3 gallon).
1.5 lbs of wheat LME
1.5 lbs of goldpils vienna LME

specialty grains i steeped
1 lbs of Belgian Biscuit
.5 lbs of CaraCrystal Wheat
.5 lbs of UK brown
.5 lbs of Munich 60L

Here's what I did, brought my 4 gal of distilled water to a temp of 130, took off burner and added both LMEs, stirred till everything was dissolved. Put back on burner and brought wort temp to 155-160, i put biscuit in its own muslin bag and the other three in one. I steeped at that temp for 30 min. After 30 min i held both above my pot till they were barely dripping, then i discarded. brought my wort to a boil and held at a low rolling boil for 60 min and added my hops according to the schedule. Once finished i dont have any chillers but i do have a large enough sink to cool that much wort so i placed the kettle in an ice bath till temp was 70 degrees (took about 10-15 min). i got in a hurry, transferred to the fermentor before grabbing a sample. Good thing it was a big mouth bubbler so i was able to grab a sample with relative ease. I put the sample in the fridge to cool to 60 degrees. Put hydrometer in sample and i got a reading of 1.036. Didnt do anything so i pitched my yeast. I figured as long as it tastes delicious who cares if the ABV is below 4%. But still its a problem and i dont have enough experience to know why i was so low in the reading. I should mention i did another batch (the same recipe) but just used a different kind of yeast. I did everything the same except i used 3.5 boil size and it was roughly a hair below 2.5 gallons, so i added more distilled water at the end to get it back up to 3 gallons. My reading on that was like 1.030-32. I FIGURED my reading was so low because i had the targeted 1.050 but when i added the water it brought the reading down... but im not sure that is correct due to this one only being at 1.036. Any inputs would be greatly appreciated!

 

[allen3436]

HMMM, i just read a older post on here about a similar situation. I took the sample prior to aerating the wort. Could this have lead to the low reading? Thats what the older post did and they were closer to the 1.050 than 1.030.....

 

[bracconiere]

i just punched the LME both, into beersmith...got 1.036 for 3 gallons...

maybe next time try including some pale with the partial mash? for enzymes to convert them?

edit: and honestley do the partial mash in a thick mash with the pale. i'm not familar with biscuit, so don't know how much diastatic power it has. but sounds like not enough?

 

[allen3436]

Does steeping the specialty grains not yield any PPG to the wort?

 

[VikeMan]

Does steeping the specialty grains not yield any PPG to the wort?

Steeping specialty grains (crystal malts and dark roasted malts) does add to the gravity. But, of the four grains you used, only one (the crystal wheat) is really "steepable." The others need to be mashed, along with a diastatic base malt. With no base malt, there are no enzymes to convert the starches in these grains.

 

[Kickass]

In addition to what VikeMan said, you pulled some sugar out (likely a small amount) by adding the extract then steeping the grains in liquid that already had extract in it. When you removed the grain bag, it was coated in sweet wort. Next time just steep your grains in water.

 

[Steveruch]

3 lbs. of lme and that small amount of grain in a 3 gallon batch isn't going to get you anywhere near 1.056.

 

[BrewZer]

Which recipe were you trying? I suspect some of the measurements were wrong...

 

[Holden Caulfield]

LME adds 36 gravity points per pound-gallon. When you mixed it with 4 gallons of water you ended up with 4 gallons + approximately another 30 fluid oz from the LME, so the gravity of your wort that you steep your grains in was approximately 1.033.

pulled some sugar out (likely a small amount) by adding the extract then steeping the grains in liquid that already had extract in it. When you removed the grain bag, it was coated in sweet wort.

The grain absorb approximately .135 gallons per pound, that said your grains were holding onto .33 gallons of your sweet wort so you lost approximately 11 points to your grains.

Steeping specialty grains (crystal malts and dark roasted malts) does add to the gravity. But, of the four grains you used, only one (the crystal wheat) is really "steepable." The others need to be mashed, along with a diastatic base malt. With no base malt, there are no enzymes to convert the starches in these grains.

As VikeMan posted, only the Crystal Malt should be steeped. The Munich, Brown, and Biscuit all need to be mashed and in the absence of a Base Malt with sufficient diastatic power to covert your steeping grains, you extracted very little fermentables from them. The Carawheat contributed about 7 points.

So, you had about 115 points that you boiled down to 3 gallons which would give you an expected gravity of 1.038, which is pretty close to the 1.036 you obtained.

As others mentioned...

1. Steep grains in water so as not to lose your LME to grain absorption
2. Steep only Crystal malts and roasted malts (contribute mostly flavor and aroma)
3. Steep kilned malts (dark Munich's, Biscuit, Victory, Melanoidin, Amber, etc) and adjuncts only with sufficient base malts to convert them or you will extract very little fermentables, and may extract unfermentable starches that could cause haze in your final beer

 

[allen3436]

ok wow, thanks everyone for your inputs. Clearly I have so much more to learn (which I knew), probably jumped too quick on the own recipe part. I’m looking foreword to learning from you all. Again thanks!

 

[marc1]

ok wow, thanks everyone for your inputs. Clearly I have so much more to learn (which I knew), probably jumped too quick on the own recipe part. I’m looking foreword to learning from you all. Again thanks!

It looks like it was a good learning experience, and you still got beer out of it, so doesn't seem to have been a bad idea to try, even in hindsight!
Use software to make one on your own next time to learn more!