mathiascote
Member
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2022
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 9
Hey all,
I'm pretty new to this. I am trying to make the Northern Brewer's West Coast Radical Red extract kit. You can see the recipe here for reference.
I thought everything went well, but I was disappointed at the end when I measured the gravity at only 1.026, vs the recipe's expected 1.054. That seems like a pretty big discrepancy to me.
I am trying to figure out where I went wrong, I have a few guesses but maybe someone here can help me say for sure.
I'm pretty new to this. I am trying to make the Northern Brewer's West Coast Radical Red extract kit. You can see the recipe here for reference.
I thought everything went well, but I was disappointed at the end when I measured the gravity at only 1.026, vs the recipe's expected 1.054. That seems like a pretty big discrepancy to me.
I am trying to figure out where I went wrong, I have a few guesses but maybe someone here can help me say for sure.
- On the grain steeping step, I found their instructions ambiguous, "steep for 20 minutes or until water reaches 170f". I think they meant to steep as the water was warming... I ended up steeping for 20 minutes at 140, as someone told me that was a good steeping temperature. Should I have done it at 170 for 20 minutes? Or increased to 170 at the end?
- I tossed in a whirfloc tablet 15 minutes before the boil ended, because I figured it couldn't hurt anything... but maybe it did?
- At the end of the boil, there wasn't really much in the way of sludge at the bottom, so I went ahead and put the whole kettle into the fermenter.
- I did go a little over 5 gallons, maybe like 5 1/3, to hopefully end up with 5 gallons drinkable without the trub. I'm sure that lowered the gravity somewhat, but surely not that much.