Help with 1st All Grain Batch

[slatebrew]

I brewed an American Wheat all grain (from Northern Brewer).
4 lbs of Rahr White Wheat
4 lbs of Rahr 2 Row Pale

Sacch Rest at 152 for 60 minutes. My temp seemed to hold real well the entire 60 minutes. Then a 10 minute mashout at 170.

1 hour wort boil
1 oz Willamette (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (15 min)

Wyeast #1010 American Wheat

OG was 1.031 (seemed low to me)
Its been at 1.006 now for a week (one week in primary; one week in secondary).

My issue is this: the beer seems extremely weak, a watered down taste. Not sure if its possible to tell where I messed up, but thought I would ask.

Thanks!

 

[Makeyermark]

How much water did you use and what was the batch size? Did you sparge? I don't see mention of it.

 

[slatebrew]

It was a 5 gallon batch.
Mash Water was 3 gallons
Sparged with 4 gallons.

 

[Yooper]

I usually mash with 1.33-1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. I would have mashed with 3 gallons myself. That seems fine.

Sparging with 4 gallons means that you had about 6 gallons preboil? That seems pretty low in volume. I usually start with closer to 7 gallons. How much wort did you end up with?

How was your crush? 1.031 IS low. I would have expected about 1.043 or so. It seems that your efficiency for 5 gallons is around 50%.

 

[Makeyermark]

Seems a bit short on the grain bill and the water for a 5 gallon AG batch. But I could be wrong.

 

[slatebrew]

If I understand by what you mean by "How was your crush", Northern did the crush for me. I am not experienced enough to tell you if it looked good or not. One other variable was that my brew day got pushed two weeks after receiving the crushed grain. Could that have killed my efficiency?

 

[CPooley4]

If I understand by what you mean by "How was your crush", Northern did the crush for me. I am not experienced enough to tell you if it looked good or not. One other variable was that my brew day got pushed two weeks after receiving the crushed grain. Could that have killed my efficiency?

Two weeks shouldn't have affected your efficiency.

Couple of things I typically recommend with all grain:

1. If possible, get a fine crush on your grains. Some of us have our own mills which makes this easy. If the crush is not somewhat fine you'll have starches stuck inside of uncrushed grain. Essentially lost efficiency.

2. Drain your mash tun dry (relatively). This is in reference to both your mash and sparge (especially your sparge). Any liquid left in your mash tun is lost efficiency.

3. Have a plan for your volumes (mash water, sparge water, preboil, post boil, etc...) and measure/record each step of the way. This will allow you to plan for future brews better and give you options during brewday to make on the fly decisions that can help you produce the beer you set out to produce.

Many other hints etc..., but those two are very important to getting good/consistent efficiency.

In my signature below you'll find my brew chart. Could be a helpful resource for you. Covers batch sparge all grain brewing from grain to glass. Essentially does all the math for you (plus a whole lot more) and let's you concentrate on brewing and measuring (item number 3 above is easy when using it). Spent a lot of time researching the information around here and many other resources. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

cp

 

[slatebrew]

Thanks everyone! All good advice and info. I appreciate the assistance!

 

[CPooley4]

Thanks everyone! All good advice and info. I appreciate the assistance!

No problem slatebrew. I did add one bullet point to my post above as well for you. Good luck brewing going forward.

cp

 

[Billybrewer09]

I'm not the most experienced Brewer but I would say that the cause of you low SG was the small grain bill..
I brewed this German wheat a couple months ago.
6# German wheat
4# German oils

OG 1.048
That's only 2# more grain than was used by the OP

 

[tandom590]

I got the same all-grain kit and it will also be my first all-grain batch. I am just waiting for my kettles to come. I will let you know what i get fo my OG.

 

[ChandlerBang]

Yooper! You used my suggestion! I'm going to bed now since this day can't get any better.

 

[Yooper]

Yooper! You used my suggestion! I'm going to bed now since this day can't get any better.

Hahaha! The only thing better for my avatar would be if the shirtless wonder was holding a beer. Then I could die happy.

 

[tandom590]

My brewpal software has it at 1.045 og with 75% efficiency with the grain bill. I always take a pre-boil gravity reading to determine if i need to add DME/LME or not based on the pre-boil volume so that i can hit the specified OG on the brew sheet at final fermentation volume. A brew based program definitley helps to figure these numbers out.

 

[Legin]

Yeah. Yooper got it. That's a low conversion of around 50 percent. You usually want to get at least mid 60s or higher, or bump up the grain bill to compensate. The low gravity (poor conversion) would explain why it's watery. I ended buying a mill because Northern's crush was too course, and seemed to be yielding lower gravities. You could also try stirring more vigorously during the mash (with consideration of heat loss in mind) and possibly extending the time of the mash, at least until you get the process down. Another good thing to do is to use a few different thermometers to make sure you are reading accurate temps.

 

[ChandlerBang]

Yeah. Yooper got it. That's a low conversion of around 50 percent. You usually want to get at least mid 60s or higher, or bump up the grain bill to compensate. The low gravity (poor conversion) would explain why it's watery. I ended buying a mill because Northern's crush was too course, and seemed to be yielding lower gravities. You could also try stirring more vigorously during the mash (with consideration of heat loss in mind) and possibly extending the time of the mash, at least until you get the process down. Another good thing to do is to use a few different thermometers to make sure you are reading accurate temps.

^^^ +1

Instead of buying a mill right off, you could also try a similar recipe from another vendor. I have had excellent results from Austin. I really don't know how to judge a "crush" yet, but I have made numerous PMs from them and I have hit the OG spot on, or even a dab high.

Caveat: I do not know what efficiency they are assuming the brewer will get out of the PM, and the may mill PM recipes finer assuming the brewer will be using a grain bag.