TwoSheaStl
Active Member
Yesterday, a friend and I brewed our first 5.5 gallon, all grain batch of beer. We were pretty sloppy about it, being that it was our first time, and we had a few missteps.
1.) We had a hard time crushing the grains. We ended up with 10 LBS of malt, but didn't have access to a grain mill. We used a rolling pin on some of them, a blender for some, and eventually tried to build our own makeshift mill with a crank that led the grains into two cylinders that smashed the grains. In the end, we had some powdery grains, some smashed grains, and a some grains that hadn't been smashed at all.
2.) The recipe called for 10.5 LBS of Malt. We totally forgot to add .50 LBS of Crystal to the recipe. I'm not sure how this is going to effect the flavor?
3.) I'm not sure if our hydrometer was screwed up, or what, but our OG, right before pitching the yeast, was 1.025which seems extremely low. My fear is that we didn't not draw enough sugar from the grains being that they were not crushed well enough. However, after our mash out, the wart had a great golden brown color, and was very sticky and smelled great. The temperature was about 153 degrees the entire mash and our sparge water was right on, so there were no temperature issues. What could be the problem here?
Overall, everything went smoothly. The wort looked good, and smelled good too. The boil went well. Everything looked and smelled greatwe just got a low OG, which is making me crazy. What do you guys think???
Also, here is the recipe:
Alright Already Amber
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.38
Anticipated OG: 1.060 Plato: 14.70
Anticipated SRM: 14.7
Anticipated IBU: 64.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 86 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes
Formulas Used
Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Tinseth
Tinseth Concentration Factor: 1.30
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
77.1 8.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
4.8 0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
4.8 0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt 1.033 2
4.8 0.50 lbs. Flaked Barley America 1.032 2
1.2 0.13 lbs. Roasted Barley America 1.028 450
2.4 0.25 lbs. Special B Malt Belgian 1.030 120
4.8 0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 37.6 60 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold Pellet 9.00 24.8 30 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 5.75 1.7 2 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold Whole 8.60 0.0 Dry Hop
White Labs WLP001 California Ale (or S-05)
1.) We had a hard time crushing the grains. We ended up with 10 LBS of malt, but didn't have access to a grain mill. We used a rolling pin on some of them, a blender for some, and eventually tried to build our own makeshift mill with a crank that led the grains into two cylinders that smashed the grains. In the end, we had some powdery grains, some smashed grains, and a some grains that hadn't been smashed at all.
2.) The recipe called for 10.5 LBS of Malt. We totally forgot to add .50 LBS of Crystal to the recipe. I'm not sure how this is going to effect the flavor?
3.) I'm not sure if our hydrometer was screwed up, or what, but our OG, right before pitching the yeast, was 1.025which seems extremely low. My fear is that we didn't not draw enough sugar from the grains being that they were not crushed well enough. However, after our mash out, the wart had a great golden brown color, and was very sticky and smelled great. The temperature was about 153 degrees the entire mash and our sparge water was right on, so there were no temperature issues. What could be the problem here?
Overall, everything went smoothly. The wort looked good, and smelled good too. The boil went well. Everything looked and smelled greatwe just got a low OG, which is making me crazy. What do you guys think???
Also, here is the recipe:
Alright Already Amber
Batch Size (Gal): 5.50 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 10.38
Anticipated OG: 1.060 Plato: 14.70
Anticipated SRM: 14.7
Anticipated IBU: 64.1
Brewhouse Efficiency: 86 %
Wort Boil Time: 75 Minutes
Formulas Used
Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Tinseth
Tinseth Concentration Factor: 1.30
% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
77.1 8.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
4.8 0.50 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
4.8 0.50 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt 1.033 2
4.8 0.50 lbs. Flaked Barley America 1.032 2
1.2 0.13 lbs. Roasted Barley America 1.028 450
2.4 0.25 lbs. Special B Malt Belgian 1.030 120
4.8 0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 37.6 60 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold Pellet 9.00 24.8 30 min.
1.00 oz. Cascade Pellet 5.75 1.7 2 min.
1.00 oz. Amarillo Gold Whole 8.60 0.0 Dry Hop
White Labs WLP001 California Ale (or S-05)