Gravity not what I expected

[Beerguy43]

I made a five gallon batch and my OG isn't what I thought it would be. I used 3 and 3/4 pounds of grain and 6 pounds LME. Did I do something wrong?

 

[VikeMan]

What grains did you use (and how much of each)? How did you mash them? What was your OG and what was the actual volume and temperature of wort when you measured it?

 

[Beerguy43]

2 pounds chocolate malt
8 oz. Caramel 120
4 oz roasted barley
1 pound special B
The OG 1.044. I mash the beer by bringing up the water to 160°. And I measured it around 80°.

 

[VikeMan]

Okay, I'll assume you actually had 5 gallons of post boil wort. Speak up if it wasn't, because it matters.
Your 1.044 at 80F, corrected for temperature, would be 1.046, assuming your hydrometer is calibrated to 68F.

With those grains and the LME, producing 5 gallons @1.046, you had an efficiency of about 15% for your grain steep (not a mash, because there's no base malt). Steeping grains often get a lower efficiency than mashing, but 15% is really, really low. So, more questions...

- How were your grains milled and what did the crushed grains look like?
- How long did you steep them?
- Was this by any chance a partial volume boil, topped up with water after the boil?

 

[Beerguy43]

It was a partial boil.
The grains were grounded and looked fine.
I steeped for about 20 minutes and sparge.

 

[VikeMan]

It was a partial boil.

In that case, and assuming the crush of the steeping grains was good, and assuming the temperature was actually 80F (nd not something much higher) when you measured gravity, here are the possibilities:

- You didn't get all the extract into the kettle (LME stuck in the jug?)
- You topped off with water to more than the target volume
- You didn't mix the top-off water with the wort thoroughly before measuring the OG
- Some wort was left behind in the bottom of the kettle, so more water was used to top off to reach the target volume.
- Your hydrometer is inaccurate (try checking it with plain water)
- Operator error on the gravity reading

The most likely (most common) culprit is bolded. It's also possible that more than one of the reasons above apply.

 

[Beerguy43]

That may be the problem. Not mixing it well enough. Everything else checks out. Thank you for your help.

 

[balrog]

sidenote: TWO POUNDS OF CHOCOLATE MALT???
wow.

Also, mixing thoroughly is harder than many imagine when using extract & partial boil.