LOW OG 1.028 on first attempt All Grain Brewing

[medleblute]

I am a much better watch and learn then read and understand type of brewer. I have read a few articles on brewing All Grain and thought I had a good idea of what I was doing. I thought I would brew something light and easy for my first go round so I decided on a Cream Ale with a Grain Bill:
7 lbs 2-row
2 lbs of crushed maize
8 oz of carapils

I heated 4 gallons of water to 165 added the grains and stirred... checked temp and it came down to roughly 155-157. I let that rest for an hour. I think drained the sugars off and heated 5 gallons to approximately 170. I poured this on top of the grains in the mash tun. Let this sit for another 10 minutes and drained. I do not have the equipment to test my gravity at this stage so I just went with "ALL GOOD". between the 4 gallons and 5 gallons in my brew kettle I came up with 6 gallons I started boiling. I boiled for about 15-20 minutes before I added hops and boiled 60 minutes. When all said and done I lost just about 1 gallon from boil over.

My gravity reading was 1.028 I was "expecting" from the recipes I've seen online 1.040'sh. I need HELP... ANYONE???

 

[Yooper]

I am a much better watch and learn then read and understand type of brewer. I have read a few articles on brewing All Grain and thought I had a good idea of what I was doing. I thought I would brew something light and easy for my first go round so I decided on a Cream Ale with a Grain Bill:
7 lbs 2-row
2 lbs of crushed maize
8 oz of carapils

I heated 4 gallons of water to 165 added the grains and stirred... checked temp and it came down to roughly 155-157. I let that rest for an hour. I think drained the sugars off and heated 5 gallons to approximately 170. I poured this on top of the grains in the mash tun. Let this sit for another 10 minutes and drained. I do not have the equipment to test my gravity at this stage so I just went with "ALL GOOD". between the 4 gallons and 5 gallons in my brew kettle I came up with 6 gallons I started boiling. I boiled for about 15-20 minutes before I added hops and boiled 60 minutes. When all said and done I lost just about 1 gallon from boil over.

My gravity reading was 1.028 I was "expecting" from the recipes I've seen online 1.040'sh. I need HELP... ANYONE???

I have a dumb question. If you don't have the equipment to test your gravity preboil, how did you test it post boil? It's the same hydrometer. Always take a preboil gravity, and that will help you alot. You just have to cool the sample before taking the finished reading, but that's easy to do in the fridge or freezer, or in a pitcher of ice water if you're outside.

Was your grain crushed?

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

Your grain crush may be a problem but I am confused. You say you used 9 gal of water but boiled 6. That grain should have soaked up a little less than a gallon so where did the rest go?

 

[brewkinger]

Your grain crush may be a problem but I am confused. You say you used 9 gal of water but boiled 6. That grain should have soaked up a little less than a gallon so where did the rest go?

This. Something is not adding up.
Did you leave water in the mash tun?

 

[Bsquared]

I think everyone here got this, you diluted out your mash and did not recover all your extract. Typically you want to mash in at 1.25 to 2 quarts/ pound of grain. the thicker the mash the less efficient the conversion but the better the extraction. With todays highly modified malts your conversion is not really an issue, so I go with a water to grain ratio of 1.25 -1.50. If we apply 1.25 ratio that to your grain bill you should have mashed in with 3 gallons of water, and sparged with a total of 4.25 gallons of water, for a grand total of 7.25.If you added 9 gallons you would be diluting your recipe by ~20%.

 

[medleblute]

Yooper - not a dumb question - I actually concidered using the hydrometer - but wasn't sure how I would cool the wort fast enough to geta good reading! You gave some great ideas! Thanks

Ahhh... OK - thanks - this is/was a major question issue with my mash. I have a turkey fryer and could only fit 6 gallons. And as a result was wondering what I should do with the remaining gallon and a half or more of water that was in the grains. So, my numbers were off to begin with - I was using to much water... So it was a result of not getting all the sparge through the grains and cleaning those grains. I will be making a second batch here soon to test the theory! THANK EVERYONE!

 

[MuddyCreek]

Bingo... Did you actually leave almost 2 gallons of wort in your mash? If you have a large enough BK you should always try to overshoot your boil volume and boil down to your target.

Then if you're way over your OG you either congratulate yourself on a higher ABV beer and adjust your yeast ratio as necessary or you dilute to get to the OG you want.

No matter what though, never leave wort in the mash. That's the good stuff.

You probably already know this, but it's also a good idea to have some DME on hand when your OG is low so you can add as necessary to get to where you want to be.

 

[ajf]

Another thing is when adding the sparge water, you shouldn't just pour it in. You need to stir like crazy to help dissolve the sugars. Failing to stir will leave a large amount of the sugars behind.

-a.

 

[medleblute]

AJF - a little confused by 'stir like crazy' comment. I thought once that water started removing from the grains you didn't want to disrupt the base grains and get any garbage out of it. I thought that was reason you took the first half gallon or so of mash and gently pour back on top of the mash and then start to drain? So, that one you are gentle with and the the SPARGE you need to make sure to stir like crazy? Can you explain this a bit more for me?

 

[Yooper]

AJF - a little confused by 'stir like crazy' comment. I thought once that water started removing from the grains you didn't want to disrupt the base grains and get any garbage out of it. I thought that was reason you took the first half gallon or so of mash and gently pour back on top of the mash and then start to drain? So, that one you are gentle with and the the SPARGE you need to make sure to stir like crazy? Can you explain this a bit more for me?

When you batch sparge, and add the water all at once, you stir like it owes you money. And then stir some more. After that, stir it up again, so that it's thoroughly stirred.

Then, vorlauf (pour a quart or so back over, so that the runnings are not full of chunks), and drain rapidly.

 

[kh54s10]

Add your sparge water to the grain then stir it very well. Then do a vorlauf. That is slowly draining off wort until it runs clear. This sets the grain bed as a filter. Then you drain the now clear running wort into your boil kettle.

The object is to rinse as much sugar out of the grain as possible. Stirring gets the sugars off the grain and into the wort.

 

[medleblute]

Yooper - AWESOME... thanks for the explanation - that is completely understandable... THANKS!

 

[Puddlethumper]

the thicker the mash the less efficient the conversion but the better the extraction.

I'm having trouble following this. So which is yields a higher o.g.? A thicker mash or a thinner one?