Partial Grain Mash OG Problem

[jonwolo123]

I just recently upgraded from a Mr. Beer kit to a two-stage fermenting, 5 gallon kit. I just did my third recipe, a Belgian Tripel using a partial grain mash. Everything seemed to go well with the recipe except my OG was 1.062 and it was supposed to be 1.085. I think the problem was in my mash.
Recipe:
6lb Northern Brewer Golden LME, 3lb Briess Golden Light DME, 1lb Oat Flakes, 1lb Belgian Candy Sugar, .5lb Honey. The rest of the recipe with my hops schedule is here: http://hopville.com/recipe/1586247/belgian-tripel-recipes/beglian-tripel.

For the Oat Flake, I ground them down and put them in a Quart of water at 165 degrees. Once mixed, I put it in the oven at the lowest temperature setting, 170 degrees (uncovered) and left it for an hour. After an hour, I spurged it with another quart of water that was heated to 170 degrees.

I think what went wrong with my OG being too low was with the mash. My thoughts are that I had the oven on too high and should have covered the grains. However, I would appreciate any input from more experienced brewers. I am trying to get partial grain recipes down before I make the switch to all grain.

 

[Yooper]

That's not a partial mash recipe- that's simply an extract recipe with some steeped oats. Oats won't convert without base malt added to it, so you won't get anything (except starch) out of them. A partial mash uses base malt (grain) to convert itself and other grains.

Your recipe isn't at all a typical tripel recipe- it's very unusual and not a tripel like I've ever seen.

With 9 pounds of extract, 1 pound of candi sugar, and some honey, your OG has to be around 1.080. You can't "miss" your OG with extract as the sugars are in there already and the probably cause of a low reading is just that it wasn't mixed up well and the heavier wort sunk to the bottom.

 

[Andrew5329]

What yooper said, also depending on the temperature of the wort when you did your reading it can easily be skewed by as much at .05 compared to the 60*F standard. (hot liquids are less dense than cold liquids)

Couple that with some heavier wort settling down and you probably have your answer.

 

[jonwolo123]

Thanks all for the reply. This was more of an experiment than anything else for me. I built the recipe using Hopville.com and based it off of other recipes I found online. I have testing my Hydrometer in water to calibrate it and I use a temperature conversation to adjust for the degrees.
As far as the wort settling, will that affect fermentation at all? Like I said, I am fairly new to real homebrewing, and every recipe I've done has been within .03 or so of the estimated OG.

 

[Calder]

I think the recipe is along the lines of a trippel. Light extract + Goldings hops + simple sugar + Belgian yeast, no Crystal. Oats are not out of place, but need to be mashed.

Without mashing, the oats will not contribute any fermentables to the wort. To get your OG, run the calculator without the oats. Using extract and honey you can't fail to be far off. When doing an extract batch, I never take an OG measurement, and rely on the calculator.

Don't worry about the sugars not being fully mixed. The yeast will find them.