first all grain and problems

[havic]

So I tried my first all grain and I suspect problems in fermenting. I used about 6 1/2 lbs of grain to make the mash and when I was done washing the grain it was a very very light brown, almost clear so I'm pretty sure I did that right.

After that I went on as normal with the brew, but when I put it in my car boy it was only a little over 4 gallons (I have a 8 gallon stock pot so I uahally just sart with 6 gallons and at the end of the hour boil its like magic five gallons on the money). No big deal so I just added water to make it 5 gallons. Then I took my sample to find the OG and pitched the yeast, put stopper and air lock on and let it alone to ferment ( never shook up the wort and water mixture).

My OG turned out to be 1.02 (very low). And now its been around 2 days and it foamed a little and bobbled pretty good at first but now it has relatively no action.

Is this normal, or should I be worrying?

 

[pauly71]

6lbs. of grain for a 5 gallon batch is not very much. You did a Brew-in-a-bag? I'm not surprised at your O.G. The beer is probably fermented out. I wouldn't worry, but this will be a very light beer.

 

[havic]

Well I thought that might have been the problem

And yes I did use a mesh bag to make the mash.

 

[pauly71]

You should take a Specific Gravity reading. Make sure that it's stable over a couple of days before bottling. The beer will look like it's getting darker from top to bottom as the yeast drops out.

If you want to make a bigger beer next time use more grain, or add some extract to the kettle.

 

[whiskeyjack]

What size pot do you have ? What gravity were you going for ? If you did a full biab (or any all grain) it really lowers OG if you have to top off. Couple of pointers, get a big enough bag to fit around your pot, mill your grains twice, if you can mash with all the water needed you will probably be around 2.5 qt/lb. With this you can stir your grains every 15 minutes or so to increase efficiency during your mash (60-70 minutes). Then raise the temp to 165-170 and hold it 10-15 minutes. Then pull it out and squeeze it like it owes you money. Get every ounce out of it you can. If you cannot mash the full amount you have two options, get another pot that can do the full boil or do mini mash. My first several beers were mini mash in a 5.5 gallon pot. With mini mash you can make it very close to all grain. Just mash 5-6 pounds and add a few pounds of DME at the end of boil.

 

[pauly71]

whiskeyjack is on the right track.

 

[whiskeyjack]

If you are doing brew in a bag here is how I calculate water. If I have 12 pounds of grain, multiply that by 0.06, add my boil off water, add my volume I want. So 12x0.06= .72g + 6g + 1.25= 7.97 gallons And you can use Green bay rackers water amount calculator to see how much room that will take up in your brew pot

 

[jakenbacon]

Also try adding enough water to where you end up with your 5 gallons or whatever after boil off instead of adding more water at the end like you would an extract batch. This will definitely help getting the proper O.G.

 

[whiskeyjack]

That will only work if he has a big enough pot to handle all the water, but yea if he can do a full boil but not handle the grains he can do a dunk sparge in a bucket or pour them over the grains at the end of mashout