What went wrong? OG nowhere near what it should have been

[nathliea]

Hi everyone! I recently decided to try my first lager (have the keezer up and ready to go and an extra keg for it to lager in for 6 weeks) and using the Brewer's Friend software and some other super simple grain-bill lager recipes, I put the following recipe together for a honey lager:

6 lb pilsner malt
1 lb flaked corn
2 lb orange blossom honey (added at 70F)
0.5 Mt Hood @ 60
0.5 Mt Hood @ 30
1/2 Whirfloc @ 5
Strike temp 151F
Mash for 60 mins @ 148F
Boil for 60 minutes following hop addition
Cool to around 55F and pitch Saflager S-23

My brewhouse efficiency was terrible, never have seen it this low. Brewer's Friend recipe calc put the OG at 1.054 but mine was down to 1.032. I am a BIAB brewer and followed the exact same process I always do. I usually have pretty decent brewhouse efficiency and hit my numbers pretty darn closely. Squeezed the everloving hell out of my bag until it was almost dry, just like always.

I used the BIAB calculator to calculate out my water, my boil-off rate was perfect, ended up with the exact amount of water I should have. Added the honey once things had cooled to around 70F (have heard/read honey and heat don't mix), STIRRED THE CRAP OUT OF IT to ensure the honey diffused into the wort and took my hydro reading and was just stunned at the difference in OG.

I ended up boiling up 1 lb of DME and 1 cup of table sugar (for good measure) and just dumping that in, was able to get it up to 1.046, but what the heck? The mash temp was a bit lower than I'm used to but I accounted for all of that in my Brewer's Friend recipe, so I don't know how the numbers could have come out so different. I have never brewed with honey before but as it's a highly fermentable product I would not expect it to be any different to the hydrometer than any other type of sugar.

 

[doug293cz]

Did you crush your own grain, and if so what was the gap, or buy it precrushed? Do you happen to have any pics of the crushed grain?

What was the source of the pilsner malt that you used? I have seen postings that some recent vintage European pils malts have a higher than normal gelatinization temperature. If this applied to your malt, then a one hour mash at 148 might not have been sufficient to completely gelatinize all of the starch granules. If you don't get complete gelatinization, you cannot get complete conversion (saccharification.)

Brew on

 

[nathliea]

Hey Doug, thanks for the reply! I did not mill the grain, but I did have the LHBS mill it twice which I always do. The pilsner malt was listed as "German Pilsner Malt" on the site. I don't know much about this malt to be honest, it's my first time using it. Could this particular malt have the issue you're mentioning? I do not have pics of the crushed grain.

 

[Jag75]

Doesnt pilsner have to be mashed for 90 min?

 

[doug293cz]

Hey Doug, thanks for the reply! I did not mill the grain, but I did have the LHBS mill it twice which I always do. The pilsner malt was listed as "German Pilsner Malt" on the site. I don't know much about this malt to be honest, it's my first time using it. Could this particular malt have the issue you're mentioning? I do not have pics of the crushed grain.

I don't have a lot of info on the "high gelatinization temp" malts, but a German Pilsner could certainly fall into that category. I myself have been having conversion efficiency issues with some Brittish Maris Otter that I bought a full bag of.

If you have more malt like that to use later, you could try a two step infusion mash. Use you favorite brewing software to determine how much boiling water you need to bring your mash up from it's first rest temp to 158 - 160F after about 45 minutes. Hold that amount of water out of you strike volume. The second mash rest should probably be about 20 - 30 minutes. It will extend your brew day a little bit, but it might be worth a try.

Brew on

 

[RPh_Guy]

Added the honey once things had cooled to around 70F (have heard/read honey and heat don't mix), STIRRED THE CRAP OUT OF IT to ensure the honey diffused into the wort and took my hydro reading and was just stunned at the difference in OG.

Honey is very difficult to dissolve at room temp. My guess is you didn't stir enough.

The other thing is that your honey may have lower sugar content than what BF assumes. This wouldn't account for the entire gravity discrepancy, but may be contributing.

 

[nathliea]

I would believe it, about the mash temp based on this experience. Odd that the Brewer's Friend calculator didn't account for it. I guess I shouldn't rely on it too heavily

And that's a good point about the honey's sugar content, plus problems with dissolving it. May have been a combination of insufficient mash times and the honey not dissolving enough. But the yeast will still eat the honey. If the honey is the primary issue, I may end up with a very high ABV lager.

Thanks all for the feedback, I really appreciate it. Just when I start to get comfortable and think I know something about brewing, then I realize I'm still at infant-levels of knowledge.

 

[Jako]

good news is you will have a very light easy drinking beer!

 

[nathliea]

good news is you will have a very light easy drinking beer!

Heh, maybe. OR maybe the honey didn't dissolve enough to be picked up by the hydrometer and I dumped a ton of DME and sugar into a batch for no reason and will now have a very high ABV beer.

 

[camonick]

Doesnt pilsner have to be mashed for 90 min?

I’m no expert, but I brewed a Czech style Pilsner on Friday with 9 lbs of finely crushed Pilsner malt for 60 min BIAB and was 4 points high for my preboil SG

 

[Jag75]

I may be getting the mixed up with the boil. I just know I read something about that . Maybe it was 90 min boil because of DMS.