suckerpunchltd
Well-Known Member
So I did my second AG yesterday (consequently only my second ever brew day) and came in way lower than expected gravity. I'll post up the particulars of the recipe, the process and how I found my mistake along the way.
First I was doing a simple SMaSH recipe based off 2-row and Willamette hops. Mostly this is a "filler" brew to keep some in the pipeline as my next batch will be a longer aging batch and I wanted some home brew to enjoy in between. I also wanted to keep a simple, low cost grain/hop bill.
Here's the recipe from BrewersFriend:
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
10 lb American - Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 100%
10 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Willamette Pellet 6 Boil 60 min 23.3
0.75 oz Willamette Pellet 6 Boil 30 min 13.43
0.5 oz Willamette Pellet 6 Boil 5 min 2.32
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
12 qt Single Infusion Mash Infusion 154 F 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.2 qt/lb
Yeast
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
The numbers to try for:
Method: All Grain
Style: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Boil Gravity: 1.037 (recipe based estimate)
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)
Original Gravity: 1.050 Final Gravity: 1.010 ABV (standard): 5.34% IBU (tinseth): 39.05 SRM (mosher): 5.68
I used a 1.2qt:1lb grain ratio, which meant I needed 12qt strike water. No problem, heated the strike water to about 180, added to MLT and stirred and let it settle in, once it hit just below 170 I began my grain addition and added the 10lb crushed 2-row. Good so far, after about 10 minutes temp reading stabilized right about 153-154. Which was my target on this recipe.
Now, I began heating my sparge water. I do a pseudo fly sparge using colander and pouring water through to keep about 1-2" on top of the grain bed. Worked the first time, why not the second time, right? So I heat my 28 quarts of sparge water, as I'm targeting just over 7 gallons pre-boil so I end up closer to 5.5 gallons into the primary (my first batch I ended under 5 gallons into the primary and was off on target volumes). You see what I did there? Yeah, more on that later. (hint it's a volume issue again)
Finished sparging and took a SG sample and began to boil. After the sample cooled I took a reading of 1.032, a little low for what BF recipe said it should be at 1.037. You see what happened there? (hint it's a volume issue)
Boiled for about 60 minutes using the hop addition schedule as in the recipe and chilled the wort to about 68+/- degrees with my immersion chiller and proceeded to pull a sample for OG testing. Put into the primary by dumping and aerated it by rocking/shaking for a few minutes and pitched the Safale S-04 yeast. I ended with 6 gallons instead of the 5.5 gallons estimated. Oops. (hint it's a volume issue)
In moving the primary I bumped the table and the sample was dumped it before getting the OG reading, so I pulled another from the primary after the yeast was pitched - I did check and minus removing a bit of yeast there seems to be no issue in taking the reading at this point (unless I missed it)
The sample came in at 1.034 when I took the reading. What? Yeah, something's off here, only .002 rise after 60 minute boil? Hmmm. Temp on wort was just under 70, so temp correction would only add .001, so that's 1.035, way lower than expected 1.050. Still not sure why I'm only showing a .002 rise in gravity after boil.
Put the fermenter into the basement and went to analyzing what happened.
Well, I over sparged. I used 28 quarts of water instead of 22 quarts. I misread the BF brew day log and it said I needed just over 28 quarts total - 12 in mash plus just over 22 for sparging but on my phone I didn't see the "water requirements" tab and only seen 28 quarts in the brew day log and sparged with 28 quarts giving me about 30-31 quarts to the boil kettle.
So oversparging explains why the SG was only 1.032 pre-boil. Oops. I still would have expected that boiling off well over a gallon (almost 1.5 gallons by my calculations since I sparged w/ 28 quarts - or 7 gallons - I ended with about 7.5 gallons in boil kettle and ended with 6 going into primary) would have given me more than a .002 rise...so on that thoughts? Misread on hydrometer? Temp was about 68 degrees as mentioned so any temp correction would only add about .001. I have calibrated the hydro on water and it hits right at 1.000 when temp is 60. I would expect I should be closer to 1.038-1.042 post boil?
All the same, the yeast are very happy and it is very actively fermenting as of this morning, just over 12 hours after going in the primary. In fact I may need to keep an eye on it and see if I need a blow off tube later today.
I am thinking of adding a sugar solution to bring the SG up - I've been reading and know that it will make for a dry beer (which in this case I'm ok with a dry, light colored ale) and am thinking of adding right after high krausen as that seems the most common time, which should be in about 2-3 days. I don't have any DME to add to maintain body/sweet and closes LHBS is about 50 miles away so that's not really an option to me at this point. I'm mainly looking at boosting the ABV with this to get closer to the recipe idea, though not mandatory and if it would ruin the brew I'll skip and have a nice lower ABV session ale.
In any case, I should still have a very simple, drinkable beer so I'm not too worried about it, just trying to find tune the process and avoid making repeat mistakes.
