Puzzled

[ozziewaldo]

Hey guys and gals. I just did a tweak to a batch. I did an 8gal batch that had a 1.09 og the first time lightened the malt by two lbs. switched my steeping grains from two row to marries otter. But I stepped up my grains by a half lb. my first batch was 10 to 11 abv. My conundrum is that on my second batch my og is apx 1.054..... Thoughts I thought I would be between 1.06 to 1.07

 

[BxBrewer]

Apx 1.054 ? You do/did use a hydrometer right ?

 

[reed1911]

Well, a 1.090 OG is very high so 10-11% would be right. 1.054 OG is a good point for starting a 5% or so brew. I'm confused on why you are steeping 2-row or marris otter, they are both base malts and need to be mashed to get anything from them. So if you are doing a mini-mash good on you, but if you are indeed just steeping you are wasting time and grain. What is the rest of the recipe and we can likely help out a bit more.

 

[ozziewaldo]

Yes I use a hydrometer. The grains I was using have been thrashed. I add in some grains to fine tune my sg. My question was is why would taking away two lbs of mault lower my sg from 1.09 to 1.54. Over an 8gallon batch. I was aiming for about 1.07

 

[reed1911]

Simply put, dropping the malt by 2lb will not lower the gravity that much. If you did not really mash the first batch and only steeped and got zero conversion I can see how a lot of starch and unconverted sugars would give you a very high gravity reading, but in that case you would not see the FG drop nearly as much and you would end up with a very thick beer. What is the whole recipe? What temps did you steep at? What do you mean by 'thrashed'?

 

[Mozart]

Yes I use a hydrometer. The grains I was using have been thrashed. I add in some grains to fine tune my sg. My question was is why would taking away two lbs of mault lower my sg from 1.09 to 1.54. Over an 8gallon batch. I was aiming for about 1.07

How long did you steep the grains for and at what temperature?

One possibility is that if you were at the right temp (between 140 and 160) and steeped them long enough, you actually mashed them.

 

[ozziewaldo]

Thrashed as in ran it threw a mill, same temp and same time. My final gravity in my first batch was about 1.012 with out looking in my notes. By Dave's dreaded abv calculator it was about 10.4 abv before bottle conditioning.