First woe (partial mash)

[ezboarderz]

Well, this is my 3rd brew, 3rd partial mash and I missed my OG by quite a bit. The OG was supposed to be around 1.060 and i hit 1.040 =(. I used death brewers partial mash technique, and here is the recipe. This was a partial mash version of SWMBO Slayer. I played with the recipe a bit in beersmith in order to convert it to a partial mash.

SWMBO Slayer (PM) (5 Gallon)

2 lb Light DME
1.5 lb Wheat DME
2.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row)
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
0.50 lb oats/flaked (The LHBS was out of flaked wheat)
0.25 lb Caravienne Malt
1.12 oz Williamette [4.90%] (60 min)

I mashed at 154 for 60 min, lost 1 degree during that time.
The mash volume was 2 gallons (without the grains). I heated up 2 gallons at 170 for the sparge strike temp. Moved the grains over there for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I combined both pots of wort into one, brought to a boil, and boiled the hops for 60 minutes. I cooled the wort to 67 degrees, poured it into the glass carboy, topped it off with purified water to exactly 5 gallons, aerated the wort, took my gravity reading and pitched the yeast.

Any insight here would be greatly appreciated, so I dont make the same mistake again.

I believe I did everything correctly. I hit my OG's on my first two batches, but im not sure what happened here. Any ideas?

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

YOU did everything the same as the last two times....Was the grain from the same source? crushed the same?

 

[ifishsum]

Any chance your top-off water wasn't mixed completely with the wort? It can take a bit of mixing to get them blended well and it will throw off your OG reading.

 

[ezboarderz]

I did everything pretty much the same as the last two times. My first brew was a bit of a learning curve, although I did hit the OG dead on. Well i took two gravity readings. The first was 1.030, which shocked me, so i shook my carboy more and it ended up at 1.040. Perhaps it is not fully mixed in? I pitched the yeast, and i'll let them do what they do best. I guess once the beer is conditioned and carbed I could tell if it is 6% or 4%.

What are your methods for taking an OG after topping off with water?

And yes, the grains are from the same source.

 

[ifishsum]

I put most of my top-up water in the fermenter first, then pour the cooled wort quickly on top of it. Then I stir briskly for a minute or two with a slotted spoon, wait a couple of minutes for the bubbles to die down and then drop the sanitized hydrometer right into the bucket.

The fact that your first reading was 1.030 and then it jumped 10 points after mixing seems to support the incomplete mixing theory. Which is a good thing, it means your beer is probably fine. It will be well blended by the time fermentation is finished.