First I was doing a simple SMaSH recipe based off 2-row and Willamette hops. Mostly this is a "filler" brew to keep some in the pipeline as my next batch will be a longer aging batch and I wanted some home brew to enjoy in between. I also wanted to keep a simple, low cost grain/hop bill.
Here's the recipe from BrewersFriend:
Fermentables
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
10 lb American - Pale 2-Row 37 1.8 100%
10 lb Total
Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Willamette Pellet 6 Boil 60 min 23.3
0.75 oz Willamette Pellet 6 Boil 30 min 13.43
0.5 oz Willamette Pellet 6 Boil 5 min 2.32
Mash Guidelines
Amount Description Type Temp Time
12 qt Single Infusion Mash Infusion 154 F 60 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.2 qt/lb
Yeast
Fermentis / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
The numbers to try for:
Method: All Grain
Style: American Pale Ale
Boil Time: 60 min
Boil Gravity: 1.037 (recipe based estimate)
Batch Size: 5.5 gallons (fermentor volume)
Efficiency: 75% (brew house)
Original Gravity: 1.050 Final Gravity: 1.010 ABV (standard): 5.34% IBU (tinseth): 39.05 SRM (mosher): 5.68
I used a 1.2qt:1lb grain ratio, which meant I needed 12qt strike water. No problem, heated the strike water to about 180, added to MLT and stirred and let it settle in, once it hit just below 170 I began my grain addition and added the 10lb crushed 2-row. Good so far, after about 10 minutes temp reading stabilized right about 153-154. Which was my target on this recipe.
Now, I began heating my sparge water. I do a pseudo fly sparge using colander and pouring water through to keep about 1-2" on top of the grain bed. Worked the first time, why not the second time, right? So I heat my 28 quarts of sparge water, as I'm targeting just over 7 gallons pre-boil so I end up closer to 5.5 gallons into the primary (my first batch I ended under 5 gallons into the primary and was off on target volumes). You see what I did there? Yeah, more on that later. (hint it's a volume issue again)
Finished sparging and took a SG sample and began to boil. After the sample cooled I took a reading of 1.032, a little low for what BF recipe said it should be at 1.037. You see what happened there? (hint it's a volume issue)
Boiled for about 60 minutes using the hop addition schedule as in the recipe and chilled the wort to about 68+/- degrees with my immersion chiller and proceeded to pull a sample for OG testing. Put into the primary by dumping and aerated it by rocking/shaking for a few minutes and pitched the Safale S-04 yeast. I ended with 6 gallons instead of the 5.5 gallons estimated. Oops. (hint it's a volume issue)
In moving the primary I bumped the table and the sample was dumped it before getting the OG reading, so I pulled another from the primary after the yeast was pitched - I did check and minus removing a bit of yeast there seems to be no issue in taking the reading at this point (unless I missed it)
The sample came in at 1.034 when I took the reading. What? Yeah, something's off here, only .002 rise after 60 minute boil? Hmmm. Temp on wort was just under 70, so temp correction would only add .001, so that's 1.035, way lower than expected 1.050. Still not sure why I'm only showing a .002 rise in gravity after boil.
Put the fermenter into the basement and went to analyzing what happened.
Well, I over sparged. I used 28 quarts of water instead of 22 quarts. I misread the BF brew day log and it said I needed just over 28 quarts total - 12 in mash plus just over 22 for sparging but on my phone I didn't see the "water requirements" tab and only seen 28 quarts in the brew day log and sparged with 28 quarts giving me about 30-31 quarts to the boil kettle.
So oversparging explains why the SG was only 1.032 pre-boil. Oops. I still would have expected that boiling off well over a gallon (almost 1.5 gallons by my calculations since I sparged w/ 28 quarts - or 7 gallons - I ended with about 7.5 gallons in boil kettle and ended with 6 going into primary) would have given me more than a .002 rise...so on that thoughts? Misread on hydrometer? Temp was about 68 degrees as mentioned so any temp correction would only add about .001. I have calibrated the hydro on water and it hits right at 1.000 when temp is 60. I would expect I should be closer to 1.038-1.042 post boil?
All the same, the yeast are very happy and it is very actively fermenting as of this morning, just over 12 hours after going in the primary. In fact I may need to keep an eye on it and see if I need a blow off tube later today.
I am thinking of adding a sugar solution to bring the SG up - I've been reading and know that it will make for a dry beer (which in this case I'm ok with a dry, light colored ale) and am thinking of adding right after high krausen as that seems the most common time, which should be in about 2-3 days. I don't have any DME to add to maintain body/sweet and closes LHBS is about 50 miles away so that's not really an option to me at this point. I'm mainly looking at boosting the ABV with this to get closer to the recipe idea, though not mandatory and if it would ruin the brew I'll skip and have a nice lower ABV session ale.
In any case, I should still have a very simple, drinkable beer so I'm not too worried about it, just trying to find tune the process and avoid making repeat mistakes.