Something is not right here

[natehilde]

I kegged my first AG about a week ago, and I have a few concerns. There seems to be something wrong, but I can't put my finger on it.

My target OG was 1052 and I was a bit shy of that, at about 1049. I pitched a 1liter yeast starter and fermentation temp was between 75-77F.

The beer tastes weak, watered down, bland, and overall disappointing. I know that it has only been one week and it will continue to get better, but I can usually tell by this point if the batch is going to be worth a damn. What's going on here?

 

[WOP31]

You should post a recipe, and what yeast did you use 75-77 is a tad warm, depending on the style and yeast strain.

 

[natehilde]

You should post a recipe, and what yeast did you use 75-77 is a tad warm, depending on the style and yeast strain.

Here is the recipe that I used:

* 5 lbs. Dingemans Pils
* 2 lbs. Munich Malt
* 2 lbs. Dark Munich Malt
* 0.50 lbs. Victory Malt
* 0.50 lbs. Breiss Crystal 60

* 1 oz. Liberty (60 min)
* 0.5 oz. Hallertau (15 min)
* 0.5 oz. Hallertau (5 min)

Wyeast #1762 Belgian Abbey II

I know that was probably a bit too high for the temperature range......work was interfering with my hobby again!

 

[WOP31]

What was the final Gravity, so I can crunch some numbers. also what was your efficiancy and mash schedule and sparge run off?


Cheers

 

[natehilde]

Well, while I have been answering you questions, I think I found some of the problems.

My final gravity was 1025 (only 48% attenuation)

Mash schedule: single infusion at 152F for one hour. Collected first runnings and fly sparged while collecting wort (20-25 min)

I don't know how to calculate efficiency.

I was also supposed to use about 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. I pretty much blew that off. I think I was about 3 quarts per pound of grain.

I think that my water usage coupled with fermentation temperature probably was two main contributors.

 

[boo boo]

I think I was about 3 quarts per pound of grain.

That just might explain the watery flavor with all the grains other than 2 row you added.
You probably didn't get proper conversion from your mash.

 

[Yooper]

I don't fly sparge, but if I remember correctly you should sparge very slowly, like over an hour to extract the sugars. So, you should mash with around 1.25-1.5quarts/pound and sparge with the remainder (which would be twice that probably). You kind of got that backwards, so that would explain the watery flavor. It might improve a bit in the keg, so don't write it off yet!

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

That FG seems a little high, and I would expect the beer to have a lot of body and flavor with that much sugar left in it. Very strange indeed.

 

[natehilde]

Do you think that the watery flavor could be because I didn't get enough boil off? Other than the water to grist ratio, I haven't the foggiest of ideas how to calculate water usage prior to brewing. Like I said, this was my first AG. I had never seen one done before. I just jumped right into AG from extract. I figured that if I hit all the major points, the rest would fall into place. Or in the words of Joe Dirt, "that **** will buff out."

 

[PseudoChef]

You can get some software like BeerSmith or ProMash that will calculate water usage for you. I like BeerSmith better in this area.

You don't need them, however. in http://www.howtobrew.com , Palmer goes over calculations that determine how much water to use and the temperature of the water to add to get to your final temp. It's quite useful.