Just need to vent...I'm making a wheat wine (boiling as I type). I used 11 pounds of grain to collect 5 gallons of wort (I'm doing a small batch). I expected to hit a pre-boil gravity in the mid 1.060s with 70% efficiency. I only hit 1.050! I was already going to be adding a pound of demerara sugar, but it looks like I'll be needing to add a pound (or more) of DME now too. I don't want to extend the boil - I don't want to have an even smaller batch!
And I thought I had everything dialed in on my system.
UPDATE/EDIT:
After a little investigation back through my brew log, I think the culprit is the wheat malt. The only other time I used this percentage of wheat was for an American wheat beer and I only hit 60% efficiency then as well. I needed to supplement with extract then too.
I actually was going to have my LHBS mill the wheat twice - something in the back of my head was telling me I needed to get a finer crush on it - but at the last minute I decided it wasn't necessary! Should've gone with my gut.
Anyway...the wort is now chilling. I added a pound of DME, which, if my calculations are correct, won't quite get me where I wanted to be (in the high 1.090s), but it will do - I'm not really interested in adding any more extract.
And I thought I had everything dialed in on my system.
UPDATE/EDIT:
After a little investigation back through my brew log, I think the culprit is the wheat malt. The only other time I used this percentage of wheat was for an American wheat beer and I only hit 60% efficiency then as well. I needed to supplement with extract then too.
I actually was going to have my LHBS mill the wheat twice - something in the back of my head was telling me I needed to get a finer crush on it - but at the last minute I decided it wasn't necessary! Should've gone with my gut.
Anyway...the wort is now chilling. I added a pound of DME, which, if my calculations are correct, won't quite get me where I wanted to be (in the high 1.090s), but it will do - I'm not really interested in adding any more extract.
