2 Things....

[browning348]

On Good Friday I brewed a 5.5 gal batch of an American pale to be pitched on top of and English pale/bitter. The previous beer had a SG of 1040 and finished at 1010. The grain bill of the brew in question was 8lb American 2 row, 2lb flaked oats, 1lb white wheat and 1lb 10L Munich. Brew day went well, mash ph was a little low at 5.1 but I let it ride. Mashed out and sparged, 60 min boil as normal. Here’s where it get’s weird....I didn’t take a pre boil gravity, my mistake. Post boil gravity with a calibrated refractometer was 1040, only .06 below my target. But my hydrometer read 1015, wtf? I double checked with refractometer and same thing, 1040. I rolled with it and decided worst case I would have hop water. Pitched on the yeast cake, aerated, and now, 3 days later, no signs of fermentation. So, 2 issues in one brew day. Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome!

 

[khannon]

What does the hydrometer read in plain water?

 

[browning348]

What does the hydrometer read in plain water?

1.000

 

[browning348]

What does the hydrometer read in plain water?

There was an abnormal amount of hop debris because my bazooka screen got clogged and I had to remove it. But it wasn’t caked, everything was free moving

 

[khannon]

So, A few more questions, just as sanity checks..
The grain was crushed? Did you crush or was it done where you get the grain?
What temp did you mash at?
From your grain bill, I get an OG of 1061 at 70% efficiency, so if you had a decent crush and decent mash.. I personally have never worried about pH other than to minor water additions of acidulated malt for some recipes, so I don't know what a 5.1 pH means in terms of what went wrong(going to go kill some time reading on that now..).
What temp did you transfer onto the yeast cake, and were conditions good for the yeast between taking the other beer off and adding the new wort?

If the hydrometer is reading 1.00 in plain water, you should be good there, what temp did you take your reading at?

 

[browning348]

So, A few more questions, just as sanity checks..
The grain was crushed? Did you crush or was it done where you get the grain?
What temp did you mash at?
From your grain bill, I get an OG of 1061 at 70% efficiency, so if you had a decent crush and decent mash.. I personally have never worried about pH other than to minor water additions of acidulated malt for some recipes, so I don't know what a 5.1 pH means in terms of what went wrong(going to go kill some time reading on that now..).
What temp did you transfer onto the yeast cake, and were conditions good for the yeast between taking the other beer off and adding the new wort?

If the hydrometer is reading 1.00 in plain water, you should be good there, what temp did you take your reading at?

The grain was crushed by Steve’s brew shop in Arkansas and shipped to me. I’ve used him over the past year with no issues. My set up usually runs about 60%, BIAB in a 5 gal cooler. Mash temp was 152. I’m just now messing around with PH. Yeast cake was just bottled off of and was about 70 degrees as was the wort that was transferred, so I’m assuming things were fine. The sample tasted good.

 

[khannon]

Hmm.. By no signs of fermentation, no bubbles through the airlock, no Krausen? No nothing? If things have been kept good and clean, maybe pitch some dry yeast?

 

[BrewerBrad82]

Was the wort sample you used with the hydrometer hot?