first all grain with an hydrometer

[Lepetitnormand]

Hello,

I am on my 12th batch, 3rd all grain and finally (yes I know it was about time) I got an hydrometer.

So for once I took my OG gravity and I am now looking at a low efficiency.

Can you guys tell me if I am off in my calculation.



1 gallon batch stout.

BIAB 1.65 gallon for mashing at 150F
I do not have a measuring stick but have a consistent boil off of .5 gallon an hour and ended up with 3/4 of a gallon in the jug that I then completed to 1 gallon, so my pre boil volume was around 1.25 g

2 lbs 2row
3 oz C120
3 oz black patent
2 oz chocolate malt
2 oz carapils
2 oz acid malt (made a mistake not really needed with the black malt in here)

I used http://www.brewersfriend.com/allgrain-ogfg/ to do my calculation and after measuring I got an OG of 1046 at 62F.

If my calculation are not off that would give me a 54% efficiency.

Yeah I know not great but at this point can only go up I guess

I would appreciate if you guys can tell me if my measurement are off or not for the efficiency.

have a good week end

 

[JosephN]

Man I really wished I would be able to make calculations quickly and without changing my software profile. What did you expect you OG to hit?

 

[McKnuckle]

So you mashed 2.75 lbs of grain with 1.65 gallons of water, correct?

It's a little tough to be sure, but is the 1.046 OG before or after you diluted your 0.75 gallons to a full 1 gallon?

If it was after, then your post-boil gravity was about 1.061, or 47% mash efficiency. If it was before, then it was even lower - about 35% mash efficiency.

I'm going to bet there's a mistake somewhere. It's nearly impossible to get such a low efficiency unless your crush is very poor and mash had an extreme pH. (What kind of water was it?)

[Edit: With distilled water, I get a predicted 4.82 mash pH with that grain bill. That'll do it. Unless your water has lots of residual alkalinity, I'd say you're hosed. The acid malt was a mistake.]

 

[JLeuck64]

Don't forget to check the accuracy of your new hydrometer in distilled water. It's pretty easy to adjust the scale inside the hydrometer by gently tapping the hydrometer to move the paper scale up or down, hence it can also be out of calibration quite easily ( ;

 

[Lepetitnormand]

Thank you for answering my question, I am going to do a second batch this coming Saturday so I will see if I can improve that. I will also brew twice the same recipe to see if I am able to repeat the same brew twice in term of taste and gravity

For the hydrometer it was calibrated, and the measurement was taken post dilution to 1 gallon.