HELP! First AG brew question

[Yin_Yang]

i used this recipe today: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f67/nut-brown-ag-30187/

The OG is supposed to be 1.054, but mine only came to 1.040. I had more sparge water than i could use. I was already at 6.5 gallons of wort, so i drained the remaining into a separate pot. Well i boiled the 6.5 down to 5.5, and when cooled it was like i said at 1.040. This is a huge difference isnt it? does that mean i didnt convert enough? My mash temp was about 4 degrees warmer (158) than the recipe. The only thing is i think i used more water than I should have, and hence, more diluted sugar.

My question is this. I have it in my fermenter now, and pitched the yeast. Should I try bumping up the Gravity by boiling the left over wort (that i didnt use in the boil), cooling it and adding it to the already pitched wort in the primary? or should i just leave it be? do i need to boil the left over wort for an hour again, or just get it to a boil for a few minutes to disinfect?

 

[McKBrew]

Let's see if I'm reading this right. You added extra sparge water? If that is the case, that would explain your low OG. You need to take a look at your process, as you also had issues hitting your mash temperature.

My recommendation is that since the yeast is pitched you just chalk this up as a lesson and enjoy your low OG session ale.

 

[Yin_Yang]

i ended up w/ more sparge runoff than i could use.

 

[gallagherman]

As if you had extra sparge water? Didn't use it?

 

[Yin_Yang]

in wine making i can add sugar to raise gravity. can i do that with beer (since i dont have dme)

 

[Yin_Yang]

As if you had extra sparge water? Didn't use it?

yes thats it.

 

[gallagherman]

so that would mean that you probably had poor conversion. did you take a pre-boil gravity? that can give you a good idea how long you need to boil.

 

[McKBrew]

So you were shooting for a certain amount of pre-boil wort and you had more water left in the grain that you intended on? Just making sure. If you did everything "by the book" you wouldn't have any left over water in the grain.

Example: You are trying to get 7gallons of pre-boil wort and your recipe is formulated with that in mind. You grain bill requires you to add 5 gallons of water to the initial mash. When you drain everything out you get 3.5 gallons. In order to reach your target volume of 7 gallons you need another 3.5 gallons of wort. Your grain absorbed 1.5gallons on the initial infusion. Since your grain is not going to absorb more water, you would only need to add 3.5 gallons of water to the sparge. I'm guessing you went with equal amounts of water and didn't account for the fact that there would be no absorbtion the second time around. Therefore you had leftover water in the grain. This would indeed affect your OG. On top of that, say your recipe was forumulated for 75% efficiency but in reality you only got 65%. This too would lower your OG.

 

[Yin_Yang]

anything i can do to fix the gravity now? sugar? no dme here.

my problem was i kept jumping back and forth between "how to brew" and the recipe. HTB said a good standard was 2 qts per lb of grain, so that rounded to be about 6 gal of mash water, whereas the recipe had called for a little over 3.5 gal.

grrr..thats it i know it. next time im sticking solely to the recipe.

anyway, like i asked, anyway to fix this? will this beer now be crazy hoppy since its lower gravity, hence lower abv?

 

[Beards Brews]

I ditched my how-to-brew books and the recipe info and plug the info into Beersmith and let it calculate how much water I need for the strike and each batch. Trying to juggle the two just drove me crazy.

I'd double check this, but I think that by adding sugar you won't add any body to the beer, just boost the abv. I'd go the the LHBS and pick up some dme, if you can if your looking to up the gravity.

 

[Yin_Yang]

closest HBS is an hour away. i just order from midwest becaues its cheaper. oh well ill just bite it, and chalk this up as a learning experience, since even if i order it now, i wouldnt get the dme until days later.

I just hope it doesnt taste TOO horrible, or overly hoppy.

 

[BrewWhat]

What was your mash temp? How long did it take to sparge? I usually take an hour to an hour and a half to sparge for a 5 gal (6.5 boil) batch.