First AG and post-brew questions

[Choguy03]

I did my first AG last night. It took me about 5 hours from start to finish, which I thought was just about perfect. I did have a couple of question though.

I didn't collect any runnings to check the SG. I know that if runnings get below 8 or 10 points you should stop if you have not reached your pre boil volume. Is this important?

My SG in the pot was 1.046. I was shooting for 1.052 but I figured it was not that big of a deal. If you guys do miss your SG, do you add some DME to hit it, or do you just go ahead and let it be?

 

[fratermus]

I did my first AG last night. It took me about 5 hours from start to finish, which I thought was just about perfect.

Yes, that sounds about right.

I didn't collect any runnings to check the SG. I know that if runnings get below 8 or 10 points you should stop if you have not reached your pre boil volume. Is this important?

I think the concern is that if you get much under 1.010 that off flavors start to get leached out of the mash.

My SG in the pot was 1.046. I was shooting for 1.052 but I figured it was not that big of a deal. If you guys do miss your SG, do you add some DME to hit it, or do you just go ahead and let it be?

I generally let mine be, though after a few runs you'll probably start hitting your OGs, temps, volumes, etc pretty consistently.

 

[ajf]

If you're batch sparging, I wouldn't worry about checking the gravity of the runnings. It's very difficult to over sparge and leach tannins with a batch sparge.

I agree with fratermus about handling the low OG in the pot, but you may want to add a little more malt the next time. It's not unusual to find that your efficiency increases over the first few brews before you achieve consistent results.

-a.