Help with Low SG Bee Cave Pale Ale twice

I've seen efficency questions all over the place and wanted some feedback on my next steps. I brewed the Bee Cave Pale Ale on the below link several weeks ago and missed my SG by 0.011. I followed the steps, volumes, and ingrediants to the letter. After going through the brewing process in my head a dozen times I found my thermometer to be off by 6 degrees. After kegging it I found it to have a blah tast and definitely lacking on the alcahol side.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/

Last night I brewed the same exact recipe once again to the letter. This time I spent a tremendous amount of focus on temperature, checking my numbers with 2 thermomemters that I calibrated. My volume into the kettle was perfect and a vigorous boil ensued for an hour leaving me about 1 gallon shy into my primary. At this time I took a gravity reading and found it once again at 1.040 isntead of 1.051.

Considering how well everything went other than the gravity the only piece I have no control over was the crushed grains. I purchased all grains from homebrewing.org for both batches.

Has anyone else used grains crushed by homebrewing.org and had any efficieny issues?
Would I be better off jsut crushing my grains with a cereal crusher?
Anyother thoughts why I missed my numbers by so much on 2 different occasions?

Any help would be appreciated, my extract brews were always very good. Jumping into All Grain brewing is not producitng the results I was hoping for.

-Mike

 

1-are you doiing full boils? Adding top off could produce a poor "mix".
2-Poor crush could be problem. If you don't have a mill you could ask them to double crush.
3-Or run them thru the blender. I can crush 7 lbs in 10 minutes, but I do BIAB and don't worry about making flour. LOL

 

I'm doing a full boil of 6.5 gallons. This was the first time using my propane burner in a long time so I ended up boiling off more than expected. I also had a small boil over of maybe a cup or 2.

So what are the ill effects of a poor mix? I was doing extract up until these 2 batches and those typically were looking for some top off water so I figured this would be fine.

 

A couple other things not mentioned:

1. Calibrated Hydrometer? If so, are you correcting for temperature?
2. Poor Crush? Do you crush or the store? If so ask what gap they are running?
3. How long is your mash and at what temperature. I'm assuming you are batch sparging as well.

Tips:
1. Double crush and use some rice hulls just in case of stuck sparge
2. Extend your mash time. I now do 90 minute mashes, and have seen great success in my efficiency moving much higher
3. Voirlauf a lot until perfectly clear
4. Take a gravity reading pre-boil... There is a calculator online that will tell you your estimated Gravity after boiling. Should help you with understanding better where you will end up.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

5. If you end up on the right gravity but are under volume, don't top up just for the sake of having more beer. Have less beer finished product but hit the numbers. Once you have that down, you can start adjusting things like crush and adjusting malt amounts if you need to.

 

Thanks for your response. I haven't calibrated my hydrometer because its been on right on for all my prior brews and I was pleased with there outcomes.

The crush is my main concern. I had the vendor crush the grains and I couldn't tell a good from a bad crush job so I was assuming they were doing it well. I think the next batch I will do my own crushing of the grains.


When I was mashing I did about 75 minutes at 152-154 degrees. The temperature held steady for the duration but I noticed that at different levels in the cooler the temperature varied by a degree or two. (surface temp vs. bottom temp).

 

So hydrometer calibration has nothing to do with how your other brews. Calibration is just putting the hydrometer into your test tube with water instead of wort. It should read 1.000. If it doesnt then you know that your hydrometer is not calibrated and you with either have to purchase a new one or adjust your results either plus a few points or minus a few points every time you measure your gravity.

Regarding mash tun temperature stratification, that is fairly normal, so nothing wrong there.

It seems to me that this is pointing more and more towards crush, or something that you do that you are not writing down here. Here is a webpage that references crush and what is considered good vs bad as well as conditioned crushes:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=CrushEval

Couple other things for mashing... Make sure you are stirring really well when you dough in. Break up any dough-balls you find and additionally make sure you are not leaving any grain on the sides of the cooler, so scrape that down.