I ended up with right OG but 1 gal short of batch size

[jean_muaythai]

Hi guys this was my 4th all grain brew and the 3rd time this happend. I mashed the right amount of grain, mashed it at 150F to 153F, I cleaned the mash with 2.5 Gal of 160F water, I boiled for 60 mins and I ended up with a batch size of 4 Gal instead of 5 Gal and BUT a gravity of 1.053 like the recepie aked for.

1) Now What could have possibly gone wrong?

2) And also to make it a 5 gal batch I added 1Gal of water and 13.08 oz of corn sugar to make the overall batch 5 Gal at 1.053, did I do the right thing or should I left it the way it was?

J-R from New-Brunswick Canada

 

[Jayhem]

1. You didn't start off with enough wort before boil! I usually boil off almost 1.5 gallons in 60 minutes so I would start my volume at 6.5 gallons before the boil starts. The best thing to do is mark your mash paddle or a dowel rod with the height of each gallon in your kettle.

2. Adding sugar to boost gravity usually results in a less desirable tasting beer, especially if the beer is moderate OG anyway (<1.060).

It should still turn out for you. Just get a good idea of how much water boils off as steam to end at the right volume.

 

[jean_muaythai]

Thank, that makes sense. If I understand well, starting with a larger pre-boil volume would not have cause a lower OG? That would mean that sugar also evaporates during the boil? I tough that no matter how much pre-boil water I had my wort would just be more concentrated?

 

[Jayhem]

Thank, that makes sense. If I understand well, starting with a larger pre-boil volume would not have cause a lower OG? That would mean that sugar also evaporates during the boil? I tough that no matter how much pre-boil water I had my wort would just be more concentrated?

Correct. Sugar does not evaporate with the steam. The more you boil the more concentrated the sugars will become. My guess is your grain extract efficiency was lower than average (75%) and thus you would have needed more grain to get the right OG for a 5.0 gallon batch. When I was having the home brew shop mill my grain for me I had horrible efficiency (60%). Now that I mill my own I get 85-87% efficiency every time so I can use about 20% less grain to hit the same OG numbers!

 

[jean_muaythai]

So, next time I will add more base malt (2lbs), and tight my grain mill a lil more.

Any idea of what I could change with my mash technique to have a greater efficiency? I use a 8 Gal cooler and added 4 Gal for 8.3 lbs grain bill. The mash was 150F trough all the mash, and 153 at the beginning.

 

[Jayhem]

So, next time I will add more base malt (2lbs), and tight my grain mill a lil more.

Any idea of what I could change with my mash technique to have a greater efficiency? I use a 8 Gal cooler and added 4 Gal for 8.3 lbs grain bill. The mash was 150F trough all the mash, and 153 at the beginning.

Your temps are good but you are mashing with too much water for 8.3 lbs. Most mashes are between 1.2 and 1.5 quarts per pound of grain so for 8.3 lbs you would mash with 2.5 - 3.1 gallons of water. With a really thin mash like this the enzymes may not have been as efficient in converting the starches to sugars.

Also, by mashing with less water you then can sparge with more water to rinse more sugars from the grains to get up to your pre-boil volume of 6.5 gallons or so.

 

[DrWill]

I think Jayhem has nailed the issues here. I think the fact that you hit your gravity numbers was sheer luck; you had two problems that happened to balance each other out.

As some have suggested, adding simple sugars may have a detrimental effect on flavour, but you can always keep some DME on hand to make up for efficiency deficiencies.


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[Jayhem]

One thing I forgot to mention. Boiling wort is actually about 4% more volume than it will be when it's at 65F so you actually need more like 5.2 gallons in the kettle when you end the boil to have 5.0 gallons cooled in fermenter.

 

[jean_muaythai]

Wow guys I appreciate your input so much!!! I now know what I have to change next time . I bought enough grain to brew it twice so I'll let you know if I hit the right gravity and the right batch size next time. And I will also be able to tell the difference between first batch with corn sugar and the second one. And DME instead of corn sugar make so much sense, I should have think about that!! That is a great exemple of a lak of experience hahahah

 

[DrWill]

Every one of us was there once. You can be sure of that.


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[rmyurick]

It depends on a lot of factors. I mashed for 90 minutes this past batch & seemed to get a higher efficiency. You could slow down the runoff during sparging so that it takes about an hour. If you had a lot of hops in the kettle, then you could be losing a lot (maybe 1/2 gallon) there--in the wort that stays behind with the trub & spent hops.

 

[DrWill]

I often do a 90 minute mash. No harm in doing so generally and it does seem to help efficiency.


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