Low o.g.

[derekj427]

Hoping for some advice. I just designed my first all gain and used a brew calculator. It said the og should be about 1.054 but after steeping for 70 min and slowly straining (5 gallons in 30 min) my o.g.only hit 1.031 why is this happening?
Could it be that I don't have a proper mash tun, currently I just have a cooler I put the hot water and muslin bag of grains in then drain at the end of steeping into my brew pot.
I have made a bag of beer like this and it turned out great

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[RM-MN]

It may be that your muslin bag is holding the grains in so tightly that the water can't get to the center of the bag. Get a paint strainer bag or a Swiss Voille curtain and make a bag from that, large enough that the grains have a lot of room, then put the empty bag into the cooler of water and stir the grains in well.

The other possibility is that the grains weren't milled fine enough. There should be no intact grains and at least some flour. Using a bag like mentioned above, you can use grains that are milled quite fine.

 

[derekj427]

Thank you, probably that the grains were not milled fine enough, the bag was pretty loose during steeping

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