Please help me understand what I did wrong :(

[Babbage78]

I just wrapped up a day of brewing an IPA. My target OG was 1.071 and I somehow ended up with an OG of 1.051...I mashed at 151 for 90 minutes and didnt do a mash out, just sparged after collecting my first runnings. Here's the recipe I used:

6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 49.2 %
5.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 41.0 %
0.19 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 1.6 %
0.80 oz Magnum [15.20%] (60 min) Hops 41.4 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.70%] (15 min) Hops 11.6 IBU
0.40 oz Citra [12.50%] (15 min) Hops 8.5 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.80%] (15 min) Hops 7.4 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.70%] (5 min) Hops 4.7 IBU
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.80%] (5 min) Hops 3.0 IBU
0.30 oz Citra [12.50%] (5 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
0.30 oz Citra [12.50%] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.80%] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.80%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.70%] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.70%] (Dry Hop 4 days) Hops -
1.00 lb Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 8.2 %
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

I don't think I've ever been so short on my target OG and the brew day went so flawlessly that I seriously have no idea what went wrong. I usually buy my grains from northern brewer already milled and this time I bought my grains from a LHBS that I had never bought from before, but the grains seemed to be crushed almost identically to northern brewers.

Please help, I'm kind of panicking here and if someone could please tell me how I could perhaps correct my gravity to my original target gravity it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Yooper]

You used 11.19 pounds of grain? For a 5 gallon batch? For a 70% efficiency, you'd expect 1.057. I get 75% on my system, so for that grainbill I'd expect 1.061 or so. Adding a pound of sugar adds 9 pounds, of course, for an OG of 1.070 at 75% efficiency.

It sounds like your efficiency was more like 53% or so, and then the corn sugar brought you up nine points, assuming 5 gallons into the fermenter.

There are a couple of things to look at. One is the crush, but if it looked good to you it probably was. Are you sure you got 11.19 pounds and were a few pounds short in the grainbag?

How about your mashing technique- did you have any issues (too thick, too thin, dough balls)? And how about your volume? What was your preboil volume, and what did you end up with in the fermenter?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Different crush with different results leads me to believe you had a substandard crush???

 

[hunter_le five]

Edit: oops misread the OP

 

[Conman13]

What size batch? If 5 gallons, your grain bill was way too short. How did you calculate the OG given that grain amount?

 

[clickondan]

If the problem isn't found in the volumes, the crush or the technique, check your thermometer. If it's reading wrong, your mash temp will be off and efficiency will suffer. Alternatively, maybe you didn't mix the first runnings and the second thouroughly enough before drawing for a measurement, and caught some wort from the low end. As far as correcting this batch, if it were me I wouldn't even worry about it.

 

[Babbage78]

The batch size was 5 gallons, I had the efficiency dialed in at 75% because I usually get that or more. I use beersmith to put my recipes together and have my equipment pretty much dialed in. I usually manage to come at least within a point or two of my target OG. I did notice that I had some extra wort left over after siphoning 5 gallons into my fermenter, but definitely not enough to justify the difference in gravity, at most it was an extra 2/3 of a gallon. I mashed at about 1.35 qts/lb of grain and made sure to break up any dough balls but did notice that the malt seemed to compact much more quickly than my average mash.

 

[Yooper]

Well, 2/3 of a gallon is a LOT- and could easily explain 8 points off of your expected gravity (due to the volume loss). That doesn't explain all of it, though.

Was your preboil volume the same as always?

 

[Babbage78]

preboil volume was substantially larger than I am accustomed to, but I boiled to a point where it measured to my norm (I have a jimmy-rigged measuring stick). For some reason my mash seemed to drain much more efficiently than it normally does this time around.

 

[wilserbrewer]

For some reason my mash seemed to drain much more efficiently than it normally does this time around.

I smell a poor crush with that statement. A coarse crush will drain very quickly.

 

[Babbage78]

Yeah...the only logical factor I keep coming to is that the crush wasn't right. I guess there goes my business from that LHBS until I buy a grain mill =/

 

[hophop]

10 lbs of grist for almost 6 gallons of wort is too little. Getting 1.071 out of 10 lbs would be very difficult. I set my beersmith at 75% also and I would need 2-3 lbs more grain to achieve a 1.071 og.


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[MrHadack]

10 lbs of grist for almost 6 gallons of wort is too little. Getting 1.071 out of 10 lbs would be very difficult. I set my beersmith at 75% also and I would need 2-3 lbs more grain to achieve a 1.071 og.

In his initial post, down past the list of hops, there's 1lb of sucrose listed. If you add that the the 11.2 pounds of grain he used, BeerSmith does predict 1.071 OG with a 75% efficiency.