Low OG help.

[Grinch]

Brewed this yesterday and unfortunately ended up at 1.05. Here's what I used and what I did. Any suggestions on how to hit my numbers would be appreciated.
this is for a 6.5 gallon batch:
80% 12 0 Briess Pale Ale Malt
13% 2 0 Weyermann Rye
7% 1 0 Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L

mash at 154 for 60 minutes

boil 60 mins 1.0 Chinook pellet
boil 15 mins 1.0 Cascade pellet
boil 10 mins 1.0 Simcoe pellet
boil 1 min 1.0 Citra leaf
dry hop 7 days 1.0 Chinook leaf
dry hop 7 days 2.0 Citra leaf

.75 fresh ginger (diced?) @ 15 Minutes
1 oz Juniper berries @ 10 minutes
.25 fresh ginger @ 2 minutes

I warmed up the cooler with hot water, let it sit for about 10 min, drained it then added about 4.75 gallons of 170 degree water. Added grains, stirred, added 5.2 satbilizer. Mashed at about 153 for 1 hour, then vorlaufed til clear then drained into the kettle. Added 5.75 gallons of water at 180 degrees, stirred let sit for 15 minutes, then vorlaufed again, and drained into the kettle. Ended up with about 7.5-ish gallons in the kettle. Brought it to boil an began hop additions as usual.
Ended up with 1.05 OG when I was shooting for 1.064. What happened?

 

[LouBrew13]

What was your pre and post volume? You may have ended with more than 6 gallons after your boil which would've thinned out your beer. Or your crush might be a little course.

 

[Grinch]

Preboil was probably 7.5 - 7.75, post (I'm guessing here cause my bucket only marks up to 5) probably 6.5- ish...

 

[Grinch]

It might also be worth noting that the grains were crushed around May 2nd. They have stayed in sealed bags from Bremasterswarehouse.com until yesterday. I've read in other threads that that shouldn't be an issue but...

 

[Grinch]

bump.

 

[ShinyBuddha]

My first mash volume is usually the larger and sparge the smaller. Were you using and software to help you out on brew day? Agreed that out could be the crush. I bought a refractometer on ebay for $28 shipped (from Hong Kong) and it's been a big help on brew day for measuring my gravity to make sure i'm hitting my targets.

 

[Grinch]

I used the mash calculator on Brew365.com:
http://brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

 

[Grinch]

Being that the crush may be the issue, would you recomend that I get one of those corona gain millls? There's no way I can afford one of those nice Barley Crushers.